iPhone 18 will probably have 50% more RAM than iPhone 17

According to a report from The Bell in South Korea, Apple plans to increase the amount of RAM memory by 50% in the next generation of its phones, the iPhone 18. In this way, the RAM of the device will be upgraded from 8 GB to 12 GB.

This upgrade brings the base version of the iPhone 18 on par with the more professional models in terms of memory, as the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max previously received the same amount of 12 GB of RAM. This decision by Apple is apparently taken in line with the company’s increasing focus on Apple Intelligence; A feature that is highly dependent on local processing so that user information is processed in a private and secure environment without the need to send it to external servers.

Reports indicate that Samsung will be the main supplier of new generation LPDDR5X RAMs for Apple, and SK Hynix and Micron will also cooperate in mass production of these memory chips to meet Apple’s high demand. The new LPDDR5X RAMs have higher speed and more efficient energy consumption than the LPDDR5 type used in the iPhone 17 series, which can help improve overall system performance and reduce processor temperature during heavy operations.

The iPhone 18 family is going to be introduced in two stages. In the first phase, the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, the new iPhone Air 2 model and Apple’s first foldable iPhone will be unveiled in the fall of 2026. These devices will be powered by the advanced A20 chip with 2nm manufacturing technology produced by TSMC. In the second phase, the standard models of iPhone 18 and its more economical model with the possible name of iPhone 18e will be released in early 2027.

Increasing RAM memory from 8 GB to 12 GB may not seem like a big change at first glance, but in practice it plays a vital role in Apple’s artificial intelligence strategy. The next version of Apple Intelligence is expected to include a set of smarter and more complex capabilities that require high memory and processing power. More RAM will allow future iPhones to perform AI-heavy tasks such as natural language processing, image analysis, or running the Siri smart assistant faster without slowing down other functions.

Of course, increasing these hardware specifications will probably increase the final price of the device. As the production cost of TSMC’s 2nm chips has increased, analysts expect the base price of the iPhone 18 series to be between $50 and $100 higher than the iPhone 17 series. Despite this, the reaction of users on the social network X (formerly Twitter) has been more positive. Many Apple fans see this upgrade as a necessary and overdue step to compete with flagship Android phones like Samsung’s Galaxy S26 and Vivo’s X300.