Fresh iPhone 15 Pro leaks hint at the raw power of Apple's next flagship phone

The back of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, held up in a hand
The iPhone 14 Pro Max, launched last year (Image credit: Future)

The iPhone 15 leaks show no sign of letting up as we approach the expected September launch – and a couple of bits of new information have given us a better idea of just how powerful the Pro handset could end up being.

First to tipster @NaveenTechWala (via Notebookcheck), who claims to have seen benchmarks of an iPhone 15 Pro running the Apple A17 Bionic processor. The scores are very impressive indeed, hypothetically beating the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and showing a significant jump up from the A16 Bionic CPU.

Now neither the A17 Bionic or the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 have been officially announced or appeared in any phones yet, so we wouldn't put too much stock in these benchmark scores. At the same time, they do suggest that Apple's next mobile processor is going to be impressively speedy when it arrives.

The A17 Bionic is expected to be fitted in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus using the A16 Bionic chipset that the Pro models launched last year are currently using.

More RAM, maybe

Our other leak comes from @URedditor (via GSMArena), and suggests that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max might have 8GB of RAM fitted inside them when they arrive. This would be a new high bar for the iPhone in terms of internal memory, with the current Pro models topping out at 6GB.

This is actually a follow-up on a rumor from the same source a few days ago, in which the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max were reported to be sticking with 6GB. At that stage, 8GB of RAM was said to be "unlikely".

According to the new information, Apple has been testing both 6GB and 8GB of RAM with the A17 Bionic processor, and at this stage it's not clear which one Apple is going to opt for. Rumors of an 8GB model have been swirling for almost a year now.

We'll have to wait for the grand unveiling of these phones to find out for sure what specs they come packing, but the steady stream of leaks up to this point mean we've got a pretty good idea of what to expect. The announcement could be on September 12 or 13.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.