Overview
- Supply‑chain analyst Ming‑Chi Kuo said in early July that the lower‑end iPhone 18 and 18e will ship with 9GB of RAM while the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max and the rumored foldable will keep 12GB, creating a clear hardware cutoff for some Apple Intelligence features.
- Kuo and coverage from multiple outlets note that two demanding iOS 27 features—a more expressive, adjustable Siri and a major speech‑to‑text accuracy boost—require the 12GB devices and will not run on 9GB models.
- Newly surfaced 3C certification listings reported July 4 show larger batteries for Pro models with separate cells for physical‑SIM and eSIM versions: iPhone 18 Pro at about 4,056mAh (China physical SIM) and 4,288mAh (US eSIM), and iPhone 18 Pro Max at about 5,391mAh (China physical SIM) and 5,567mAh (US eSIM).
- Reports tie the Pro models to a next‑generation A20/A20 Pro chip built on TSMC’s 2nm node, which should boost efficiency and help the bigger batteries deliver longer runtimes compared with prior iPhones.
- Industry coverage says Apple plans to reveal Pro models and the foldable in September with base iPhone 18 models likely delayed to spring 2027, and analysts warn higher RAM and NAND costs plus foldable yield risks could push prices up and affect availability.