iPhone 18 may get the most disappointing RAM upgrade you could’ve imagined

While the vanilla iPhone 18 isn’t expected to come alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and the foldable iPhone Ultra in September, Apple was previously rumored to at least give it a meaningful upgrade. However, a new report claims that the improvements will be much smaller, raising questions about its access to the best iOS 27 features.

iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e could get only 9GB of RAM

Apple may add only 9GB RAM to the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a new post on X, Kuo said that the “lower-end” models will feature the A20 chip, but won’t get the previously rumored 12GB of RAM.

The company is expected to use 6 dies of 1.5GB each to achieve the total of 9GB, which would be a small upgrade from the 8GB of RAM on last year’s iPhone 17. The iPhone 18 Pro is still said to come with 12GB of RAM, which will be configured as 1.5GB x 8 dies, just like on the iPhone 17 Pro models.

What does that mean for the most advanced iOS 27 features on the iPhone 18?

While an improvement from last year’s phones, the 9GB RAM on the iPhone 18 raises questions about support of the best AI features on iOS 27. Some of the most advanced AI capabilities that Apple announced during its WWDC 2026 keynote require 12GB of RAM to work.

That’s why certain Siri AI and Apple Intelligence features in the iOS 27 beta are unavailable for the iPhone 17, and can be used only on the iPhone 17 Pro. Currently, Apple requires at least 12GB for its most powerful on-device AI model and the capabilities it unlocks, which has left even the “made for Apple Intelligence” iPhone 16 series.

This has already caused backlash on Reddit, with users specifically lamenting that they won’t get access to the more advanced dictation capabilities on iOS 27. Of course, some people were also quick to point out that Google can do that even with its budget Pixel A phones.

Still better than the competition

The new report comes in line with earlier rumors about Apple’s plans to cut the production cost of the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e as much as possible. If that turns out to be true, there’s a small chance the two phones come at the same price as their predecessors.

If that happens to be the case, the iPhone 18 could easily turn into the best phone in its class, beating both the Galaxy S27 and Pixel 11. Samsung is expected to bump the price of its base model by $100, while Google’s Tensor chipset is almost certainly going to lag behind in terms of performance. Meanwhile, Apple is still expected to use the 2nm A20 chip for both the iPhone 18 and the iPhone 18e.

It is still very disappointing

I am not overly excited about AI, but Apple’s move is disappointing in principle. Having the biggest smartphone company in the world cut off its latest models from features it was advertising for two years is a user-hostile move, even if most people don’t really want them.

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