iPhone 18 Rumored to Feature 50% More RAM

[MacRumors]

Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 could feature 50% more memory than its predecessor, according to Korea's The Bell.

With its latest iPhone lineup, the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max feature 12GB of memory. This is a significant increase of 4GB more their predecessors, largely driven by the demands of on-device artificial intelligence processing.

The iPhone 17 is the only new model to continue to feature 8GB of memory. It looks like that will change with the iPhone 18, with Apple reportedly seeking memory parity across all four models. Apple has apparently asked Samsung, a key supplier of RAM for the iPhone, to increase its supply of LPDDR5X chips for the next iPhone lineup.

Samsung's high-performance LPDDR5X launched in 2024 is only available in 12GB and 16GB configurations, making another standard iPhone with 8GB of memory unlikely. Apple is also said to be in talks with SK Hynix and Micron for additional mobile DRAM supply.

The iPhone Air 2, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone are expected to launch in the fall of 2026, with the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e following in the first half of 2027.

Article Link: iPhone 18 Rumored to Feature 50% More RAM

 

[cjsuk]

Apple: "Maybe if we add even more RAM this time our AI proposition will work".

 

[Slo Pesci]

Can someone please tell me what they are doing on their phone that makes 8gb of ram not enough?

Since 8gb on a phone is good enough for 99% of people why not just lower the price of the phone a few bucks instead?

 

[cjsuk]

Can someone please tell me what they are doing on their phone that makes 8gb of ram not enough?

Since 8gb on a phone is good enough for 99% of people why not just lower the price of the phone a few bucks instead?

The ML models that they want to run on the device that no one wants require a hell of a lot of RAM.

 

[MacUserFella]

At this rate, in 2040, iPhones will have 300GB of RAM and Macs will still only have 16GB

 

[Nozuka]

At this rate, in 2040, iPhones will have 300GB of RAM and Macs will still only have 16GB

With mac you get as much as you buy.

With iPhone you are stuck with what it has.

 

[Apple-achian]

Individual models (i.e. base 18) should be segmented via RAM and core counts, to salvage dies and satisfy customers. 250$ for each 4GB increment in RAM is reasonable.

 

[samirsushah]

All iPhone 18 versions will have 12GB or more memory. Why? Memory makes AI faster. So people are asking for more memory. Samsung's LPDDR5X memory only comes in 12GB or 16GB versions.

 

[Rachid Vàzquez]

So the RAM is independent from the SoC on the ‘A’ series? Then the A19 Pro in the iPhone Air is actually just a base A19? (No USB 3.0, one GPU core missing, lower clock speed than the Pro versions, no video output over USB-C)

Did Apple mislead us on this one?

 

[phoenix303]

Since my 16 pro max gets worse battery life than my 13 pro max did, guess I will be upgrading next year. Excited that my brand new awesome shiny 18 Pro Max that runs subpar Apple Intelligence, will have the same battery life as my 13! Woohoo!

 

[klasma]

Can someone please tell me what they are doing on their phone that makes 8gb of ram not enough?

They want to be able to use it in iOS 33, which will drop support for 8 GB iPhones.

Seriously: Any RAM amount they ship in a new iPhone needs to be supported for the next 6-7 years by iOS. The iPhone 18 will be released in spring 2027.

 

[Rafagon]

Since 8gb on a phone is good enough for 99% of people

Citation needed.

 

[mwhite]

iPhone Air 2?

🤣😂🤣😂🤣

 

[JCCL]

Citation needed.

Do you really need a citation for that? Have you seen any normal user on an iPhone 16 Pro Max complaining that it doesn’t have more RAM?

 

[unregbaron]

At what point do you guys think 'I'll just wait for the new phone, not the current one'? I kind of feel if I can hold off until Jan/Feb I can wait until October...

 

[UltimaKilo]

At this rate, in 2040, iPhones will have 300GB of RAM and Macs will still only have 16GB

You must be living under a rock. My M4 Mac Mini sports 24GB of RAM.

Since my 16 pro max gets worse battery life than my 13 pro max did, guess I will be upgrading next year. Excited that my brand new awesome shiny 18 Pro Max that runs subpar Apple Intelligence, will have the same battery life as my 13! Woohoo!

Something is seriously wrong with your battery or you are doing something wrong. My iPhone 16 PM lasts the same as my 13 PM even when set to 80% charge limit. It has an 8% bigger battery and is 11% more efficient.

Do you really need a citation for that? Have you seen any normal user on an iPhone 16 Pro Max complaining that it doesn’t have more RAM?

People who hate seeing their apps unable to hold memory while switching around apps just don't realize that it's mostly due to RAM constraints. 16GB would be much welcomed by many, myself included.

 

[tomtad]

Wondered why they’d stopped putting ‘Built for Apple Intelligence’ on everything, this must be it for real this time. Maybe

What a scam that was

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

Not a surprise . It's pretty clear that features next year will be limited to 17 pro, jusy like they did with the 15 pro

 

[kirk.vino]

Since my 16 pro max gets worse battery life than my 13 pro max did, guess I will be upgrading next year. Excited that my brand new awesome shiny 18 Pro Max that runs subpar Apple Intelligence, will have the same battery life as my 13! Woohoo!

Upgraded from a 13PM to a 17PM: the battery is significantly better than what I had on the brand-new 13PM. Considering the 18PM chip will be manufactured on the 2nm process, the leap in battery life will be huge for you.

 

[EugW]

Samsung's high-performance LPDDR5X launched in 2024 is only available in 12GB and 16GB configurations, making another standard iPhone with 8GB of memory unlikely.

Let’s just hope they don’t give the iPhone 18 the M4 iPad Pro treatment, where they give it 12 GB RAM but deactivate 4 GB.

 

[cjsuk]

Let’s just hope they don’t give the iPhone 18 the M4 iPad Pro treatment, where they give it 12 GB RAM but deactivate 4 GB.

To be fair on that I had no idea how much RAM mine has. I don't give a crap

 

[supergt]

Don’t tell iPhone 15 Pro users, but this sounds to me like it’s built for apple intelligence.

 

[thadoggfather]

I dunno why but I totally missed or forget base iPhone 17 had 8gb

Thought they all were 12gb this year

 

[mwhite]

I dunno why but I totally missed or forget base iPhone 17 had 8gb

Thought they all were 12gb this year

You thought Tim Cook would back away from Apple’s greed?

 

[BruiserBear]

Can someone please tell me what they are doing on their phone that makes 8gb of ram not enough?

Since 8gb on a phone is good enough for 99% of people why not just lower the price of the phone a few bucks instead?

1. Apple doesn’t price things “a few bucks” cheaper, especially for iPhones.
2. iPhones sell incredibly well. Why would Apple make them cheaper?
3. While you may not understand the important of RAM, it makes a difference in how the device operates on a daily basis. Reopen and app you had open earlier and it has to reload? That won’t happen as much if you have more ram for various things to remain saved to.
4. As others have mentioned, AI features will need more RAM to run well going forward, so having more RAM on your devices just means they are future proofed for longer.