The iPhone 18 – a future contender for our best smartphones guide – could land with 12GB of RAM for the first time.
The news comes courtesy of analyst Dan Nystedt (via MacRumors) and, if true, will see the base model iPhone 18 match its iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max siblings in the RAM department.
If the reports are true, it’ll make for a notable shift. Apple has historically kept its base iPhones a step behind the Pro models when it comes to RAM, so closing that gap would be a clear sign of changing priorities.
The likely reason? AI. With Apple Intelligence expected to expand significantly in iOS 27, more RAM is becoming less of a luxury and more of a requirement. On-device AI features – especially ones that run locally rather than in the cloud – are notoriously memory-hungry, so bumping the base model up to 12GB would help ensure it can keep up.
Elsewhere, there’s also talk of a more fundamental upgrade under the hood. Apple is reportedly lining up TSMC’s next-generation 2nm process for its A20 chip, which could bring around a 15 per cent performance boost over current 3nm silicon without sacrificing efficiency. That’s a decent leap, especially if paired with the extra memory.
Before you get too excited, though, there’s a catch. The standard iPhone 18 might not launch alongside the Pro models at all. Instead, Apple is rumoured to be pushing it back to early 2027, with the Pro devices – and a long-awaited foldable iPhone (aka the iPhone Ultra) – still expected to land in the usual autumn window.
If that pans out, it would mark a pretty significant shake-up of Apple’s release strategy. More power for the base model is great news – but would you wait months longer to get it? Given how RAM prices have been climbing thanks to AI demand, we’re also crossing our fingers that the rumoured RAM increase doesn’t come with a higher price tag. Watch this space…
Read the full article here
