The standard iPhone 18 and the budget-friendly iPhone 18e are reportedly receiving an unconventional RAM upgrade when they launch in the first half of 2027. However, this memory bump will not be enough to unlock the full potential of Apple Intelligence in iOS 27.
Here is why the new hardware will still fall short of supporting Apple’s most advanced AI tools.
9GB RAM Compromise
According to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 18e will feature 9GB of RAM. This is a 1GB increase over the 8GB of memory found in the standard iPhone 17 models.
To achieve this 9GB capacity, Apple is reportedly combining six 1.5GB memory dies. This unusual memory configuration is a strategic compromise resulting from unprecedentedly high memory costs, which have been driven up globally by the heavy demand from AI data centers.
The Missing iOS 27 Features
Despite the RAM upgrade and the introduction of the new 2nm A20 chipset, the iPhone 18e will still miss out on two significant AI-powered iOS 27 features. These advanced on-device Apple Intelligence models require a minimum of 12GB of unified memory to operate.
As a result, iPhone 18e buyers will miss out on the following:
Customizing Siri’s Voice: The device will not support the ability to tweak the expressiveness and pace of Siri’s voice.
Advanced Speech-to-Text: The iPhone 18e will lack the “major boost in accuracy” for systemwide speech-to-text dictation.
What the iPhone 18e Can Still Handle
Even with these limitations, the 9GB of RAM will still ensure that many mainstream Apple Intelligence features run smoothly. This extra gigabyte of memory will provide more room for multitasking, keeping background apps active, and processing basic AI tasks efficiently compared to older standard models.
For users who want full access to Apple’s most advanced on-device AI capabilities without restrictions, the premium iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models will offer the necessary 12GB of RAM when they launch in September 2026.
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