iPhone Air iPhone Air & 17 Pros Get Advanced AI - 17 base Downgraded!

[gigaguy]

The iPhone 17 was so well received and $200 less than the dismissed Air.... but now it's instantly downgraded and locked out of the advanced AI features which require the 12GB RAM in the 17 Pros and Air. Love my Air... Sneaky Apple.

 

[arc of the universe]

1 although apple itself doesn't really publicize the amount of RAM in an iPhone, any reader of this Forum was able to know that the Air had 12, and the 17 base model had the traditional norm of 8.

2 likewise, any reader of this Forum was able to parse that AI related tasks requires a lot of RAM.

it was clear that the Air was being future proofed.

 

[gigaguy]

Did not seem clear to many customers;who saw no future to the Air which can be found now for iP17 prices too.

 

[i-Liam]

It’s wrong of Apple not to inform customers of the amount of RAM in each device.

 

[Steve Adams]

It’s wrong of Apple not to inform customers of the amount of RAM in each device.

It's more wrong of apple to tout Apple Intelligence in ads for the regular 17 and then pull this stunt. Class Action incoming.

That's why I will never again buy "base model" anything apple. Everything will be Pro. That way there is less chance of having the rug pulled out from under you when it comes to features. Like my current 10th gen iPad. I cannot use the creator suite on it. The next model one year later can. So buying the Pro versions of anything apple will help ensure I will have all the features for at least 3 years.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

The problem is that they need to restrict advanced capabilities to devices where they know they will work well. That apparently means 12GB of memory.

But they also don't want to tell customers how much memory is in their devices. How is a customer supposed to make an informed buying decision? Or, is FOMO from buying the base model the new business strategy?

 

[Tsepz]

The iPhone 17 was so well received and $200 less than the dismissed Air.... but now it's instantly downgraded and locked out of the advanced AI features which require the 12GB RAM in the 17 Pros and Air. Love my Air... Sneaky Apple.

Anyone who reads a forum like this should have see it coming, especially when it already happened with the base iPhone 15 and 15 Plus which were snubbed when Apple Intelligence was given to the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max thanks to their upgraded 8GB RAM versus the 6GB the base 15 and 15 Plus had.

The Air, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max arrived with a further RAM upgrade to 12GB while base 17 got 8GB.

 

[Artemiz]

The problem is that they need to restrict advanced capabilities to devices where they know they will work well. That apparently means 12GB of memory.

But they also don't want to tell customers how much memory is in their devices. How is a customer supposed to make an informed buying decision? Or, is FOMO from buying the base model the new business strategy?

It’s wrong of Apple not to inform customers of the amount of RAM in each device.

Apple never publicly advertised how much RAM is in a model.

The only reason people are pissed now is due to the advanced on-device model requiring 12GB of memory, and people chose 17 because it’s cheaper and a better value. And these same people at the time were the ones bashing AI even going so far as to say they don’t really care one way or the other. If someone’s spending $800 on a phone, then I’m sorry to say, the onus is on the customer. I personally went with the 17 Pro for that exact reason.

This is just people having buyer’s remorse. Even now, there are only two features that are unavailable to 17 owners. Every other Siri AI feature works just the same on every supported model.

 

[Macdctr]

Even now, there are only two features that are unavailable to 17 owners. Every other Siri AI feature works just the same on every supported model.

Not only 17 owners but also the owners of the 15 Pro/Pro Max and 16 Pro/Pro Max won’t have the two features mentioned below . . .

- Adjustable SIRI Voices
- Improved Systemwide Dictation

I realize these features are important to some iPhone users so if they have the 17 or the 15/16 Pro/Pro Max, then sell it to upgrade to the 17 Pro/Pro Max or get the Air where they will gain these two features.

I daily use my 15 Pro not by necessity because I happen to have my Air and 17 Pro, but I actually enjoy using my 15 Pro as my daily iPhone and this iPhone obviously misses out on these two features. Features I don’t use during my average use for my devices. Since I don’t use them, I won’t miss out. It comes down to whether or not the person using their iPhone really need these two features as part of their daily use for their device.