The iPhone 18 could perform much better on Apple Intelligence.
Quoting Korean media The Bell, MacRumors reports that the base iPhone 18 could benefit from a 50% increase in RAM. According to The Bell, Apple has already asked companies like Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron to increase orders for LPDDR5X RAM for next year’s iPhones. It’s worth noting that Samsung currently only sells LPDDR5X RAM in 12 or 16 GB configurations.
This increase would allow the base iPhone 18 to have 12GB of RAM, which would match the higher-end Pro models and the eventual (although unlikely) iPhone Air 2. For reference, the current iPhone 17 only has 8GB of RAM, while the Air, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max each have 12GB of RAM.
Of course, this is just speculation and should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, as Apple continues to promote Apple Intelligence (its flavor of AI) and on-device AI models, the company’s phones are going to need more RAM. While 8GB of RAM is likely sufficient for most consumers and their daily needs, AI models are notoriously memory-intensive, so it’s likely that the base iPhone 18 will upgrade to 12GB of RAM to accommodate an AI model.
We’ll know for sure when Apple announces the iPhone 18, probably in fall 2026.
