All iPhone 17 Models Again Rumored to Feature 12GB of RAM

[MacRumors]

All upcoming iPhone 17 models will come equipped with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, according to the Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station.

The claim from the Chinese leaker, who has sources within Apple's supply chain, comes a few days after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all be equipped with 12GB of RAM.

Kuo also said even the base-model iPhone 17 could be equipped with 12GB of RAM, but it will depend on whether supply chain shortages can be overcome. He said that Apple will make a final decision on the amount of RAM it will offer in the regular iPhone 17 model by May. Even if the base-model iPhone 17 sticks with 8GB of RAM, Kuo said he expects all models in next year's iPhone 18 lineup to have 12GB of RAM.

Currently, all iPhone 16 models come with 8GB of RAM, so going to 12GB would be a major increase. More RAM enables larger and more capable AI models to run locally, improving the speed, responsiveness, and complexity of tasks without relying heavily on cloud services. A fifty percent increase in allocable RAM would also allow for smoother multitasking, with AI processes operating in the background without slowing down active apps.

Apple is expected to release the iPhone 17 lineup around its usual September timeframe.

Article Link: All iPhone 17 Models Again Rumored to Feature 12GB of RAM

 

[bollman]

Of course. Everyone who bought an iPhone 16 to get Apple Intelligence are going to get pretty miffed when Apple releases iPhone 17 with 12MB RAM which, it turns out, is required for the useful AI functions.

 

[UliBaer]

It should be 16 GB already...

 

[Matsamoto]

That’s awesome!
Now I can open Pages 0,1s faster than my iPhone 15 Pro🙃

 

[Radeon85]

That enormous lump on top looks ridiculous and is only going to add extra unnecessary weight. If that's what the next design truly looks like, then Apple should sack those designers and everyone who approved it.

 

[Nik]

I am looking forward to the design changes, let's see how they look like in real life. It is quite common to think that it looks awful on renders but in reality it looks okay or even good.

 

[TechWhisperer]

This rendition does not look great. Upped RAM is nice but long overdue.

 

[neuropsychguy]

It should be 16 GB already...

We should not accept anything less than 256 TB of RAM and a 16 PB SSD!

Edit: Some people apparently have no sense of humor...

 

[MayaUser]

It should be 16 GB already...

for what? just for a lot of tabs to stay in the background in the memory?
because all the hard work that would require 16gb ram would turn the iphone very hot in seconds and throttle and make the 16gb ram useless

 

[abatabia]

Probably just me but I’m bored with the 17 already.

 

[bondr006]

for what? just for a lot of tabs to stay in the background in the memory?
because all the hard work that would require 16gb ram would turn the iphone very hot in seconds and throttle and make the 16gb ram useless

So 4 more gb's of ram over the 17's rumored 12gb "would turn the iphone very hot in seconds and throttle and make the 16gb ram useless"??? Really?😏🙄

 

[UliBaer]

for what? just for a lot of tabs to stay in the background in the memory?
because all the hard work that would require 16gb ram would turn the iphone very hot in seconds and throttle and make the 16gb ram useless

You don't get it! If your device has 12 GB of RAM and the AI model uses up 8 GB of that, you'll only have 4GB of RAM left for the other applications...

 

[Roll0]

It should be 16 GB already...

Why not 128GB?

 

[WarmWinterHat]

You don't get it! If your device has 12 GB of RAM and the AI model uses up 8 GB of that, you'll only have 4GB of RAM left for the other applications...

..or keep Apple AI disabled and use the RAM for whatever else you want. That's my strategy, anyway.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

That looks much nicer than the last render I saw.

 

[KnowsHowItWorks]

I still have no a slightest idea who needs this “intelligence”, what exactly is it and why it needs That much memory.
Bigger problem is I am not sure if anyone at Apple knows the answer to those questions.

But well more is not less and battery footprint for RAM is negligible. So welcome.

 

[kiranmk2]

Of course. Everyone who bought an iPhone 16 to get Apple Intelligence are going to get pretty miffed when Apple releases iPhone 17 with 12MB RAM which, it turns out, is required for the useful AI functions.

Exactly this. I predict there is going to be an AI / NPU hardware arms race in the next 3-5 years (in the same way phone CPU/GPUs improved in the 2010-2015 period), and it's likely that people who bought into the iPhone 16 cycle because this was the "first iPhone designed for AI" may well find that a lot of the iOS19 features (and possible a lot of the features originally promised for iOS18) get restricted to iPhone 17-grade hardware...

 

[contacos]

My current phone has more Ram than my 2021 MacBook Pro and the same storage.

If someone told me this 10 years ago, I would have thought they are crazy haha

 

[cjsuk]

The escalation to support underestimation of AI models continues in the vain hope it'll be good enough next cycle.

GET ME OFF THIS ROLLERCOASTER.

 

[darngooddesign]

I like the addition of that second rectangle on the back.

 

[StuBeck]

Don't believe it. We've been told things by fanatics here for years that 8 GB of RAM is more than enough, and suddenly you're trying to tell me that all iPhones will have more than this next year?

The way companies differentiate devices is by removing features, and the easiest one to do that is hardware which costs them money. I also suspect this is a very easy item to remove after the lukewarm at best response to Apple Intelligence. The top model may have this, but lower end models won't.

 

[Corefile]

It's truly embarrassing for Apple HW that the garbage they call SW is allowed to ship with this product. Give the population what they demand which is true Mac OS X running on their own HW.

 

[darngooddesign]

It's truly embarrassing for Apple HW that the garbage they call SW is allowed to ship with this product. Give the population what they demand which is true Mac OS X running on their own HW.

MacOS doesn't run on the A# chips which are in the phones.

 

[JoshuaBru]

That enormous lump on top looks ridiculous and is only going to add extra unnecessary weight. If that's what the next design truly looks like, then Apple should sack those designers and everyone who approved it.

What I don’t get is, according to the mockups the 17 is thicker. And that camera island protrudes. So why are the camera lenses not flush with the phone? Why has the phone gotten thicker and the addition of a camera island not given them the real estate to flush the cameras?

 

[gigapocket1]

Just need to go ahead and take it to 16GB of ram and call it a day