iPhone 17 Base Model Now Said to Feature A18 Chip and 8GB of RAM

[coolfactor]

Unacceptable…. In 2025 the iPhone should have 64 GB of RAM!

You forgot to add the /s tag, 🫣

Everyone clamoring for MORE RAM doesn't understand how software works, and how adding endless amounts of RAM will only make things worse, not better.

It's up to developers to be responsible about how RAM is utilized, and optimize their apps accordingly. The more you give, the more they'll take.

 

[trusso]

We hit peak iPhone several generations ago. Nobody buying a the base iPhone cares what chip or how much RAM is in it because nobody with a base iPhone has thought "man I wish this phone was faster" in years. It just doesn't matter.

For real. I’m not as much of a techie as I used to be, but I’m much more in the loop than the average person, and even I don’t care much anymore.

That said, I’m rocking an iPhone SE 3 until it dies, so the naysayers can take my opinion with a grain of salt if they wish.

 

[darngooddesign]

Now they are just messing with ram to pad their numbers spec wise and make extra money. 12gb is not needed on the Pro Max.

The Internet: iPhones don't have enough RAM
Also the Internet: iPhones have too much RAM

 

[seek3r]

I guess this bodes well for 8GB RAM iPhones. The likes of 15 Pro/Pro Max and 16 series will be getting updates for a VERY longtime.

That being said, glad the 17 Pro and Pro Max will get 12GB RAM, hoping they get unique features that take advantage of the extra RAM.

I wonder if they’ll be introducing a Dex style “dock and have a desktop” type system, that would definitely be something that more ram would help with

 

[iObama]

Fine by me. Just excited for that ProMotion display in a way lighter phone.

 

[kiranmk2]

The base iPhone 16 obviously sold too well for Apple's liking and dragged down the ASP!

You can see the playbook to maintain revenues: drop the sub $500 model so the line up now starts at $600 and now gimp the $800 model to push even more people to the more expensive models. It would not surprise me if Apple drop the iPhone 16 completely rather than drop it to $700 and add the mystical 17 Air at the $999 price point.

At this stage the base model is becoming the ugly stepchild for Apple. Vastly more expensive than the 16e model, but more and more lacking next to the Pro models.

 

[subjonas]

Basically, cost cutting due to tariffs.

Apple can raise prices due to tariffs, absorb costs, or de-feature.

Looks like de-feature won.

De-feature implies something was taken away. Eg. 8GB downgraded to 4GB. Not adding a feature that it never had but that some people expected isn't the same thing. So it was actually a fourth option: static-feature (in terms of this particular spec).

 

[chineseguy38]

If it's true. Tim Apple hasn't learned his lesson from iPhone 14 and 15. All he cares is grabbing more money for his own pocket.

 

[JPack]

De-feature implies something was taken away. Eg. 8GB downgraded to 4GB. Not adding a feature that it never had but that some people expected isn't the same thing. So it was actually a fourth option: static-feature (in terms of this particular spec).

Do we really believe iPhone 17 was always supposed to have the same chip and memory as iPhone 16e?

If it were A19/8GB, the "static feature" theory might seem plausible. But both SoC and RAM are the same.

 

[subjonas]

Do we really believe iPhone 17 was always supposed to have the same chip and memory as iPhone 16e?

If it were A19/8GB, the "static feature" theory might seem plausible. But both SoC and RAM are the same.

Oh for SoC, maybe. As with most things though, who knows for sure.

 

[snipr125]

We will just have to wait and see but I’ve been thinking that Apple is going to pull something out of their sleeve and not give us the full pro-motion, even though that’s arguably the only real major knock many people have on the base iPhone. Which is why I suspect Apple to continue to differentiate the Pro models with the slightly slower screen refresh rate.

For sure they will find some way to differentiate the Pro models, there are many reports that the iPhone 18 base model will be released 6 MONTHS after the Pro models are unveiled, to be honest i'm surprised they are not doing this with the 17 series (or are they mwahaha). So one can get their base model with Promotion, but you got to wait 6 months for it OR cave in and buy the Pro model straight away!

 

[BigDO]

So it’s just gonna be an iPhone 16 with an ever so slightly bigger screen and 120hz?

Yeah, “just” that.

 

[russell_314]

You forgot to add the /s tag, 🫣

Everyone clamoring for MORE RAM doesn't understand how software works, and how adding endless amounts of RAM will only make things worse, not better.

It's up to developers to be responsible about how RAM is utilized, and optimize their apps accordingly. The more you give, the more they'll take.

I figured the sarcasm was obvious but I agree sometimes it’s hard to tell between sarcasm and reality

 

[noanker]

What does it do when you fart? 😂

Siri will say “Sorry, I didn’t quite get that.”

 

[noanker]

Basically, cost cutting due to tariffs.

Apple can raise prices due to tariffs, absorb costs, or de-feature.

Looks like de-feature won.

I’ll choose de-feature to control costs for the short-term while the tariffs are negotiated. There’s few things on this forum that are as incendiary as Apple raising prices or even the perception they’re going to raise prices.

 

[noanker]

In what tasks specifically? The Geekbench score of the A18 is much closer to the A18 Pro than the A17 Pro.

Geekbench scores?

Although Geekbench benchmarks provide useful information about CPU and memory capabilities, they don’t capture the full picture of everyday device usage.

