Apple’s standard iPhone 18 model may arrive lacking support for some of the most powerful Apple Intelligence features arriving with iOS 27, according to a new report from a well-connected analyst.
Ming-Chi Kuo reckons Apple is planning to equip the base iPhone model – due next spring – with 9GB of RAM. An odd number for sure. And plenty lower than the 12GB of RAM it was recently rumoured to be offering in order enable full support for the said Siri AI features set to launch in iOS 27.
The Pro models will keep the current 12GB allocation of memory, according to the recent scuttlebutt.
In a post on X, Kuo wrote: “iOS 27 will bring tighter system-level integration with Apple Intelligence. My latest industry checks suggest Apple’s lower-end 1H27 iPhones, powered by the A20 chip, will move to 9GB DRAM (1.5GB × 6 dies), up from 8GB (2GB × 4 dies) in the current A19 models, to keep the system running smoothly under AI workloads.”
That would put the iPhone 18 in the same boat as the 8GB iPhone 17, which will miss out on the more expressive Siri voices that are designed to help interactions with the assistant feel more natural and conversational, as well as the big boost to on-board dictation across the system. Apple confirmed those features will only be supported by devices with 12GB of RAM, which only the iPhone 17 Pro models have at present. So those are the two features the standard iPhone 18 would also swerve.
In the case of the latter, the additional computing power is leveraged to enable our waffled speech to be expressed on screen as polished prose, complete with punctuation and formatting. 8GB of RAM seemingly isn’t enough to cut it anymore, and this is the first time Apple has raised the threshold so high for Apple Intelligence features. And 9GB won’t either.
Beyond those two, Apple is confident all of the other features will work perfectly well on a device with 8GB of available RAM. Those include the new standalone chatbot app, the awareness of personal context pulling from other stock apps within the system, the enhancements to Writing Tools, the presence of Siri as part of the Camera app, the on-screen awareness, and plenty more.
It’s probably not enough to make the iPhone 18 dead on arrival – because it’s very much debatable how much of a sales driver AI is at present. Siri in its original form never has been a driver of sales. In fact, Apple may have made the smart call to cut down on the RAM and keep the iPhone 18 as a more reasonably priced handset.
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