Apple testing faster A5X-powered iPhone with 1GB of RAM, new iPod touch

“With one iOS device update out of the way for 2012, Apple is working on updates to the iPhone and iPod touch,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac.

“Much like they did last year, Apple has internally seeded a prototype next-generation iPhone with the iPhone 4 design,” Gurman reports. “The actual next-generation iPhone is specifically said to not include the iPhone 4/4S design, but Apple is testing these new devices in older casings to throw off leaks. The purpose of the prototype iPhone that we heard about is to test a variation of the “A5X” chip in an iPhone.”

Gurman reports, “Like the A5X-powered iPad, these new iPhone prototypes are packing 1GB of RAM… Apple is working on a fifth-generation iPod touch that is labeled iPod 5,1 internally… Perhaps Apple is finally moving to an A5 or A5X-like chip in the iPod touch. After all, the iPod touch is one of the most popular gaming devices on the market, and Apple’s dual-core iOS device processors offer top-of-the-line graphics performance.”

Read more in the full article here.

11 Comments

  1. Go Apple! Crank that innovation machine dial up to 11!

    I think 2011 was the year of the pause, to reflect on Steve Jobs’ illness and to focus on incremental improvements or in the case of the iPod touch, no improvements at all. Like I said, Apple gave pause to reflect on the founder’s grave illness, and to respect the contributions he made to tech and the world in general.

    2012 has turned out quite different, first with the Retina display iPad 3 that significantly and for the first time carried 1GB RAM in its internals and now with the redesigned iPhone 5 and iPod touch in the works, and possibly a 7.85″ iPad mini brewing in Jonny Ives’ design studios.

    I think it’ll be a good year for Apple. I’m looking forward to a stellar year.

    1. Hope you are right BLN…
      I’m thinking the new iPod touch is this iPad mini — gaming is getting serious on iPad and appeared first on the iPod touch so i think this new size will go well and celebrate the touch series.

    1. Gee, I hope not. People keep calling that single-core A5 chip, the cast-off processor having to do with the theory that those are reject chips that Apple just happened to stick into AppleTV to save money. Apple needs to put the same processor into the iPod Touch as what’s in the iPhone since it’s going to be used for gaming. A reject single-core chip for the price of that iPod Touch? Forget that mess.

      1. That’s just a stupid rumor that makes no sense. Apple would never rely on a supply of rejected A5X chips for the Apple TV. What if they run low on rejects. Does Apple pay full price for a good one and cripple it intentionally. No, that would be stupid.

        Considering that the current iPod touch uses a single-core A4 while the iPhone is already on the dual-core A5, a single-core A5 in the next iPod touch is the logical upgrade. Apple makes a lot more profit per iPhone compared to iPod touch, so Apple will provide that product differentiation. Perhaps the higher end iPod touch could get the A5X.

        The complete “iTV,” if it appears this year, will probably also use the single-core A5.

  2. Just another ignorant rumour. There is not even slightest way when iPhone 4S lags because 512 MB is not enough. So there is no point to increase memory to 1 GB. Screen resolution was quadrupled two generations ago, and the memory was upgraded from 256 MB in earlier models just because of that. There is no new incentive that would require adding more RAM (which, by the way, consumes battery power).

  3. It is most unlikely, that you will find any variant von the A5X in the next iPhone, because the main improvement is a doubled graphic performance to support the 2048 x 1536 iPad retina display resolution witch is worthless for the 960 x 640 iPhone resolution. So why take a chip which is too big and sucks too much power for the iPhone but offers no benefit ?

  4. I have both a 4s and iPod touch and have to say I love them both very much kind of like twins not showing one more live than the other but holding them both close to my heart (-:

    Whatever apple does I’m almost certain it will be the right choice and just work (-:

  5. just a thought here, the competition is preparing the A15.
    Until Android is truly dead – Apple should be careful as to what processors go into their devices.

    Apple iPad, iPhone 5 and iTouch all should have the same latest processor by now and have 1.25 yearly cycles for changes – these devices depreciate faster then Apple computers. What gives?

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.