Apple may finally increase the RAM beyond 8GB in the standard iPhone 18

Before the iPhone 17 was unveiled, many customers expected Apple to bump the base model’s memory to 12GB, up from the 8GB found in the iPhone 16. While that didn’t happen, Apple did double the iPhone 17’s base storage capacity from 128GB to 256GB, making it a more tempting upgrade. However, Apple may take things a step further with the iPhone 18 in 2026 by finally increasing the base memory.

According to a new report from Korean outlet The Bell, Apple plans to increase the standard iPhone 18’s memory to 12GB. The company has reportedly asked Samsung to boost the supply of LPDDR5X memory chips for its next-generation iPhone models.

Samsung’s LPDDR5X chips are currently available only in 12GB and 16GB variants. Meanwhile, the Korean outlet reports that Apple is also in talks with SK Hynix and Micron to supply a portion of its memory chips for the iPhone 18 series.

This suggests a few potential scenarios. First, Apple may choose to keep 8GB of RAM in the base iPhone 18 while adopting faster memory chips. In this case, Samsung’s 12GB and 16GB LPDDR5X chips would remain exclusive to the Pro models. However, another scenario, based on the new report, suggests that the base iPhone 18 could finally see its memory increase to 12GB.

Given Apple’s history of differentiating iPhone models through hardware specifications, if the company decides to increase the iPhone 18’s memory to 12GB, we can likely expect the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max to land with 16GB of RAM. The current iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max all come with 12GB of memory.

The demand for higher RAM in smartphones is mostly driven by power-hungry AI features. If Apple launches an AI-enabled version of Siri with the iPhone 18 series, it could justify increasing the memory.

Source

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Posted Sunday 26 October 2025 at 4:42 am AEST (my time).

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