Geekbench mainly measures performance in CPU-heavy and memory-focused tasks, overlooking the wide variety of less processor-intensive activities users perform daily.

To better reflect real-world performance, benchmarks should also incorporate tests that simulate actual application usage and evaluate battery life.

 

[nordique]

So it’s just gonna be an iPhone 16 with an ever so slightly bigger screen and 120hz?

Arguably, that would still be more changes than iPhone 13 to iPhone 14

 

[nordique]

So just like iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 (which reused the SoC of iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro), the 2025 base model iPhone will reuse the SoC of the 2024 base model iPhone.

Not just like, as you noted, those phone used the “pro” model chips where as this by all indication is re-using the base model chips

I expect it will be the A18 Pro or some variant due to the display driver required for the 120hz display (which the regular A18 chip doesn’t have) … we’ll know if they announce it with an extra gpu core if it’s standard A18 or A18 pro variant

 

[nordique]

Penny pinching. Literally the only reason I can think of why Apple settled with 8gb is that 12 would’ve given it a longer lifespan which means people upgrading less often

Fair point re: $

One has to wonder if any tariff absorption or possible increase to mrsp is playing a roll is cutting/saving/reusing components

 

[Macaholic868]

Drop the cost by $100 if it’s the same recycled chip but this is Apple so that won’t happen. Honestly though, does it matter? If you have the base iPhone 16 why in the world would you upgrade one year later to a base iPhone 17 unless you’re on the iPhone Upgrade through Apple or your cell phone provider?

I upgrade fairly often, I average about every other year. So I’ll hop from the 15 Pro to the 17 Pro and from the 17 Pro to the 20 Year Anniversary model.

Every other year has worked well for me in the past, but prior to the 6s I would occasionally upgrade every year. For instance I bought the iPhone 5 having skipped the 4 and 4s but I turned right around and went to the 5s for Touch ID when I heard about the feature and new it would be a game changer for authenticating quickly without a simple 4 digit passcode. I hoped from the 5s to the 6 and 6 to the 6s but stopped there until the X came along.

I’m rapidly approaching a 3 - 4 year upgrade cycle as the innovation from year to year is less and less. Outside of getting a fresh battery, there is less and less of a reason to upgrade even every two years and if I do go the 3 - 4 year route I’ll pay to have a new battery installed to keep it going, but I know me well enough to know I’m going to want the 20th anniversary edition and I can’t see sticking with the 15 Pro until then so the 17 Pro it is for me in the interim.

Knowing Apple, if and when they finally do fix Siri in a year or two and produce a ChatGPT like version the way it should be instead of the crappy Siri engine we have today, you’ll probably need the 20th anniversary edition’s specs to run it on device or mostly on device if the end up going that route.

These are all big if’s given the state of Apple Stupidity …. I mean Apple Intelligence … but I’ve got to believe Apple either finally produces a modern LLM based Siri in-house, buys a company and integrates theirs using that for a new Siri or they fully open up their OS’s to support the user choosing which LLM chat bot they want to use with integration for ChatGPT, Gemini and/or at least one other competitor that lets the Chatbot do within the OS, within the Apple apps and for those third part devs who open their apps up to automation via the system enabled chat bot of choice if they don’t produce their own.

No matter how it goes down I don’t see how Apple evolves if they can’t figure out a solution to an actual intelligent chatbot style assistant.

 

[Paddle1]

Geekbench scores?

Although Geekbench benchmarks provide useful information about CPU and memory capabilities, they don’t capture the full picture of everyday device usage.

Geekbench mainly measures performance in CPU-heavy and memory-focused tasks, overlooking the wide variety of less processor-intensive activities users perform daily.

To better reflect real-world performance, benchmarks should also incorporate tests that simulate actual application usage and evaluate battery life.

I'm aware, which is why I said "in what tasks specifically".

The A18 and A18 Pro are so similar in power that there will only be a noticeable difference in very specific or intensive tasks. If you aren't specific then saying "the A18 is so weak it may as well be A17 Pro" tells us even less than a benchmark.

Also Geekbench did use to have a battery test but it was removed a while ago.

 

[Naraxus]

Apple/Tim Cook’s rapacious greed keeps on chugging.

You might not know this but Apple is a for-profit company, not a chairty. I hope that clears up any confusion you might've had.

 

[Jeeve Stubbs]

It makes sense.

iPad < iPad Air < iPad Pro
iPhone < iPhone Air < iPhone Pro

 

[mcbumbersnazzle]

Basically, cost cutting due to tariffs.

Apple can raise prices due to tariffs, absorb costs, or de-feature.

Looks like de-feature won.

Yeah it's not like they've done this before. Oh wait. They did with the iPhone 14, the worse iPhone cycle in recent year. All iPhone since the 14 used last gen chip anyway, even the 16's A18 is nerfed so hard that it performs like a A17 instead of being a slightly slower flagship chip like they used to do before the 14 series.

 

[JPack]

Yeah it's not like they've done this before. Oh wait. They did with the iPhone 14, the worse iPhone cycle in recent year. All iPhone since the 14 used last gen chip anyway, even the 16's A18 is nerfed so hard that it performs like a A17 instead of being a slightly slower flagship chip like they used to do before the 14 series.

No, Apple has not done this before.

iPhone 14 received 6GB RAM upgrade.

iPhone 15 got the 14 Pro chip.

iPhone 17 is getting zero upgrades if rumor is accurate.