More RAM a better iPhone does not make, or why it's not worth it to wait for the iPhone 17

One of the most significant reasons iPhones perform so well with less RAM is Apple’s control over both the hardware and software ecosystems. Unlike Android, where the operating system is developed by Google and used by various manufacturers, Apple designs its hardware and software in tandem. This tight integration allows Apple to optimize iOS specifically for the hardware of its devices, ensuring efficient use of resources, including RAM.

This close integration means that every aspect of the device, from the CPU and GPU to the RAM and storage, works together harmoniously, reducing the need for large amounts of RAM to achieve high performance.

Also, iOS is developed specifically for Apple devices, meaning it does not need to account for the myriad of hardware configurations that Android does. This allows Apple to optimize iOS more aggressively, minimizing background processes and using RAM more efficiently. For example, iOS manages background apps differently than Android, often freezing or suspending them rather than keeping them fully active. This approach conserves RAM and reduces the load on the processor, enabling smoother multitasking and faster performance even with less RAM.

Another thing: iOS uses a dynamic memory allocation system, where the operating system automatically allocates and deallocates memory based on the current needs of the device. This system ensures that memory is used efficiently, avoiding the waste that can occur with static memory allocation.

Android does it differently

The Android ecosystem is highly fragmented, with numerous manufacturers producing devices with varying hardware configurations. This diversity means that the Android operating system must be flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of devices, each with different performance characteristics and memory requirements. As a result, Android typically requires more RAM to manage the additional overhead associated with this flexibility.

Many Android manufacturers add custom skins, features, and modifications to the base Android operating system, increasing memory requirements. These customizations often come with additional background processes and services that consume more RAM, leading to a need for larger amounts of memory to maintain smooth performance.

The main difference is that Android, unlike iOS, handles multitasking differently: it keeps more apps active in the background to facilitate quick switching between them.

8GB or 12GB RAM: what's the difference, if the extra memory is for AI?

More is nice; having an Android phone with lots of RAM is super nice. Using it is a breeze, especially when you've got some of that Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 magic to compliment it.

However, the more RAM, more fun mantra doesn't fully apply to the iPhone.

Then why put more RAM in the iPhone 17 in the first place?

The answer lies with the two-letter abbreviation that you're probably sick of already: AI.

See, Apple's AI feature suite (discreetly called Apple Intelligence) requires a ton of RAM. It needs a minimum of 8GB of RAM to run and that's why the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus (both packing only 6GB of RAM) won't support it.

So, yes, in terms of AI capabilities, it appears to be crucial for the iPhone to go on a RAM-bulking diet. Especially when Apple has got a whole lot of catching up to do: the competition in the face of Samsung and Google, for example, is way ahead in the AI race.

However, I'm not yet convinced that everybody out there needs and uses AI – things may change in the future, but for the time being, the AI craze is more of a marketing strategy by the companies than an actual need by users.

I'm willing to bet a reasonable amount of money that 8 out of 10 people will prefer a sturdy, secure and steady iPhone over a RAM freak that costs more and can perform AI tricks.

That being said, I see a price hike in 2025 with the iPhone 17. Don't act surprised come next September!