Apple's iPhone 12 will feature the fastest and most efficient chip the company has ever designed, thanks to a move to a 5-nanometer process. And Samsung's Galaxy Note 20 will probably need to be nervous, even though it will have a processor upgrade.

While Apple has not revealed the specifications of its next-generation A-series chips, PhoneArena spoke to TSMC, Apple's main chip manufacturing partner, and learned that the company is producing the next 5nm chips. that TSMC is producing the A-series chips, which will be used in the iPhone 12, And since the iPhone 12 will be released this year, PhoneArena speculated that the chipmaker must be referring to the A14 Bionic.

If the 5nm chips TSMC is manufacturing are indeed for the iPhone 12, we can expect the A14 to be not only more powerful but also more efficient; PhoneArena reports that TSMC's 5nm technology is "the same as the Snapdragon 865+ and Apple A 13," and is "about 15% faster yet consumes 30% less power than the current 7nm node used in the Snapdragon 865+ and Apple A13.

Currently, Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 865 and the upcoming Snapdragon 865 Plus, which is said to be in Samsung's Galaxy Note 20, are manufactured at the 7nm process node.Snapdragon 865 is an impressive top-of-the-line chip, but should surpass Apple's A14 once it moves to 5nm.

The A13 Bionic chips in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, as well as the iPhone SE 2020, already often outperform the Snapdragon 865 benchmark. Therefore, the more powerful A-series chips are likely to feature Qualcomm's best silicon.

And it also means that the iPhone 12 could be the first phone with a 5nm chip at its heart. This is a big step, and one that even Huawei, which is working on a 5nm Kirin chip, has yet to take.

All of this will lead to a more powerful iPhone, but one that does not greedily cut into battery life. In actual use, the difference between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 11 in everyday tasks will be night and day. However, the faster chip will result in better performance in demanding mobile games, and the extra power could be used to deliver better computational photo results and improve augmented reality performance.

Speaking of which, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is expected to have a LiDAR scanner like the iPad Pro 2020, and the extra power could really enhance the AR experience this phone can offer. Sadly, LiDAR seems to be limited to this model only, as the iPhone 12 Pro is expected to have three rear cameras: main, ultra-wide, and telephoto.

The battery size of the iPhone 12 model has also been leaked and is disappointingly small. However, if the A14 is more efficient, it will be able to extract more life out of it despite its size.

The iPhone 12 is expected to launch around September, so we will know what has gone from rumor to reality and what has not.