Apple may have begrudgingly bumped up iPhone 16 RAM and storage

In the years past, companies would rely on their phone's cameras or fast processors as the main selling points. This year, AI-powered features have taken center stage, with Google and Samsung already reaping the benefit of being early adopters. In a quest to not be left behind, Apple will reportedly also bring AI features to the iPhone 16. This may require the company to increase the RAM count.

Apple can be quite stingy when it comes to RAM and storage. Why else would it be proud of equipping base models of its pricey phones with only 128GB of storage?

In late December, a company reported that Apple's new phones may have the same amount of RAM as the existing handsets, meaning 6GB for the base and Plus models, and 8GB for the Pro variants. This was despite the fact that some experts thought that phones with on-device AI would require as much as 20GB of RAM for reliably executing image generation and assistant functions.

The report was later contradicted by a report that said the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus would have more RAM.

Apple might need to equip the iPhone 16 with more RAM and storage than the iPhone 15 whether it wants to or not

Leaker @Tech_Reve has now shared the findings of a report from a Korean securities firm that suggest iPhone 16 will have more RAM to keep up with the demands of on-device AI.

Alternatively, Apple may equip the new phones with more NAND flash, so baseline storage may increase to 256GB. That's because AI models rely on data generated by various components of a device, such as swipes, cameras, and sensors, so more storage will be required to feed more data to them.

Apple might also end up boosting both storage and RAM, so 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage might be standard across the entire lineup.

Samsung also increased base RAM from 8GB to 12GB on the Galaxy S24 Ultra this year and the Pixel 8 Pro starts with more RAM than the Pixel 7 Pro.

If data centers will be doing the heavy lifting, does the iPhone 16 really need more RAM or storage?

As an aside, many of Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8's AI features are powered by the cloud, so if Apple takes this route, the iPhone 16 might not really need a RAM or storage bump. Recent reports say that the company is in talks with ChatGPT's OpenAI, Google, and China's Baidu to bring AI features to the iPhone 16. The company apparently thinks its large language model needs more work, which is why it's ready to swallow its pride and ask other companies for help.