One can always expect a new iPhone to be faster and more powerful than its predecessor. This is because many expect the A14 Bionic processor in the iPhone 12 to be the world's first 5-nanometer system-on-chip.

That in itself is not necessarily surprising; we've heard rumors since last fall that Apple was eyeing 5nm. But MacWorld's Jason Cross puts the specs in context and explains what the new manufacturing process means for the next iPhone. [not only the upcoming Android flagship, which will use the 7nm Snapdragon 865, but perhaps even Apple's own MacBook Pro.

"This is a big upgrade," writes Cross, "5nm mode is by no means a half step, but the next "full node" after 7nm... （According to (Apple's chip supplier) TSMC, it can achieve 80% more logic density and run 15% faster at the same power consumption as a 7nm chip, or 30% lower power consumption at the same performance level.

Based on TSMC's estimates, the A14 could have as many as 15 billion transistors. This is far more than most consumer CPUs and GPUs, and in single-core Geekbench 5 performance, Cross says that alone should draw an 8% advantage over the A13.

In addition, Cross theorizes that the A14 could bring a 200-300 point performance boost, given the silicon's multi-core clock speed increase and more efficient planning for the chip's architecture. This is comparable to the generational improvements Apple has made to its A-series hardware over the past three years.

The true measure of the A14's strength, however, is its multi-core Geekbench 5 performance, which Cross predicts will score between 4,500 and 5,000, putting the iPhone 12's A14 in the company of "six-core mainstream desktop CPUs and high-end laptop CPUs," putting it in the company of "high-end laptop CPUs.

Normally, Geekbench is a poor indicator of cross-platform performance, but Primate Labs, the developer of Geekbench, states that this latest version is "designed from the ground up" for exactly this kind of comparison.

Then the jump to LPDDR5 RAM should speed things up as well while consuming less power from the phone's battery. Cross points out that the nature of LPDDR5 RAM also makes it more likely that Apple will opt for a next-generation iPhone with 6GB of memory, rather than 4GB like the current model, which should aid in background processing and multitasking in general.

For more insight, read Cross' article. While this is a great prediction, we will have to wait for more rumors and more information to really know how the A14 is positioned. However, this report has certainly sparked the imagination regarding the capabilities of Apple's next mobile processor.