According to a research note from GF Securities, seen by MacRumors, analyst Jeff Pu has suggested that the iPhone 17 could retain the features of its predecessor and do without a new chip, as well as not have an increase in RAM. Recall that the current chip in the iPhone 16 is the A18, so it is expected to be retained for the regular model of the iPhone 17 series.
Apple will keep the iPhone 17 with the same chip and some specifications as the iPhone 16.
Something disappointing without a doubt, a chip from a previous year will be kept in a new iPhone, something that happened with the iPhone 15 when the iPhone 14 Pro chip was used. The source of the information indicates that the manufacture of this chip will continue to be under the same second-generation 3-nanometer process from TSMC. The beneficiary will be the iPhone 17 Air, which will have the A19 chip. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will have the A19 Pro chip, which these manufactured with the third-generation 3-nanometer process. It is expected that with this decision, the iPhone 17 will retain the original 8 GB of RAM that the iPhone 16 has.
It’s a situation that will generate controversy, and that, for the moment, is somewhat confusing due to previous rumors that contradict the information presented. According to Ming-Chi Kuo and his most recent report, he indicated that those in Cupertino were on the eve of deciding what size of RAM to include in the iPhone 17. They were precisely between 8 and 12 GB of RAM, although it seems that those in Cupertino have already made their somewhat unexpected decision.
The iPhone 17 Air and iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max will have 12 GB of RAM, so this decision will only affect the standard iPhone model. Apparently, this iPhone will already be conditioned for the future by this fact. Remember that Apple Intelligence, if it continues to improve in the short and medium term, will require a greater amount of demanding resources, which could lose quality in its performance if it has a deficient amount of RAM.
There are still reasons to believe that the iPhone 17 will be a good model.
The latest rumors about the iPhone 17 indicate that it will finally make the jump to 1a 20 Hz display, so it will have a ProMotion display like the iPhone Pro variants. The front camera will have a big jump as it will go from 12 MP to 24 MP resolution. Apple is expected to retain the design of the iPhone 16, and a radical change is not expected as in the other iPhone models. Finally, given the expectation of having a better screen, it is expected that it may grow slightly to 6.27 inches according to analyst Ross Young.
Without a doubt, the limited chipset and RAM would make the iPhone 17 a weaker model over the years. We don’t know if this is another attempt by Apple to further limit access to Apple Intelligence features, as has happened recently. Remember that compatibility is limited from the iPhone 15 Pro onwards. We’ll see how different all the iPhone 17 series are once they are released in September.
