A choice of iPhones

[NomDePomme]

Hi all, first post here.

I am currently using my iPhone 12 mini. The battery is at 81% so I am in the market for a new iPhone in the next month or so.

I would be happy for forum member’s thoughts on the need for 12 MB RAM for IOS 27’s Apple Intelligence features.

I am not interested enough in the iPhone as a camera to want the 17 Pro, and the weight puts me off. The added size of the 17 Air is a slight negative, particularly since I am coming from a mini.

By size, weight and price the standard 17 would be my choice, yet I don’t want to cut myself off from even the next OS version (let alone what the future may bring) by having “only” 8 MB RAM.

Does anybody have a sense of where all this is heading? Will iPhone 19 have even more RAM, or will the enormous price rise of this component constrain Apple’s OS design to somehow work with less RAM?

As you can see from my current model I am not a frequent upgrader!

I’m grateful for any input.

 

[JPack]

We can only guess at this point.

Based on WWDC, it appears Apple is bifurcating AI support. This means the mainstream phones get "regular" Siri AI while the Pro/Ultra devices get "pro" Siri AI.

iPhone 18 is expected to have 9GB RAM. I seriously doubt Apple will cut off devices with less than 12GB RAM. (Even iPhone 11 with 4GB is supported in iOS 27.) Apple can simply tune the size of the AI model to be bigger or smaller. Just like camera features, AI features are a selling point.

 

[NomDePomme]

Thank you for your input JPack. I see that I should have expressed myself more exactly. My concern is not about cutting myself off from the entirety of OS 27. I am concerned that I would not have 100% of the functionality.

Maybe I am borrowing worries from the future… we don’t actually know the full extent of what Apple Intelligence will offer. Taking a cue from your reply, perhaps the full funtion of this feature would be as unimportant to me as the tele lens on the 17 pro…