The iPhone 18 Will Reportedly Get More Memory for Siri AI
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Apple is raising the bar for its AI features with this year’s iOS 27 release. While most of what’s coming for Siri AI and Apple Intelligence will still run on the iPhone 15 Pro and later models, there are at least two more advanced features that will be much more severely limited.
In what feels like a repeat of 2024, when Apple announced that Apple Intelligence would be limited to the then-current iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the “most powerful on-device model” in iOS 27 is only coming to the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air — the only models that pack in Apple’s latest A19 Pro chip.
This means even the standard iPhone 17 and budget iPhone 17e — two models that are less than a year old — will be left out of features like Siri’s expressive voice and more advanced dictation.
This limitation seemingly exists not because of raw processing power, but memory capacity. According to a slide Apple shared during its WWDC keynote last Monday, the new on-device model will also only be coming to Macs and iPads with recent M3 or M4 Apple silicon chips and “12 GB or more in memory.”
For iPhone users, the A19 Pro chip is the only one so far to pack in that kind of RAM capacity. The A19 used in the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17e still has only 8 GB, and that’s only been the norm since the A17 Pro arrived in 2023, setting the iPhone 15 Pro models apart from their A16-equipped iPhone 15 counterparts, which only sported 6 GB of RAM — a spec that likely explained why they were left out of Apple Intelligence in the first place.
Apple hasn’t yet provided a list of the specific features that won’t be available on older models; Craig Federighi mentioned “expressive voices and more advanced dictation,” as examples, but it’s unclear if there are more features that require the more powerful on-device AI model.
On-device processing is crucial for real-time features like voice responses and dictation, so it’s understandable why Apple doesn’t want those things making a round trip to the cloud. However, other advanced features like higher-quality AI image generation will undoubtedly still be powered by Apple’s Private Cloud Compute (PCC) servers, so iPhone 17 owners may not be missing too much.
Nevertheless, Apple is unlikely to let that be the status quo. In what feels like a fairly obvious prediction, DigiTimes has shared a new report from KB Securities claiming that Apple will include 12 GB of RAM in the iPhone 18.
This isn’t a new idea, as another analyst, Dan Nystedt, shared a similar prediction in April, following up on early 2025 reports on the A20 production to add 12 GB of RAM to the previously rumored specs.
However, Apple’s iOS 27 announcements have given these reports some new context by suggesting there’s a tangible reason why the entry-level iPhone 18 will need the RAM bump.
Apple is widely expected to split its iPhone release cycle more dramatically this year, with September’s event focusing exclusively on the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and its new foldable — the so-called “iPhone Fold” or “iPhone Ultra.” As a result, the iPhone 18 will be pushed into early 2027, likely launching alongside the iPhone 18e. However, the good news is that both of the lower-cost models are likely to get full Apple Intelligence capabilities with 12 GB of RAM, as Apple’s unified memory architecture makes this a function of the A20 silicon, and the iPhone 18e will almost certainly continue the tradition of packing in the same chip as the mainstream model.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
