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Apple's Most Powerful On-Device AI Now Requires iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air

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Apple's most advanced on-device AI model in iOS 27 requires a minimum of 12GB of unified memory, meaning the standard iPhone 17 is excluded.

apple-intelligence-black.jpeg

The next generation of Apple Intelligence introduces a new on-device model more powerful than anything Apple has shipped before. While most iOS 27 AI features run on the same hardware supported today, including iPhone 15 Pro, the most capable model carries stricter requirements. To run Apple's most powerful on-device model, users will need one of the following devices:

  • iPhone: iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, or iPhone 17 Pro Max
  • iPad: iPad with M4 or later with at least 12GB of unified memory
  • Mac: Mac with M3 or later with at least 12GB of unified memory
  • Vision Pro: Apple Vision Pro with M5

The base iPhone 17 is excluded because it ships with 8GB of memory, falling short of the 12GB threshold. The standard memory requirement for Apple Intelligence has been 8GB since its introduction, so this marks the first time Apple has raised the bar for its most capable on-device features.

According to Apple's press release, the new model specifically enables features including expressive voices and more advanced dictation.

Article Link: Apple's Most Powerful On-Device AI Now Requires iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/08/most-powerful-on-device-ai-now-requires-iphone-17-pro-or-air/
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Well, my M1 Air with 16GB of ram is out. Nothing to do.

Don't know if I will keep it to be honest. Probably it won't receive Mac OS 28 and I expect a good performance of Mac OS 27 but nothing more.

Golden Gate.. just don't like the name
 
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I don't understand why they've said this. AI has been missing on Apple devices since the iPhone 15; which apple touted at the time as receiving all the new AI capabilities as iPhone 16 when it was released. Now AI is here, they aren't even allowing it to run on the iPhone 16 which many people needlessly upgraded for. They are even dropping support for 4 versions of Apple Watch - proof if anything that Apple really hasn't been doing enough hardware wise to warrant any upgrades in the last few years. I found this WWDC event very lacklustre and disappointing.
 
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It is going to be a pain to work out what will or what will not work on our machines. I have an M1 Max with 64GB unified memory, but that will not work, but my base M4 MacBook Pro with 24 GB of unified memory will. I suspect I will not be using any of the features as I will not know whether they will work or not....

Update: It appears that the only difference between the full support in machines with 12 GB and M3 plus processors will be in the ability to change the ‘expressiveness’ of Siri’s voice and dictation accuracy. This will be easier to manage than I first assumed. I wish this had been made clearer in the presentation.
 
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Definitely waiting until they actually release all this…second time the charm? Then see how it performs etc..before deciding to get new hardware for it.

Glad I held off on the iPad and iPhone upgrade last few years. Mac Studio my patience paid off and got the m4 max 64gb last year so should be more than capable for years to come to run this.

Now just need apple to deliver what they showed this time…what they showed I have to say is better than expected.
 
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Just wow.
Who knew that shipping phones and macs with a paltry 8GB would end up like this...

Well, everyone really. Local AI models have always been ram hungry.

16 Pro. 17, built for apple intelligence apparently (or a nobbled version of it perhaps)

At least you know the iphone 18 will ship with 12GB min now. Or maybe not!
 
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Yeah - it all looks quite interesting. Perhaps I'll even be able to ask Siri to open a window whilst at the same time controlling the blinds. But I think I need to see it and play with it for a while before my 16 Pro gets close to a trade-in. And I fear I'll be waiting for some time, given that I'm in the UK. I know Apple correctly doesn't include the UK in the EU restrictions announced today, but it's my understanding that this whole thing is "USA-beta" only in September. Anyone any idea of any announcement about how long that will last before rolling out in non-beta form to other countries?
 
LazyMonkIE said:
I don't understand why they've said this. AI has been missing on Apple devices since the iPhone 15; which apple touted at the time as receiving all the new AI capabilities as iPhone 16 when it was released. Now AI is here, they aren't even allowing it to run on the iPhone 16 which many people needlessly upgraded for. They are even dropping support for 4 versions of Apple Watch - proof if anything that Apple really hasn't been doing enough hardware wise to warrant any upgrades in the last few years. I found this WWDC event very lacklustre and disappointing.
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Did you even bother reading about it or just read this macrumors headline and just assume things?
 
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