The best AI features in iOS 27 require an iPhone 17 Pro!

News 1 month since publication

At its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple unveiled iOS 27 and its new ecosystem in a more subdued and integrated manner than usual. Instead of the traditional one-to-one transition between operating systems, the company focused on what the unified Apple ecosystem will be getting this fall, from AI-powered Siri capabilities and advanced Apple Intelligence features to enhanced parental controls. While the lines between iPhone, iPad, and Mac are becoming increasingly blurred with the unified design language, iOS 27 remains the star of the show.

iOS 27 supports your old phone... but there's a catch!

Apple's AI features at the developers conference

The good news, announced by Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Stacey Ford, is that iOS 27 will not drop any of the phones supported in the previous version. Thanks to Apple's new and improved CPU scheduler, the system will run smoothly even on older phones, right down to the iPhone 11 series. This means that if your phone is currently running iOS 26, you are eligible for the full update.

But hold on, don't get too carried away! Supporting the system doesn't mean getting all its features. Apple's AI features are still exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro and later models. In fact, Apple has decided to raise the bar even higher this time, making the most powerful and intelligent features require hardware we've only seen in its latest phones.

The 12GB RAM hurdle: Why the iPhone 17 Pro specifically?

Device compatibility with advanced AI features

In a surprising revelation, Craig Federighi indicated that the most advanced AI features, such as new expressive Siri voices and advanced voice dictation, will be limited to only three current iPhone models: the iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the new iPhone Air. The reason for this strict limitation is not so much processor power as RAM capacity.

The large language model running locally on the device consumes a huge amount of memory, which is why Apple stipulated a requirement of “12GB of RAM or more” to run these advanced features. This requirement precisely explains why the base iPhone 17 is absent from the list, and why Macs require M3 processors or later, and iPads require M4 processors or later, provided they have at least 12GB of RAM.

For iPad users, this means that advanced AI features will only work on an iPad Pro with an M4 processor if you own the 1TB or 2TB version (which comes with 16GB of memory), or if you purchase an iPad Air with the new M4 processor that offers 12GB of memory as standard for all storage capacities.

History repeats itself: The ongoing RAM battle with Apple

From iPhoneIslam.com, a smartphone screen with the text "Apple Intelligence: Artificial intelligence for the rest of us. Available now" overlaid on a white background, highlighting the week's top tech news and summary.

This move is reminiscent of what happened when Apple first launched its artificial intelligence in 2024, limiting it to the iPhone 15 Pro and Max models, excluding the regular models. At the time, analysts attributed this to the RAM, as the Pro phones came with 8GB compared to 6GB in the regular models.

What's remarkable here is that the A16 Bionic processor in the regular iPhone 15 has a more powerful neural engine with 17 trillion operations per second compared to the M1 processor in the MacBook Air (only 11 trillion operations), yet the artificial intelligence works on the old Mac and not on the iPhone 15! The reason is simply that the phone lacks enough RAM to support those smart models.

Now, with Apple's desire to offer an interactive Siri capable of speaking in a natural tone and highly accurate dictation, 8GB of RAM has become a thing of the past, and 12GB is the new gateway to the future.

Do you think Apple is deliberately limiting these features to push us to upgrade, or is the hardware the real obstacle? Share your opinion in the comments!

Source:

idropnews.com

Related articles

13 comment

comments user
arkan assaf

What I know is that a computer needs 32GB of RAM or more, so how did Apple decide on 12GB of RAM?
🇧🇷
    comments user
    AI Smart

    Computers often handle multiple complex tasks simultaneously, but Apple relies on Small Language Models (SLMs) that are compressed and optimized to operate efficiently within the 12GB of storage. The difference is that Apple doesn't attempt to run a massive model at once; instead, it selects specific components to suit the phone's hardware, which explains why the numbers appear lower than those seen in Macs or PCs.
comments user
immortal

For us in the Arab world, all we care about is system speed; AI features aren't supported even if you buy an iPhone with 128GB of RAM 🤣🤣🤣
🇧🇷
comments user
Hatem

Even if I had an iPhone 17 Pro, I would disable Apple's new smart features and continue using only the Gemini app.

2
🇧🇷
    comments user
    AI Smart

    This makes perfect sense if you prefer more mature models; after all, hardware power doesn't matter if the software doesn't deliver the value you're looking for. Do you find Gemini superior to Siri for everyday tasks that matter to you, or is it simply a personal preference for the interface?
    comments user
    amr unis

    I'm exactly like you, my friend Gemini and ChatGPT. I'm already subscribed to them and others. Apple's AI has become exclusive to new phones only; not even a single feature is available on any older phone. Unlike Samsung, which has made some of its older phones enjoy several AI applications exclusive to its newer phones, Apple doesn't do that. To hell with Apple!
comments user
Amr Yousry

I'm sure that even the iPhone 17 Pro won't get everything, and that's just to market the 18 Pro and the foldable phone.

3
🇧🇷
    comments user
    AI Smart

    An endless series of “carrots” that Apple puts in front of us to chase, and with the current pace of development, I wouldn’t be surprised if 12GB of RAM becomes just a modest “minimum” in just two years!

    1
comments user
Amr Yousry

Of course, Apple is doing this intentionally, and the past bears witness to that.
The biggest proof of this is the battery percentage, which did not benefit any user but rather harmed them and made them vulnerable to extortion by merchants when reselling for upgrades.

2
🇧🇷
    comments user
    AI Smart

    I agree with you that Apple's policies sometimes create problems instead of solutions, but in the case of RAM, large language models (LLMs) running locally don't have the "intelligence" to circumvent the physical limitations of the hardware. Do you think the current AI features are truly worth this leap in hardware requirements, or is it just another marketing ploy?
comments user
Ahmad

For years, Apple had the lowest RAM capacity among its competitors but offered higher performance thanks to resource management. However, with the advent of artificial intelligence, this has become a limitation on device resources. The good news is that it will be forced to increase RAM capacity in its future devices if prices aren't affected by rising RAM chip costs.

5
🇧🇷
    comments user
    AI Smart

    Exactly, this is Apple's eternal dilemma; we've always lauded the system's efficiency, but it seems that generative AI only recognizes hard numbers. Let's hope this trend marks the beginning of a new era where Apple stops being so wasteful with RAM!
comments user
Ayman Mohamed

I said my device is one of the new devices and I'll get all the features since it's a 16 E, but they didn't let me enjoy it like everyone else and then this news came out.
Indeed, the unlucky one is unlucky.
🇧🇷

Leave a response