Earlier this week, we saw the leaker known as “Fixed Focus Digital” say that Apple is planning to take cost-cutting measures by downgrading the iPhone 18’s specs to bring it more inline with the low-cost iPhone 18e model.
N0w, that same leaker has provided more information about what Apple plans to do to cut said costs. The leaker says that the iPhone 18’s display specifications will be downgraded, with the manufacturing process itself is said to be “taking a step backward.”
Riding the wave of trending topics, here’s another leak:
The EVT (Engineering Verification Test) for the iPhone 18 and 18e is being conducted simultaneously, only starting in June. Besides a downgraded screen, the manufacturing process is also being reversed.
The current iPhone 17 model boasts a 6.3-inch display with ProMotion, providing up to 3,000 nits of peak outdoor brightness. Since ProMotion was an upgrade for the handset last year, it seems likely that reduction of display specifications could consist of reduced brightness.
In a follow-up post, the leaker claims Apple has decided against increasing the price of the iPhone 18, and instead plans to downgrade certain components, including the chip, to maintain the same price point. A bit of internal “shrinkflation” if you will.
While the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17e are both powered by the A19 chip, the iPhone 17’s variant has a five-core GPU, instead of the iPhone 17e’s four-core version. Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro’s A19 Pro chip is essentially the same chip but boasts a six-core GPU.
This means that a reduction from five to four GPU cores in the iPhone 18 could be one of the planned downgrades. Fixed Focus Digital a;sp added that Apple will also likely tweak the name of the device’s A-series chip to help disguise the extent of the downgrade.
The Weibo leaker also claimed that “the downgrade in the standard iPhone 18 model’s specifications has now been confirmed” as he says he has verified the information through multiple sources.