- iPhone 18 could be in line for a RAM upgrade
- It could have 12 GB of RAM to match other iPhones
- More RAM means better support for AI features
Of the four iPhones Apple launched last month, the iPhone 17 is the only one to have 8GB of RAM; all others have 12 GB. According to a new rumor, that will change with the iPhone 18 next year.
This comes from South Korean outlet The Bell (via MacRumors), and the report suggests that Apple’s usual RAM supplier, Samsung, has been asked to increase the number of modules available for 2026 production runs.
An additional 50% increase is a considerable RAM increase for the iPhone 18, but it makes sense that Apple would want to update this feature: we know that AI needs all the memory space it can get, and we’ll no doubt get more Apple Intelligence improvements next year.
Apple’s iPhones still lag behind Android phones overall when it comes to RAM (the Samsung Galaxy S25 has 12GB of RAM, for example), but they can often make up for it through the power of their mobile chipsets and their software optimizations.
Recent RAM upgrades
The base iPhone has been equipped with 8GB of RAM since the iPhone 16 launched in 2024, and before that, the iPhone 15 made do with 6GB, which is why Apple Intelligence only works on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max of that series of phones.
All iPhone 16 models have 8GB of RAM, so it wasn’t until this year that the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max made the jump to 12GB. The iPhone Air also runs on 12GB of RAM and shares the same A19 Pro chip as the Pro models (the iPhone 17 uses the standard A19).
Of course, this also has a knock-on effect on performance and price, so it will be interesting to see how Apple decides to differentiate between the various iPhone 18 phones, if this key spec is the same across all of them.
We haven’t heard many rumors and leaks about the iPhone 18 so far, although there has been talk of full 5G satellite connectivity, and there could also be a substantial camera upgrade for the Pro and Pro Max models.
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