Apple’s iPhone 17 will come with a huge RAM upgrade, report claims

Apple’s iPhone 16 is due to launch in two weeks, but we’re already seeing rumors about its successor, the iPhone 17.

On Wednesday, a Chinese leaker said that the iPhone 17 will be a huge upgrade compared to iPhone 16 when it comes to RAM. Apple’s iPhone 16 models will come with 8GB of RAM, he said, but iPhone 17 will have 12GB of RAM, which will apparently make it more capable to handle advanced AI applications.

Then, Apple sleuth Ming-Chi Kuo chimed in in a tweet. According to Kuo only the iPhone 17 Pro Max will come with 12GB RAM, with the other models still limited to 8GB RAM.

Tweet may have been deleted

“Enhanced on-device AI capabilities will likely be a major selling point for the iPhone 17 Pro Max,” he wrote.

Kuo also said that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will have an “upgraded cooling system combining vapor chamber (VC) technology and graphite sheets,” while the other new iPhones launched in 2025 will use graphite sheets alone for thermal management.

There’s a lot of assumptions here: We don’t even know how much RAM the iPhone 16 will have, as this device hasn’t come out. We do know, however, that the iPhone 15 models come with 6GB of RAM, while both the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max have 8GB of RAM.

Artificial intelligence (or Apple Intelligence, as Apple calls it) can be resource hungry, so it makes sense for Apple to beef up RAM for next year’s models.

This is not the first rumor we’ve heard about Apple’s iPhone 17. Previous reports said that Apple is working on a “slim” iPhone 17 variant; we’ve also heard that the iPhone 17 will have an upgraded, 24-megapixel selfie camera, and that the rear camera will be relocated to the top center of the phone’s back.

It’s fun to speculate about next year’s iPhone, but for now we’re far more interested in this year’s iPhone 16. Apple is scheduled to launch new iPhones, along with new Watches and perhaps a few other devices, on Sept. 9.