Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2027 iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e to Get 9GB RAM and A20 Chip

alexonline said:
Obviously built for last year’s Apple Intelligence, not this year’s…
Click to expand...
You’re more right than you know. Last year’s Apple Intelligence isn’t this year’s Apple Intelligence. Apple, with its rather pathetic LLM’s, couldn’t get Siri working right, so they ditched their approach and got Google to bail them out, probably for a few billion dollars. While they are not Google LLM’s, since the Google LLM’s were merely used to train the Apple models, Apple’s models did bloat in size from a few million training inputs to billions. That is likely the cause of the 12GB requirement to get the top LLM. Apple’s models needed a lot more training they couldn’t figure out how to do themselves, so they had to get help. That help meant that last year’s AI isn’t this year’s AI.
 
ClaraStahlbaum said:
What? Am I supposed to believe that 1 more GB is worth the price increase?
Click to expand...
Consider Apple just raised prices on almost every product they sell by $200-1500 just due to RAM and storage price increases. With the exception of the Mac mini, which reintroduced the 256GB storage capacity at the higher $799 price (which means it went up by $200 from the old 256GB base price of $599), none of the other products changed configuration. They just got more expensive for the same products that were selling the day before.

The only products which did not receive price increases are the iPhone and the Apple Watches. This is likely because Apple doesn’t want to kill sales of those with new models coming out in less than 3 months. Why poison the well early when they’re about to introduce new phones and watches? You can bet every one of those phones and watches will get equivalent $200-300 price increases, even if their RAM and storage amounts do not change over last year’s. The extra 1GB won’t actually see the light of day till Spring, 2027 since the non-pros and Air are moving to Spring, but the extra will just be lost in the noise of iPhone 18 and iPhone Air price increases. IOW, the price will go up regardless of whether they add in the 1GB or not. The extra 1GB is probably to allow the iPhone 18 to actually use the best LLM for Siri AI. It is likely an engineering decision to add it rather than a management. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple bumps up the price of the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air by $200 at the September iPhone event even if no new models will be introduced. That’s almost certainly when Apple will bump up the prices of the Pro models and watches.
 
JPack said:
June 25, 2026

Apple already told the world, you're getting zero GB increase in RAM and storage. And you'll like it and pay an extra $100 to $200.
Click to expand...
JPack i was wandering where you were when MR published their article when Apple increased the prices (Now has 36 pages, with no comments from your good self as far as i can see).
 
  • Like
Reactions: JPack
snipr125 said:
JPack i was wandering where you were when MR published their article when Apple increased the prices (Now has 36 pages, with no comments from your good self as far as i can see).
Click to expand...

I was shocked when I read it, but then quickly turned busy advising friends and family to hit the buy button on MacBooks and iPads while they were still in stock at Amazon, Staples, Best Buy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: snipr125
Google Pixel 10 has 12GB RAM
Google Pixel 10 Pro has 16GB RAM

Apple has known for years you need a lot more RAM for AI and continued to ignore it, they've been releasing phones knowing they'll not get everything.

The fact is Apple has for far too long cheaped out on RAM under the urban myth that they have better RAM management and don't need as much, which of course is a load of bullish*t.

Now AI has exposed Apple for being cheap, greedy and lazy, iPhone 15 users were the first to get slapped in the face and now it's iPhone 16 Pro/iPhone 17 users 🤣
 
  • Like
Reactions: TonyGstring, rhinosrcool, robvalentine and 1 other person
EugW said:
People on this forum are the 1% of iPhone geekdom. 😉 Anecdotally I only know 2 people (outside of online forums) who upgrade(d) every year. One is someone who writes it off as a business expense every year, and just gives away the old ones to various family members. The other person is a designer for iOS apps and websites, who also writes off the phone as a business expense, but even that person doesn't upgrade every year anymore.

Everyone else I know gets one every 2-5 years. I just upgraded to a 17 Pro after 5 years with the 12 Pro Max. My wife will get upgraded to the 19 Pro Max after 5 years with the 14 Pro Max. Our kids get the handmedowns (although I did get a 16e for my tween kid after the hand-me-down XR died). The people who get one every 2 years are often on contract, and some of those actually get older refurbished models, usually one year or so behind.

However, I do admit that for those who do buy every year and sell their old one year-old one at the same time actually do pretty well. One year-old iPhones in mint condition command a pretty decent price on the used market, so that goes a very long way to paying for the brand new iPhone.

