This may look like an excellent time to purchase a brand new iPhone. Apple’s obtained boosted trade-in values for the following couple of weeks, and there are many spring service offers nonetheless happening. Plus rumors concerning the iPhone 16 coming this fall make it sound like a comparatively minor improve, whereas the iPhone 17 late in 2025 appears extra like an enormous overhaul (maybe even a seismic shift, iPhone X-style).
However if you need our recommendation, we predict it is best to nonetheless wait. WWDC is lower than 2 weeks away and it’s nearly sure to offer essential data that informs your iPhone shopping for choice.
iOS 18 might change greater than typical
Yearly when Apple takes the wraps off its new iOS at WWDC, we study of a variety of cool new options coming to our iPhones within the fall. However whenever you learn the advantageous print, you’ll see among the cool new options don’t work with older iPhones. With iOS 16, for instance, you wanted a telephone with an A12 Bionic processor or newer to make use of options like lifting topics from images, deciding on textual content in photos, and many of the locally-processed Siri options.
Foundry
We count on a variety of massive modifications in iOS 18, together with interface enhancements and several other spectacular new options, however the massive focus goes to be on AI. Usually, any iPhone made in the previous couple of years will get all the brand new iOS options, with solely the oldest telephones lacking out. However the push to extra AI might change all that, as AI options can have some fairly steep {hardware} necessities. It’s probably that Apple limits some options to very new fashions—and attainable that the most effective options will solely work on the iPhone 16.
And that’s an important cause to attend to purchase an iPhone till we all know which cool new AI options coming to iOS 18 will work on which iPhones. You don’t need to purchase an iPhone 14 or SE solely to study that some actually cool characteristic requires an A16 processor.
AI {hardware} necessities are steep
Apple has been transport AI {hardware} in its iPhones for years. The Neural Engine first appeared within the A11 Bionic chip, means again in 2017 (iPhone 8 and iPhone X), although it might “only” carry out 600 billion operations per second and didn’t actually do a lot. However it’s gotten much more highly effective and obligatory over time.
It took an enormous leap to five trillion operations per second (TOPS) within the A12. The subsequent massive leap was to 11 TOPS within the A14, then over 15 TOPS in A15, and now 35 TOPS within the A17 Professional. However the A17 Professional is just discovered within the iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max. The iPhone 15 has the A16, whose Neural Engine is just half as quick, in accordance with Apple.
The A17 Professional is just within the iPhone 15 Professional fashions, which implies some AI options may not be accessible on telephones lower than a yr outdated.
Apple
Then there’s the matter of RAM. Generative AI fashions like massive language fashions (LLMs) and diffusion fashions are notoriously enormous and use a variety of RAM. Most iPhones don’t have a variety of RAM to start with, and you should have sufficient left over for functions even when an AI mannequin is getting used.
Each iPhone that can help iOS 18 as much as and together with the iPhone 13, has solely 4GB of RAM. The iPhone 13 Professional, iPhone 14 (common and Professional), and iPhone 15 have 6GB of RAM. Solely the iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max have 8GB of RAM. So, it’s fairly attainable that there will likely be some iOS 18 options that solely work on iPhones with a sooner Neural Engine or 6GB of RAM, and there could also be some that require the iPhone 15 Professional simply because it’s obtained 8GB of RAM and a a lot sooner Neural Engine.
In the event you’re trying to get a brand new iPhone that can final you a number of years, that’s an enormous consideration. Chances are you’ll not want to spend a whole bunch extra on the newest Professional mannequin, however purchase a cheaper mannequin at this time and there’s an excellent probability you’ll be shut out of the cool new AI options coming this fall.
So it’s greatest to attend till no less than WWDC on June 10 when Apple takes the wraps off iOS 18 and all its new options. Then we will dive into the advantageous print that tells us which iPhones help which options, and you can also make an knowledgeable alternative about how a lot you should spend to get the options you need.