Renders of the iPhone 17 – Image Credit: AppleInsider
A rumor claims that the entire iPhone 17 device lineup will get 12GB of RAM, likely to give Apple Intelligence a boost.
The iPhone 17 should have more memory than previous iPhone releases, according to the rumor mill. The latest claim to surface is one reiterating the use of 12GB of memory.
The posting to Weibo by “Digital Chat Station” on Tuesday says that the iPhone 17 “series” will use 12GB of memory. The wording indicates that the memory upgrade will be provided to all iPhone 17 models, not just the Pro variants.
The upgrade will be very beneficial to Apple Intelligence, the leaker adds. Overall performance will also be boosted by the A19 Pro, which will be arriving with the model.
The social media posting also touched upon the iPhone 18, which will allegedly be the first generation to use 6-channel LPDDR5X.
Digital Chat Station has a reasonably good track record with their posts to Weibo, including when it concerns Apple products. That, and previous rumors about the capacity upgrade help make the leak seem likely to occur.
Recollections of memory
The idea of using 12GB of memory in the iPhone 17 has been floated for about a year, and has surfaced a few times during that period.
In May 2024, analyst Jeff Pu offered that the Pro models could have their memory upgraded to 12GB from 8GB in the fall of 2025. He also speculated that the Dynamic Island could be made narrower through the use of a smaller meta lens to power Face ID.
In August of the same year, a leaker known as “Mobile Phone Chip Expert” posted to Weibo about the 12GB rumor applying to the entire range. One day later, Ming-Chi Kuo forecast that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will exclusively get 12GB of memory.
By February 2025, Pu resurfaced, saying that the Pro and Pro Max models will have 12GB of memory.
