Don’t expect 4GB of RAM in the iPhone 8

If you were hoping for a jump from 3GB of RAM in the iPhone 7 Plus to 4GB in the iPhone 8 you might be out of luck.

Analysts are predicting that the much-rumored 5.8-inch OLED iPhone (possibly called the iPhone 8) will stick with 3GB of RAM, while the 5.5-inch iPhone 7S Plus will also apparently have 3GB and the 4.7-inch iPhone 7S will have just 2GB – the same amount as the iPhone 7.

That claim comes from TrendForce, which says there has been a “sharp upswing in prices” of mobile DRAM, and that this is in turn expected to hold back the growth of RAM in smartphones.

There’s also apparently a “tight supply situation” in the mobile DRAM market, and these two factors combined leads TrendForce to believe that the upcoming iPhones will have no more than 3GB of RAM, in order for Apple to maintain its typical annual iPhone shipments of over 200 million units, with 4GB models not expected before 2018.

Makes a lot of sense

While this is just an expectation for now, it does sound believable. Rising RAM prices will be affecting other companies too and could be why, for example, Samsung didn’t increase the RAM for the Galaxy S8.

It’s also not the first time we’ve heard that the iPhone 8 will have just 3GB of RAM, with an earlier analyst note saying that all three 2017 models will come with 3GB of RAM.

We still wouldn’t count a RAM raise out for now, but even if the iPhone 8 does have ‘only’ 3GB that shouldn’t be a problem, since Apple’s handsets are consistently among the best performing regardless of on-paper specs.