Anyhow, even though some people out there actually do get a new iPhone every year they represent a small minority, and regardless, Apple isn't targeting them. Sure Apple is happy those people exist, but that doesn't mean they're a major target. The few third party stats I've seen on this say that people keep their iPhones around 2-4 years (depending upon the source) but sometimes longer, which is similar to what I've observed anecdotally.
Click to expand...
What you’re saying about the people switching every two years likely because of their phone plan makes sense. I have seen that at work too.

One of the assistants got a two year plan with “free phone”. And I asked her; “why don’t you pay for the phone in one go?”

She said:”That’s too expensive, I cant afford that”

I was surprised she thought this way (on loan either interrest) would be cheaper..
 
Ishimura said:
Crazy, isn’t it? Guys getting unbelievably angry that the following years phone isn’t sufficiently compelling a purchase to them.

Yes, because your phone’s hardware is only a year old! No **** there’s not a massive leap.

What are you even complaining about at that point; that you’ve got too much money in your account?
Click to expand...
I went from an iPhone Xr to a 17 this January. It was very satisfying 😂
 
MacUserFella said:
That one extra gigabyte of RAM will raise the price of both phones by $100, I just know it
Click to expand...
I think we can expect to see the various monthly payment plans emphasised this fall & next spring vs the actual sticker price.

I’d expect the (US only) multi device AppleCare plan to roll out internationally (to several of Apple’s key markets) too.

And given the rumours about how on device AI processing is going to become a key focus for Apple - meaning devices with even more npu grunt and memory - sitting out until 27-28 to upgrade might be the best option.
 
How about this: all of this leaks is social spy to check customers reaction and collect data as much of they can

Bite me
 
Lizzard899 said:
NO ONE IS GONNA BUY A PHONE if they keep raising prices. APPLE IS A JOKE. IVE BEEN SAYING FOR 2 YRS APPLE WILL BE OUTTA BUSINESS BY 2032 if they keep this up. Looks like im gonna be right
Click to expand...

It is not just Apple, though. Anything with processors and RAM will go up in price. If we can blame anybody, it’s the current AI rush, gobbling both chips and RAM to feed those data-centres. With the demand for chips and RAM exceeding the usual inventory, the chip and RAM prices go up and somebody has to pay the difference. Essentially, it is human greed, pure and simple. The AI bubble, however, already shows some cracks, so, hopefully, the prices should become more reasonable again once it bursts or the manufacturing picks up:


www.politico.com

‘Ripple effect’: Tech market meltdown could roil consumer spending

The president has staked his economic agenda on the advancement of large AI businesses that have become major drivers of GDP growth.
www.politico.com www.politico.com
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tagbert
If these rumours are true then a smart move, I guess, would be buying iPhone 17 now, while the prices are still “normal”.

iPhone 18 is rumoured to gain an A20 chip and one extra GB of RAM, while losing the current advanced camera button and possibly getting a lower specs screen.
 
dust4thewind said:
This would confirm that apple's siri enchanced text-to-speech / speech-to-text model needs 1GB or ram to run.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, as they specifically pointed out to 12GB of RAM as a requirement for those. They might just limit these enhancements to 12GB+ devices and leave the rest with the basics.
 
If these rumours are true, it will also make iPhone 18e a less attractive proposition, as it might cost just a 100 less (vs 200 now) than iPhone 17, which offers so much more. This means that anybody not wanting to spend more on the entry and base iPhone models should consider iPhone 17 some time before this September, as we cannot guarantee that iPhone 17 and 17e prices will stay the same once iPhone 18 Pro and Fold come out.
 
I wonder if 9 GB is even enough for the latest Apple Intelligence features on iOS 27 though? I kind of got the impression that those required 12 GB at least...
 
  • Like
Reactions: one more
jb310 said:
I wonder if 9 GB is even enough for the latest Apple Intelligence features on iOS 27 though? I kind of got the impression that those required 12 GB at least...
Click to expand...
12 GB needed.

8 GB minimum to run base features, but 12 GB required for advanced features in iOS 27.

On a related note, Apple interestingly states that 12 GB is also required for advanced AI features on Macs in macOS 27. However, no such Macs actually exist, as they are either 8 GB or 16 GB or more). As previously posted, some people will disagree with me, but I think this is a hint that the Neo will get 12 GB in version 2.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tagbert
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back