Apple has long been rumoured to postpone the launch of iPhone 18 and bring it alongside the iPhone 18e next year. However, a new report has given us a peek at what could be the big updates coming to the base Apple flagship. As per analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will launhc iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e in the market next spring. The bigger news that Kuo gave, however, was that both the phones are set to get a RAM upgrade and could come with 9GB of RAM with 1.5GB × 6 dies and up from the 8GB (2GB × 4 dies) that came with their predecessor. While the RAM implementation seems unusual, if this arrangement turns out to be true, it will still mark an upgrade for the iPhone 18 and 18e who will both be able to run Apple Intelligence tasks more smoothly. These phones are said to run on the A20 chipset based on 2nm process. Kuo also noted that the three iPhones launching in September: iPhone 18 Pro, iPHone 18 Pro Max and iPhone Ultra/Fold will all come with A20 Pro chipset which previous leaks suggest could bring in as much as 15 percent faster performance and 30% efficiency gains. Additionally, Kuo also noted that iOS 27 will be bringing ‘tighter system-level integration with Apple Intelligence.’ Notably, the latest version of iOS was recently unveiled by Apple at the company's WWDC 2026 conference in early June along with many big upgrades including a revamped Siri, AI powered features in Camera and Photos app, a dedicated Siri chatbot app and many others. Many of the new AI features did run on-device as well which requires not only a powerful processor but also ample amount of RAM. Apple confirmed after the WWDC keynote that some of the advanced on-device AI features will require minimum 12GB of RAM which means while they should run fine on even the iPhone 17 Pro models and the upcoming iPHones in September, the standard iPhone 17 does not support running them and even its successor may not. The iPHone 18 could come with the same dimensions for the display but the standard iPhone could get a slimmer Dynamic Island that we could first see with the iPHone 18 Pro models in September. Moreover, Apple is also tipped to bring a brighter display on the iPhone 18. The iPhone 18 lineup is rumoured to feature Apple's second-generation C2 modem with support for faster mmWave 5G connectivity. The modem is also expected to support the company's privacy-focused Limit Precise Location feature, allowing users to reduce the amount of location information shared with mobile carriers. In terms of optics, Apple could upgrade the selfie camera on iPhone 18 and bring it to a 24MP sensor. Meanwhile, Apple could simplify the Camera Control button on the standard iPhone 18 by removing capacitive touch support and relying solely on pressure sensing. Report also suggest that iPhone 18 could use a lower-spec display, a version of the A20 chip with fewer GPU cores and share more components with the iPhone 18e in order to keep the manufacturing costs in check.
