/ Pro models still arrive this September
Liam Ortiz is a tech journalist who covers AI related big tech and breaking news at TheTweaks. Before joining TheTweaks he worked for almost four years in corporate and national tech news in different companies. Few are quick but Liam is quicker, he breaks news before anyone else and that makes her special. His passion is somewhere connected with profession as his hobby is watching documentary movies.
After close to two decades of releasing iPhones exclusively during September, Apple is about to split the release date of the upcoming iPhone 18 line of handsets. Multiple reports coming from the supply chain indicate that the release date of the iPhone 18 will be divided into two windows. The top-end iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the first-ever foldable iPhone offered by the tech giant will still see the light of day in September 2026. However, the standard iPhone 18 and the budget iPhone 18e will debut closer to spring 2027 along with the second-gen iPhone Air.
That makes for roughly six months of separation between the most expensive and the most affordable offerings – the largest such gap since the inception of modern iPhones.
The easy answer would be clutter. Apple’s lineup of smartphones has been quietly growing from a mere four variants in 2023 to as many as six by the end of 2026 thanks to the addition of the foldable. Including all six devices into one keynote event risks overshadowing the standard model with the headlines regarding the foldable as well as burying the foldable itself under the buzz about regular updates.
There is, however, another aspect of the issue which isn’t discussed very often. Suppliers of components are said to note the delayed schedule as the best way to avoid a rush when manufacturing different models using new chassis, camera modules, and chipsets. (Geeky Gadgets)
Here’s the aspect of the story which goes overlooked most of the time: this delay may determine who ends up getting left behind when it comes to Apple’s plans of pushing the on-device AI experience.
According to the rumors about the early builds of iOS 27, the next operating system of Apple requires at least 12GB of RAM in order to work with the full suite of on-device AI tools, including running the local large language model processing. That’s a pretty significant difference from previous generations. At the same time, the leaks concerning the delayed standard iPhone 18 indicate that it will offer only 9GB of RAM – enough for multitasking, but possibly not enough for the AI tools of the new generation.
That means that unless Apple changes the plans in the future, anyone hoping to avoid the pro level and get the complete AI experience might face problems. The standard iPhone 18 might come as the phone which is in almost every way newer than the iPhone 17 – except for having no access to what Apple is betting the entire software experience on. And that would make the iPhone 18 Pro the premium product and the only product able to run Apple’s AI experience for a year and a half at the very least.
Speaking of design, the standard iPhone 18 will reportedly feature the smaller and more compact Dynamic Island and repositioned front camera for a better screen layout. Among colors, leaks mention the following options: red, burgundy, purple, and brown – definitely a more vivid range than the recent generations. As for hardware, we are talking about Apple’s A20 chip on a 2nm process, 24MP front camera, expanded satellite connectivity, with 256GB of base storage.
The iPhone 18 Pro will feature the same A20, but this time in Pro version – meaning that early adopters will get some sort of performance and efficiency benefits regardless of the AI memory problem.
The most problematic aspect of the split may turn out to be the pricing. Since both the standard iPhone 18 and the budget oriented e-version aren’t expected to appear in the September lineup, all new iPhones released this September will start at over $999. Buyers who tend to grab the base iPhone at a discount during holidays won’t have any options aside from buying the older iPhone 17 family or paying Pro-level price for something new.
On the bright side, the reports suggest that the standard iPhone 18 will keep the current price while it debuts in spring 2027 – although Pro prices will also go up. For those who can afford to wait six more months, that’s an incentive – provided that the AI memory limit doesn’t kill the attractiveness of the phone.
In conclusion, the split of Apple’s release date for the iPhone 18 family isn’t about giving the standard model “more polish” as it is usually stated. Instead, it seems that Apple is trying to manage its overly crowded lineup and, more importantly, who can use its AI capabilities first. If the 9GB RAM limit of the standard iPhone 18 will persist, it will mean that Apple is splitting its customers not just for this product, but also for the future AI experience.
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