iPhone 18 With 9GB RAM Still Won't Support Two New iOS 27 Features

[dumastudetto]

I was expecting only a bump to 8.256GB, so 9GB is actually a huge boost.

Also keep in mind, Apple RAM is effectively 2x Windows/Android RAM. So really we're getting 18GB in the base models, and 24GB in the Pro Pros + Ultra.

 

[Ctrlos]

I love it. Apple need to buff the specs and the best they could do was find some 1gb ram sticks knocking around a warehouse somewhere.

If they put any thought into it the memory crisis could be a prime business opportunity. Most people probably use about 10% of their phones capabilities. My first iPhone did web, photos and killed time; so does my new one.

If the iPhone 11 runs iOS27 ok on 6gb of ram then it could probably be optimised to run on 4gb. An iPhone Neo that launched with just a few core features like Safari, Wallet and Music and never had to worry about app compatibility could be built and sold for a lot less. Crucially people would buy it.

 

[lewchenko]

This just proves how tight the memory footprint of iphones is getting. So people really think their 12GB models *let alone the 8 or 9 versions will be getting all the features of iOS 28/29 etc ?

The reality is to last another 5yrs, 16GB should have been the base for the pros. But the cost at apples 47% margins makes that very expensive for the end user.

 

[Jimmy Goodwood]

I really don't understand how the Memory Cartel works. These memory chips are basically just a bunch of microscopic transistors etched into a tiny wafer. What difference does it make to the cost of the chip if it has 100,000,000 tiny transistors or 200,000,000. It's just a drawing etched into a wafer substance. Why does it cost more than double to make a 512gb chip as it does to make a 256gb chip? Where is the huge difference in cost? It looks to me like these prices are artificial, and only relevant to marketing, not actual production cost. It's not like they are being etched 1 by 1 by Hand, which would have a labor cost ingredient.

 

[fatTribble]

No worries... Almost everyone here last year said they'd immediately disable/remove Apple AI on their iPhones.

What's funny, is that I suspect most of them will now vociferously complain that iPhones with 9GB of RAM won't support some Apple AI features.

But it’s about that theatrical moment when you can go into Settings and disable that feature symbolically rejecting the direction the world is going in. 🤭

It’s similar to hanging up on someone when you’re angry but with an old-style phone 📞

 

[definitive]

so is this going to end up with a class action lawsuit, and a $5 payout for those involved?

 

[siddavis]

This is iPhone.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I was expecting only a bump to 8.256GB, so 9GB is actually a huge boost.

Also keep in mind, Apple RAM is effectively 2x Windows/Android RAM. So really we're getting 18GB in the base models, and 24GB in the Pro Pros + Ultra.

The effective doubling of RAM in Apple vs Windows does not apply to AI. We are here because LLM's take huge resources. Apple LLM's aren't different.

 

[frou]

I mean this is doubly pathetic because the iPhone 18 is not even launching in the same year as iOS 27

 

[IIGS User]

It’s an upgrade year for me anyway so meh.

I’m one of those rubes that usually upgrades every year but last September was really bad so I had to skip it. So this year I’m due.

And yes, if the “20” or whatever they call it is all that I will pony up and upgrade early. It’s one of my few “vices”.

Done with the watch though. I’ll keep wearing my Ultra 1 for a while but cutting off software upgrades after 4 years totally pushed me back to a regular old “dumb” watch. As soon as the replacement band for my classic Citizen eco drive comes in that’ll be in my rotation once or twice a week. I lost the original band and had to order a reproduction. I’m looking forward to sporting this vintage piece and beeing a little less connected.

I know the band on it is garbage, so I’m just waiting to get the replacement. The watch is otherwise really nice and synchs with the atomic clock so it keeps great time

 

[JosephAW]

Is this not available for the iPhone?

View attachment 2642826

On the desktop ram compression is hardware based now, I don’t know if they brought that to the iPhone.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

so is this going to end up with a class action lawsuit, and a $5 payout for those involved?

Um, no?
Why should it?
The iPad 11 doesn’t even support Apple Intelligence… At all. And it came out last year.

 

[hagar]

Weren't there some rumors they wanted to return to the EU? I believe I saw a poll or newsarticle recently most people regret the Brexit 10 years later and believe it had ruined the Britain economy more than it was pre-Brexit. Even though I think to also have seen some Europarlementariërs say that if that is the case they won't get the same deals anymore as they had pre-Brexit.

Brexit poll 2026 | Statista

The share of people who regret Brexit has increased since the UK left the EU. Recent polls show a growing majority think it was the wrong decision.

www.statista.com

No chance they will be allowed back in the next 20 years or so.

 

[turbineseaplane]

No worries... Almost everyone here last year said they'd immediately disable/remove Apple AI on their iPhones.

What's funny, is that I suspect most of them will now vociferously complain that iPhones with 9GB of RAM won't support some Apple AI features.

Just for you my guy ... just for you 😉
(from my M5 MBA)

 

[antic]

I must be missing something. How do you get 9 GB ram

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

The iPhone 17 looked like a really good deal this year until I saw this news. Glad I wanted a telephoto lens last year.

I’m not clear why this makes the iPhone 17 look like less of a good deal

Especially keeping in mind the 18 is likely to be a couple hundred dollars more

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

I must be missing something. How do you get 9 GB ram

Well, first you extract silicon from sand…..

