This may seem to be an excellent time to purchase a brand new iPhone. Apple’s received boosted trade-in values for the subsequent couple of weeks, and there are many spring service offers nonetheless occurring. 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 the massive overhaul we’ve been ready for—even perhaps a seismic shift, iPhone X-style.
However if you would like our recommendation, we predict you need to nonetheless wait. WWDC is Monday and it’s nearly sure to supply essential info that informs your iPhone shopping for determination.
iOS 18 could change greater than standard
Yearly when Apple takes the wraps off its new iOS at WWDC, we study of loads of cool new options coming to our iPhones within the fall. However whenever you learn the wonderful print, you’ll see a few of the cool new options don’t work with older iPhones. With iOS 16, for instance, you wanted a cellphone 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.
iOS 16 required an iPhone XS or later to make use of a few of its greatest options.
Foundry
We anticipate loads of large adjustments in iOS 18, together with interface enhancements and a number of other spectacular new options, however the large 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 could change all that, as AI options can have some fairly steep {hardware} necessities. It’s possible that Apple limits some options to very new fashions—and doable that the most effective options will solely work on the iPhone 16.
In actual fact, a report this week claims that the AI options might be restricted to the iPhone 15 Professional fashions and later, which suggests you may be shopping for an outdated cellphone even in the event you get a brand new iPhone 15. And that’s an awesome 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 function requires an A17 Professional processor.
AI {hardware} necessities are steep
Apple has been delivery AI {hardware} in its iPhones for years. The Neural Engine first appeared within the A11 Bionic chip, method 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. Nevertheless it’s gotten much more highly effective and essential over time.
It took an enormous leap to five trillion operations per second (TOPS) within the A12. The subsequent large 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 simply discovered within the iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max. The iPhone 15 has the A16, whose Neural Engine is simply half as quick, based on Apple.
The A17 Professional is simply within the iPhone 15 Professional fashions, which suggests some AI options may not be obtainable on telephones lower than a yr previous.
Apple
Then there’s the matter of RAM. Generative AI fashions like massive language fashions (LLMs) and diffusion fashions are notoriously large and use loads of RAM. Most iPhones don’t have loads of RAM to start with, and you could have sufficient left over for purposes 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 doable that there might 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 received 8GB of RAM and a a lot sooner Neural Engine.
Should you’re trying to get a brand new iPhone that can final you a number of years, that’s an enormous consideration. You might not want to spend lots of extra on the most recent Professional mannequin, however purchase a inexpensive mannequin right this moment 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 not less than WWDC on Monday when Apple takes the wraps off iOS 18 and all its new options. Then we are able to dive into the wonderful print that tells us which iPhones help which options, and you can also make an knowledgeable selection about how a lot you could spend to get the options you need.