One big reason you may want to hold out for the iPhone 17

If you don’t upgrade every year, and were planning on buying an iPhone 16, a leaker with a solid track record has just given a potentially good reason to hold out for the iPhone 17 instead.

According to their Weibo post, the iPhone 17 will get 12GB of RAM, over the 8GB of the iPhone 16 line-up, and suggested this will offer a significant benefit when using Apple Intelligence features …

iPhone 17 to get 12GB RAM

Weibo user Mobile phone chip expert (MPCE) reports:

If you want to change to an AI iPhone, maybe the 2025 iPhone 17 is a good choice. This year’s iPhone 16 internal memory is only 8GB, mainly cloud-side AI. Next year’s iPhone 17 internal memory is 12GB, and there are more on-device AI applications.

Apple is slowly ramping up RAM. All iPhone 14 models had 6GB RAM, Pro or not. For the iPhone 15, the base and Plus models were powered by the A16 Bionic chip from the previous year’s Pro models, and remained on 6GB RAM. The two Pro models not only got the A17 Pro chip, but also saw their RAM boosted to 8GB.

It’s notable that only the two Pro models are capable of running Apple Intelligence, which is likely due to a mix of both processor power and RAM. That idea is backed by the fact that all four iPhone 16 models are expected to get 8GB RAM.

On-device AI to be ramped-up next year

MPCE suggests that the shift to 12GB RAM is because Apple plans to power more Apple Intelligence features on-device, with fewer functions dependent on cloud processing.

If the iPhone 17 can more AI functions locally, while other iPhones have to use Apple’s Private Cloud Compute (PCC) servers, that could make next year’s models significantly faster when it comes to using some Apple Intelligence features, as well as being more secure.

9to5Mac’s Take

Mobile phone chip expert has a limited but good track record when it comes to Apple’s chip plans. They were first to reveal that the A16 processor would be exclusive to the two iPhone 14 Pro models, and more recently that Apple was developing its own 3nm chips for its AI servers. That means the suggestion that next year’s iPhones will get 12GB RAM has to be taken seriously.

Whether that has significant implications for Apple Intelligence is more speculative. The leaker clearly has visibility into Apple’s supply-chain, but that wouldn’t tell them why any particular changes are being made.

All the same, it does seem at least a solid theory, and is consistent with both Apple’s preference for on-device processing wherever possible, and the strong clue that RAM is a factor when running Apple Intelligence.

Of course, ultimately it depends on how long you’re willing to wait to gain access to Apple Intelligence. If you don’t currently own an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, then you’ll need to upgrade this year unless you’re willing to wait another 12 months. But given that we’re not expecting the new Siri to launch until sometime next year anyway, waiting until next September might not be too painful.

Image: Michael Bower/9to5Mac