iPhone 17 range may increase RAM to 12GB

It's now a safe assumption that future iPhones will feature increased RAM because Apple Intelligence needs it. The forthcoming iPhone 16 range, for instance, has already been repeatedly reported to feature at least 8GB RAM across all models, rather than only in the Pro editions.

Now generally accurate leaker "Mobile Phone Chip Expert" x says that the iPhone 17 will feature 12GB.

"If you want to change to an AI iPhone, maybe the 2025 iPhone 17 is a good choice," writes the leaker (in translation). "This year's i16 internal memory is only 8GB, mainly cloud-side AI. Next year's i17 internal memory is 12GB, and there are more edge AI applications."on Weibo

There is no further detail in the claim, and significantly no qualification that the 12GB will be solely in the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, as previously rumored. It's still most likely that the Pro versions will get the greater amount of RAM, though there are expected to be other marked improvements to the regular iPhone 17 models.

This leaker's reference to "more edge AI applications," concerns those Apple Intelligence functions that are performed solely on the iPhone. So while none are specified, the leaker expects fewer features where the iPhone has to go online to ChatGPT or similar for results.

That could simply be supposition, however, given that increased RAM would presumably facilitate it.

Overall, "Mobile Phone Chip Expert" has a good reputation for accuracy. However, so far his or her claims tend to be ones that it will take some years to confirm — if they ever are.

For instance, he or she recently claimed that Apple has a secret plan to develop AI processors for its data centers. That's not really provable, but it feels likely given what we now know about Apple Intelligence.

In the meantime, the iPhone 16 range will be announced on September 9, 2024. Those are all expected to have 8GB of RAM.