One thing that puzzles people is how iPhones can tackle so many Android phones while offering such a paltry amount of RAM. While some Android OEMs are experimenting with as much as 24GB of RAM, iPhones are still barely scraping 8GB. Well, the iPhone 17 might actually have RAM that you’d see in a flagship phone.
As with any early information, you’ll want to take this with a grain of salt. It comes from a notable and very accurate analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo. Still, there’s no telling what could change between now and the iPhone 17’s official launch.
The iPhone 17 could actually come with up to 12GB of RAM
While Android phones are coming out with more RAM than most computers on the market, Apple has been keeping things pretty conservative. The company didn’t really need to push its RAM into the double digits, as its phones were still able to keep apps open in the background longer than most Android phones. Whatever Apple has been doing with the background processes has been working for years.
However, there’s not much that one can do when AI is involved. Apple Intelligence (well, when it finally launches) will be a huge strain on the RAM, and this is why Apple is increasing this spec in its phones. This is why the iPhone 16 series got a boost to 8GB of RAM. That’s the minimum that the phones will need to run Apple Intelligence.
The upcoming iPhone 17 series could gain a 50% boost in RAM, bringing it up to 12GB. That’s not bad, as many base-level Android flagship phones come with 12GB. That will give these phones some extra space when they’re using AI.
What’s neat is that Apple plans to bring 12GB of RAM to all of the iPhone 17 models, including the base model and Air model. This means that all of the phones will be on an equal playing field in that department. According to the report, certain supply chain issues might see the base iPhone 17 being saddled with 8GB of RAM. Even if that’s the case, Apple still plans to have a 12GB standard for the iPhone 18 models. Maybe by the time that phone launches, Apple will have finally launched Apple Intelligence.
