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iPhone 18 to Use Enhanced 2nm Chip Tech Integrating 12GB RAM

vinesy said:
How many nm is a silicon atom from the next one?
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Says Princeton University:
The electronic configuration of the silicon atom is: (Ne)(3s)2(3p)2, and the atomic radius is 0.132 nm. Silicon has the diamond cubic crystal structure with a lattice parameter of 0.543 nm. The nearest neighbor distance is 0.235 nm.
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Transistor nodes can be close up to 1.4nm (or 14 Angström = 14A), that's why they start counting A20, A14.
However, TSMC numbers appear to be indicative and meant for marketing. Says Wikipedia:
The term "3 nanometer" has no direct relation to any actual physical feature (such as gate length, metal pitch or gate pitch) of the transistors. According to the projections contained in the 2021 update of the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems published by IEEE Standards Association Industry Connection, a 3nm node is expected to have a contacted gate pitch of 48 nanometers, and a tightest metal pitch of 24 nanometers.[12]
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On the other hand, Apple breaking the RAM Double Digit Barrier is a bold move that could send mankind into chaos, like Oppenheimer in his time.
 
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Greenmeenie said:
This will be Apple’s new way of getting people to upgrade each year. Last years iphones won’t be able to fully run next years A.I. features. Luckily I don’t care about A.I. 😂
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Agreed. They left out 12 gb memory this year giving anyone who bought the 16 Pro or Pro Max having to upgrade to the 17 pro next year to get all the benefits of AI I guess. That’s typical Apple for you.
 
applefan8254 said:
cool. Can we get multiple user profiles? Would be nice to have completely separate user spaces. Thank you.
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At least on iPad. I doubt it will come up iPhone unless they do a “work profile” which probably won’t happen because of Focus modes.

But on iPad it would be amazing. My kids would be able to share the iPad without messing with each others games.
 
Interesting to see how long iPhone 16 series will be relevant with “only” 8GB RAM. Guess new AI features in iOS 19 and forward will not be available for the 15 and 16 series.
 
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It’s amazing how the starting ram on a iPhone will be more than the starting ram on a desktop o_O
 
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WarmWinterHat said:
I appear to be the minority, but I just don't care what the ram specs of my iPhone are, at all. The 16 Pro is the first phone I've owned where I know how much ram it has.
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Understandable, but the practical functional limitations imposed by that RAM amount might matter to you later. When it's new and shiny, fun-fun. 4 Or 5 years down the road when some compelling new iOS feature rolls out that won't run on your phone, not so much.

A big factor in this is how long do you tend to keep an iPhone? I imagine people who upgrade by the 3-year mark wouldn't need to concern themselves much. Those of us aiming for 5-years (with an option to extend) may have more cause.

iPhones are expensive, and in many families where are 2 or 3+. Inflation in the U.S. and the world put the squeeze on a lot of people, and the iPhone is a pretty mature platform.
 
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Well, not only am I waiting for at least 12gb for my next phone, I am more so waiting for a complete redesign. I am so tired of looking at the same looking phone year after year. I am guessing the 17 series will continue to look just like the 12 through 16 models. Even the 17 Air will probably look like nothing more than the 12 through 16 but just thinner and slightly different camera. Bring back the iphone X design or something like it. These flat sides that we have had for the last five years have got to go.
 
Great! I hope the battery will be even easier to remove than in iPhone 17. Also 2nm chips are easier to remove than 3nm.
 
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drrich2 said:
Understandable, but the practical functional limitations imposed by that RAM amount might matter to you later. When it's new and shiny, fun-fun. 4 Or 5 years down the road when some compelling new iOS feature rolls out that won't run on your phone, not so much.

A big factor in this is how long do you tend to keep an iPhone? I imagine people who upgrade by the 3-year mark wouldn't need to concern themselves much. Those of us aiming for 5-years (with an option to extend) may have more cause.

iPhones are expensive, and in many families where are 2 or 3+. Inflation in the U.S. and the world put the squeeze on a lot of people, and the iPhone is a pretty mature platform.
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How about people who maybe just over a month ago bought the iPhone 15 and it will never run Apple nonintelligence by ChatGPT?

Apple has cheapskated and intentionally lowballed us on RAM forever!
 
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I'm afraid the memory usage on the iOS and macOS with Apple Intelligence will be out of the chart. Jumping from 8gb to 12gb in two years on a mobile device is a great move, but not an Apple one. Hope I can opt out on macOS and keep my RAM allocated to what I need, instead of bloating it with AI things and using lots of swap memory.
 
Moukee said:
Nothing "insane" about that, other manufacturers had that for years. The Pixel 6 Pro had 12 GB, while the iPhone 13 Pro released around the same time had 6 GB. Coincidentally, the Pixel 9 Pro has double the iPhone 16 Pro's RAM again, with 16 GB vs 8 GB.

Rather, the current 8 GB RAM are very mid-range. I still have issues sometimes on my 16 Pro where Safari and other apps have to refresh after using the Camera app. That's pretty laughable for a phone starting at $999 (and the $1,499 I paid for the 1 TB variant). I hope they can still improve this via software updates (I had a similar issue on the 11 Pro with early software versions), but it's pretty obvious that more RAM would've helped mitigate this problem.

This article seems to imply that the whole iPhone 17 series will be stuck with just 8 GB RAM as well. And then 12 GB starting in 2026 - kind of laughable as Android phones came with 12 GB as early as 2018-2019.
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Not a fair comparison. iPhone and iOS is far more efficient and doesn't need the same amount of RAM to do the same things as other phones. Having 12 GB in an android is NOT better than 8 GB in an iPhone. Apple has way ahead in performance for years and if they needed more RAM they would add it. It uses more battery to have more RAM and is completely unnecessary as of now.
 
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Moukee said:
Nothing "insane" about that, other manufacturers had that for years. The Pixel 6 Pro had 12 GB, while the iPhone 13 Pro released around the same time had 6 GB. Coincidentally, the Pixel 9 Pro has double the iPhone 16 Pro's RAM again, with 16 GB vs 8 GB.

Rather, the current 8 GB RAM are very mid-range. I still have issues sometimes on my 16 Pro where Safari and other apps have to refresh after using the Camera app. That's pretty laughable for a phone starting at $999 (and the $1,499 I paid for the 1 TB variant). I hope they can still improve this via software updates (I had a similar issue on the 11 Pro with early software versions), but it's pretty obvious that more RAM would've helped mitigate this problem.

This article seems to imply that the whole iPhone 17 series will be stuck with just 8 GB RAM as well. And then 12 GB starting in 2026 - kind of laughable as Android phones came with 12 GB as early as 2018-2019.
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Indeed... and why it more why the only thing "insane" is Apple's margins 😂 (not sayin' that' a "bad thing")
 
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