The Pixel 9 phones deliver a big RAM boost tied to Gemini Nano on-device AI processing. Is that bad news for the iPhone 16?
The Pixel 9 phones have finally graduated from rumors to actual products that you can preorder online. But the rumors were all correct. Google gave the Pixel 9 phones several important upgrades, including one I speculated about weeks ago: Google boosted the RAM of all the new Pixel phones significantly compared to their predecessors.
Not only that, but Google confirmed that some of that RAM is exclusively tied to AI processes. Considering the rumors about the iPhone 16 floating around at the moment, this detail has me worried about Apple’s upcoming iPhones.
I never had any issue with the iPhone not rocking as much RAM as its direct Android rivals. iOS was always optimized to run on more limited resources. Apple gradually increased the amount of memory on its devices over the years, reaching 8GB with the iPhone 15 Pro models.
Apple announced at WWDC that Apple Intelligence would only run on the iPhone 15 Pros. All other current devices aren’t capable of processing Apple AI. I speculated at the time that Apple might need at least 8GB of RAM on its products for Apple Intelligence. Apple later confirmed this detail, though it stressed that the Neural Engine was the key component for Apple Intelligence.
