Apple at one point planned to put 16GB of RAM in the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo, according to a new leak. The two iPhone 18 Pro models that reached stores in September have 12GB instead, and the iPhone Duo is expected to match them.
The claim comes from the Weibo leaker known as Instant Digital. The post is brief and does not say when Apple considered the larger capacity. Apple has not published a RAM figure for any of the three phones.
Xcode 27 data has already settled what shipped. It put the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at 12GB each, the same as the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. The iPhone Duo was not in that data yet, so its 12GB figure is still an expectation.
Jeff Pu Predicted 12GB for All Three Phones Back in January
Analyst Jeff Pu said in January that the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the foldable would each get 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. That put the three phones on the same memory as last year’s Pro models. The 16GB number from Instant Digital sits above everything in the table below.
| Model | RAM | Starting price (US) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 17 Pro | 12GB | $1,099 | On sale |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | 12GB | $1,199 | On sale |
| iPhone 18 Pro | 12GB | $1,199 | Confirmed through Xcode 27 |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | 12GB | $1,299 | Confirmed through Xcode 27 |
| iPhone Duo | 12GB | $1,999 | Expected, not yet in Xcode |
Memory Costs Have Been Squeezing Apple’s Hardware Plans All Year
Neither the leaker nor Apple has explained the gap between 16GB and 12GB. Memory pricing has shaped Apple’s decisions through 2026, though, and the record is long. Here is what has been reported and announced so far.
- Tim Cook told a newspaper in June that price increases were unavoidable because of memory and storage chip costs.
- Apple then raised prices across the Mac and iPad lineups, with the Mac Studio with M3 Ultra climbing by $1,300.
- Analyst Tim Culpan reported that about $1 billion worth of Apple processors were sitting idle at TSMC while waiting for mobile DRAM.
- Ming-Chi Kuo disputed the size of that stockpile but agreed the shortage is real, saying tight DRAM supply was already affecting Apple’s hardware plans.
- Apple priced the iPhone 18 Pro at $1,199 and the iPhone 18 Pro Max at $1,299, each $100 above the iPhone 17 Pro models they replace.
Apple Cites Memory Bandwidth for the A20 Pro and Leaves the RAM Number Off
Apple says the A20 Pro delivers 50 percent more unified memory bandwidth and is built on a 2-nanometer process. The chip also carries a new Dual 16-core Neural Engine that Apple says offers 2x the compute power for on-device AI models. Apple does not list a RAM capacity for any of the three phones.
The iPhone Duo adds multitasking that no other iPhone has. Apple says it is the first iPhone to run two apps side by side in Split View, and it can also open two windows of the same app or keep a Siri AI conversation running next to other content. Our iPhone Duo rundown covers the full feature list.
Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo open on October 16 at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, and the phone arrives on October 23 starting at $1,999 in the US. The iPhone Duo pre-order guide has the full price list by storage tier.
