iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo could have received 16 GB of RAM
The iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo smartphones were originally intended to feature 16 GB of RAM. However, Apple limited the final versions of the devices to 12 GB.
According to industry analysts and supply chain sources, the reason for abandoning the RAM increase was a global shortage of DRAM memory chips caused by the artificial intelligence boom. A sharp rise in the cost of 12 GB and 16 GB LPDDR5X chips manufactured by Samsung forced Apple to reconsider the production costs of the devices.
Installing 16 GB of RAM in millions of smartphones could have significantly reduced the company’s margins, so Cupertino decided to keep the memory capacity at the same level as last year’s iPhone 17 Pro lineup. Even maintaining 12 GB of RAM did not spare buyers from additional expenses. Prices for the iPhone 18 Pro lineup this year increased by $100-500, depending on the version.
Currently, 12 GB of RAM fully covers the system requirements for the updated Siri and the Apple Intelligence platform. Experts from PhoneArena suggest that without the strict requirements of local AI models, Apple might have attempted to return to 8 GB to save costs.
Nevertheless, the decision to forgo 16 GB of RAM reduces the headroom for future resource-intensive tasks. The foldable iPhone Duo, for which pre-orders start on October 16, is positioned as a device for advanced multitasking. The 12 GB limitation could eventually affect the performance of demanding neural network models that third-party developers plan to run directly on the A20 Pro chip.
