The iPhone 17 brings to light an open secret: more RAM was indeed necessary

“iPhones need less RAM than Android phones.” It’s a phrase I’ve been hearing for years, and it’s not without merit. iOS is an operating system that doesn’t consume as many resources as Android, and it manages to run smoothly on devices with amounts that would be ridiculous on the rival system – such as the iPhone 12’s 4GB of RAM.

With the iPhone 17 rumors comes some very interesting information: 12GB of RAM will be a reality in the iPhones of 2025, as we read in MacRumors. This reinforces a position that some of us have been defending for years. Yes, more RAM was needed.

The iPhone 17 and its 12 GB of RAM. The iPhone 17 models, at least in their Pro Max variants, will feature 12GB of RAM. Currently, there is a 2GB difference in RAM between the Pro models and the standard models, with the iPhone 15 Pro models featuring 8GB of RAM, and 6GB in the case of the iPhone 15.

This difference would disappear in the iPhone 16, in which 8 GB of RAM are expected for all members of the family, equalizing the figure. Two years of boost in a memory that, until now, seemed secondary.

Apple Intelligence, the main person responsibleThere is one main culprit behind this increase in RAM. Apple Intelligence is a local and gigantic system, which requires large amounts of memory. In fact, the iPhone 15 – not Pro – and previous models will not be able to run Apple’s AI for that simple reason: they lack RAM.

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

RAM, better to have too much than not enoughThe argument that iPhones don’t need that much RAM to function falls flat. It carries exactly the same weight as the argument that they don’t need that much power to function well. The key is that, when it comes to hardware, it’s better to have too much than not enough.

If Apple had been more generous with the RAM in the iPhone 14 Pro and 15, these models could have Apple Intelligence. They are by no means lacking in power and capacity to drive this AI, but they are very limited in RAM.

Same path on Macs. It won’t just be the iPhone’s thing. All four Mac models, according to Gurman, will be ditching 8GB in favor of 16GB. It was a necessary move, since there was little justification for a high-end Mac starting with 8GB of RAM.

It had to take AI to prove to us what we already suspected: Big RAM, whether it works or not.

Image | Xataka

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