Purported Specs of the iPhone 17 Make an Open Secret More Obvious: Apple’s Smartphones Need More RAM

“iPhones need less RAM than Android smartphones.” I’ve heard this for years, and there’s some truth to it. iOS is an operating system that doesn’t consume as many resources as Android. It manages to run smoothly on devices with amounts that would be ridiculous—like the 4 GB of RAM on the iPhone 12—in the competing system.

With the iPhone 17 rumors comes more than exciting information. According to MacRumors, 12 GB of RAM will probably be a reality in the phones by 2025. This prediction confirms a position that some of us have advocated for years: Yes, iPhones need more RAM.

The iPhone 17 and its 12 GB of RAM. The iPhone 17 models, at least the Pro Max versions, will purportedly have 12 GB of RAM. There’s said to be a 2 GB of RAM difference between the Pro and the standard devices, with the iPhone 15 Pro having 8 GB of RAM and the iPhone 15 having 6 GB.

This difference would disappear in the iPhone 16 because all models in the line will supposedly have 8 GB of RAM, matching the figure. Two years of increases to memory, an element that until now seemed secondary.

Apple Intelligence is the main culprit. There’s one main culprit for this increase in RAM. Apple Intelligence is a local and gigantic system that requires substantial amounts of memory. In fact, the iPhone 15—not the Pro model—and earlier devices will be unable to run Apple’s AI because they lack the RAM required.

If Apple wants to keep its phones compatible with Apple Intelligence in the future, iPhones will need to have at least 8 GB of RAM.

Better to have too much RAM than not enough. In the end, the argument that iPhones don’t need much RAM to run falls flat. It has the same weight as the idea that they don’t need as much power to run well. The key is that, as far as hardware goes, too much is better than too little.

If Apple had been more generous with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 in terms of RAM, these models could have had Apple Intelligence. They have enough power and ability to run this AI feature, but they’re severely limited in RAM.

The same goes for Macs. The RAM increase isn’t exclusive to the iPhone. According to journalist Mark Gurman, the four Mac models will receive an upgrade from 8 GB to 16 GB of RAM. This change was necessary because there was little justification for offering a high-end Mac with 8 GB of RAM.

It took AI to show us what we already suspected: We need more RAM, whether we end up using it in the end or not.

Image | Xataka On

Related | iPhone 16: Release Date, Price, Models and Everything We Think It’s Coming