This is a year of major change for Apple. Earlier this week, it was announced that Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has led the company since Steve Jobs died in 2011, will step down on September 1, with John Ternus, Apple’s Vice President of Hardware Engineering, taking over. In addition to the CEO swap, Apple’s biggest product launch of the year, the iPhone in September, is expected to be quite different from years past.

Usually, every September, Apple launches a new iPhone and iPhone Pro. Last year’s iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro were the latest to carry on this tradition. But this year, Apple is reportedly shaking things up, opting to launch the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max in September, along with its first-ever foldable iPhone, and punting the release of the iPhone 18 to early 2027 (via Bloomberg).

So that means if you’re hoping to pick up an iPhone 18 this fall, you’ll likely have to wait a bit longer. However, that wait might be worth it if this latest rumor comes true.

According to analyst Dan Nystedt, the iPhone 18 could be equipped with 12GB of RAM, a 50 percent increase over the iPhone 17’s 8GB (via 9to5Mac). That’s a lot more RAM for apps and Apple Intelligence to use, and would overall make the base iPhone experience even smoother than it already is.

Nystedt has also reported on Apple’s plans to use a 2nm A20 chipset in the iPhone 18, which should provide a meaningful performance boost over the A19.

Brand

Apple

SoC

A19

Display

6.3-inch 2622 x 1206 pixel resolution Super Retina XDR

Storage

256GB, 512GB

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one

More RAM is never a bad thing

I didn’t expect the iPhone 18 to get any RAM upgrade, given the ongoing memory shortage driving up storage and RAM prices worldwide, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense for Apple to do so.

At WWDC 2026, Apple is finally expected to pull back the curtain on all the work it’s been doing on its new Siri and personalized Apple Intelligence features, which it debuted at WWDC 2024. If all goes according to plan, the company could release its new Siri this September alongside iOS 27. With all these Apple Intelligence features in the pipeline, more RAM surely wouldn’t hurt on the base iPhone.

This also follows a similar path to the one Apple took with the iPhone 17 Pro last year. The iPhone 16 Pro has 8GB of RAM, and the iPhone 17 Pro bumps that up to 12GB.

The iPhone 18 is expected to launch in early 2027, so it’s still a long way off, but I’m hopeful that this RAM rumor will pan out. Hopefully, Apple will keep the starting price the same at $800 if it does happen.