Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max: 12 GB RAM because of Apple Intelligence?
Apple announced the iPhone 16 series on September 9, and a new rumor says that all four models will have 8GB of RAM. In contrast, the Apple iPhone 17 series phones coming next year will go up to 12GB of RAM. That’s a pretty significant jump, and it seems to have everything to do with AI. This year, Apple Intelligence features will still mostly run in the cloud. But once the iPhone 17 models hit the market, a lot more AI will be calculated directly on the smartphone, which is why more RAM will also be required.
Google has also increased the RAM in the Pixel 9 series, which was introduced earlier this month. Some of it is even exclusively available for AI applications. Although Apple traditionally equips its iPhones with much less RAM than its Android competitors, that will apparently change in 2025 thanks to AI.
Well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also expressed an opinion on the matter. According to Kuo, only the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max will have 12 GB of RAM. The iPhone 17, 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Slim will only get 8 GB, just like the next iPhone SE.
With this in mind, Apple will likely make the Intelligence AI features on the device a key selling point specifically for the iPhone 17 Pro Max. And not for the entire product line. The Pro Max will also get an improved cooling system that combines vapor chamber technology with graphite plates. The rest of the iPhone 17 family will use only graphite plates, like the previous models.
Kuo says that the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max currently accounts for almost 40% of iPhone sales. This makes it Apple’s most successful hardware product in terms of both sales and profits. Accordingly, Apple is likely to continue to reserve the best performance for the Pro Max model.