 

[transpo1]

It’s actually very expensive, which is why every manufacturer is jacking up prices. And this would presumably be more about availability than about cost—there’s only so much RAM available, and Apple obviously prioritizes the higher-end phones.

Yep, I get the economics and availability— and the fact that Apple's making hard decisions. But my comment is from a customer perspective. It's not a good look if the latest phone can't run all the Intelligence features.

Even 12GB is an embarrassment.
The Pixel 10 Pro has 16GB.

To be fair, Google's phone production is not even in the same ballpark as Apple's: 7-10 million units annually vs. 200-300 million units. So Google can afford to splurge.

The product lines are getting a little more clarity over the years and it does make sense imo … iPhone and iPhone Neo consumer product with Basic AI and iPhone Pro and ultra with more advanced capabilities over the future update … I am curious to see where this will lead to and maybe iPhone 20th anniversary is the launch of a new pure AI iPhone to overcome what the AI competition is preparing (noticeably Ive with chat gpt phone and later screenless device) … exciting time ahead

Unfortunately, it seems like that's where the product lines are going to have to live for now in this ridiculously-RAM-inflated, AI world. Hopefully, we can make our LLMs much more efficient in the next couple years and the RAM craze will level out a bit. 🤞

It will be interesting to see what they do with the 20th Anniversary iPhone. If the requirements for Gemini (now used by Apple) are at least 12GB of RAM and the iPhone 18 Pros will only meet that minimum requirement, will the 20th Anniversary have 16GB?

Interesting times, indeed.

 

[Churchman]

3 weeks ago, I allocated funds to purchase 3 new apple devices. Was waiting until the September/October time frame to make the purchase.

With the new Apple price gouging, the money I set aside for 3 devices will only buy 2 devices now. Flip the script - the money that Apple now requires from me to buy those 3 devices… with this greater amount of money I could go back 3 weeks ago and buy 4 Apple devices.

I said a year ago on this site (to harsh reproach from J-somebody) that Apple should have purchased Intel when it could have been bought for pennies. They then should have updated the foundries to produce cpu chips, gpu chips, RAM chips, storage chips, modem chips, Bluetooth chips and other sensor chips.

That purchase and the facility updates would have cost them a few billion. But in the long term it would have saved money, created a strategic buffer, and proven profitable in many ways. It would have insulated them from any global RAM supply shortage and from opportunistic 3rd party chip producers… Would have protected Apple against the likely action China will take regarding Taiwan… would have protected Apple’s product planning / feature & content strategy… would have protected customers from price gouging due to supply shortages…. And would have won new customers to Apple because the company could have retained reasonable price structures if not lowered prices while others are forced to do price increases.

What good is it to hoard cash and not buy that which can strengthen your competitive position when the acquisition price is a ridiculously cheap bargain?

 

[CarAnalogy]

Interesting. I only rarely have it give the wrong correction and pretty much always I also had a typo in what I was typing. Who knows but perhaps individual writing styles get better or worse results from auto correct. So for you, I agree it's best to have it off.

I give it a shot again with every major update. I've heard of lots of other people with the same issue. Maybe I should try resetting it again. I do still use the autosuggest bar at the top and even let it do in-line completion (which I may turn off because that suggests wild things as well.) I also have swipe enabled but that doesn't help much. I manually went in and added just about every contraction in the english language to Text Replacement so that works even without autocorrect.

That's actually probably worth calling out. It works fine for me without autocorrect because of all my manual Text Replacement entries. If there's something I consistently mistype or it really really should recognize but doesn't, I just add it there.

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

It’s an upgrade year for me anyway so meh.

I’m one of those rubes that usually upgrades every year but last September was really bad so I had to skip it. So this year I’m due.

genuinely curious what compels you to buy a new phone every year?

 

[hans1972]

Is this not available for the iPhone?

View attachment 2642826

It's been built-in since 2013 and with hardware-support since 2020.

 

[con2apple]

Might be only two features for now but think as and when more Apple Intelligence features are added, some of them will be available only on the Pro models going forward.

Apple has to sell its fully developed “new” devices somehow.

And today, that’s only possible with two groups:
those who are always looking for something new and those who can no longer live without gAI.

 

[dblissmn]

Trying to set things up so that I need no further tech purchases until at least after the Micron memory deal expires in 2030. I've done pretty well at getting under the wire on price hikes and in the process replacing stuff that was anywhere from four to 18 years old, but I do anticipate needing a new monitor to replace my old color proofing display (which only really profiles accurately at this point to 140cdm; once that drops to 120 or below it's had it) and a couple of hard drives to cover attrition in my NAS over the next four to five years. Now it's off to sign up for AppleCare and sit tight.

I think if Apple is shipping new devices this year that don't meet their bar on AI, they're going to have to get the AI more efficient. I set 12GB RAM as a floor but not everyone can do that. Given what I'm seeing with local AI models that shouldn't be too hard for them. If they can't fit this stuff in an 8GB footprint, maybe they might consider updating all the ancient UNIX code in Mac OS in order to simplify it? I think rsync is 20 years old. But the copyright lawyers might not like that.

 

[Lurker-Monkey]

You would think that with the Ultra name and corresponding sure to be Ultra price of the Ultra iPhone that is would have more than just the base 12gb of RAM necessary like the “regular-now” Pro versions. This device should have more RAM like others have mentioned. What will be after Ultra when that has become blasé? Ultra-Pro?