In its WWDC26 keynote last week, Apple announced that several of Siri AI‘s most advanced features, including new, more expressive voices, would only be available on iPhones with at least 12GB of RAM. That’s a requirement which includes the iPhone Air, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max, but excludes (perhaps conveniently, from an upsell point of view) the extremely popular baseline iPhone 17, which only has 8GB.
Apple fans who don’t relish the prospect of spending $999 on their next phone will be pleased to hear that this segregation won’t apply in the next generation. As well as the iPhone Ultra and 18 Pro/18 Pro Max, the vanilla iPhone 18 is expected to get an upgrade to 12GB as well.
In a new report, KB Securities (via DigiTimes Asia) predicts that the entire iPhone 18 lineup will feature 12GB of RAM, and thus be able to run the full range of Siri AI features. The company will do this, analysts say, to increase adoption of Siri AI and encourage customers to buy new iPhones. Those who might not be prepared to buy an iPhone 18 Pro are more likely to stomach the cost of an iPhone 18. The report doesn’t mention whether the 18e will get the same RAM upgrade.
The price tag of that device, incidentally, is the subject of some more good news. Analysts further predict that the iPhone 18, despite the major spec bump and rising component costs thanks to the RAM shortage, will start at the same price point as its predecessor: $799. As with the compromises made by Apple to make the iPhone 16e Apple Intelligence-ready, the company wants as many users as possible to get access to its most advanced new AI tech.
Still, the jump from 8GB to 12GB of RAM is a significant one, and (given that the jump from 6GB to 8GB happened as recently as the iPhone 16) may come slightly earlier than Apple would otherwise have wished. If the prediction is correct, there will be the same difference in RAM allocation between the iPhones 17 and 18 as there is between the iPhone 17 and iPhone XS.
- iPhone X: 3GB
- iPhone XS: 4GB
- iPhone 11: 4GB
- iPhone 12: 4GB
- iPhone 13: 4GB
- iPhone 14: 6GB
- iPhone 15: 6GB
- iPhone 16: 8GB
- iPhone 17: 8GB
- iPhone 18: 12GB (predicted)
On the baseline iPhone, RAM increases have been limited to 1GB or 2GB at a time. But aside from the Siri AI factor, 12GB is the next logical step, as demonstrated by the Pro models:
- iPhone 11 Pro: 4GB
- iPhone 12 Pro: 6GB
- iPhone 13 Pro: 6GB
- iPhone 14 Pro: 6GB
- iPhone 15 Pro: 8GB
- iPhone 16 Pro: 8GB
- iPhone 17 Pro: 12GB
- iPhone 18 Pro: 12GB (predicted)
The bad news for those who want to enjoy advanced Siri AI on a relatively affordable handset is that the iPhone 18 probably won’t become available until the spring of 2027. Apple’s (already widely rumored) plan to stagger the launches, with Pro models in the fall and the standard and e models in the following spring, appears to have been confirmed by Largan Precision chairman Lin En-ping, speaking at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
A “major U.S. client” has pushed back the launch of a new model to Q1 2027, he said (via MacRumors), thereby affecting component procurement timelines. Apple wasn’t mentioned by name, but few listeners could be in doubt what he meant by the remark.
For all the latest news and rumors, bookmark our regularly updated iPhone 18 superguide.
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