The iOS 27 operating system officially debuted at WWDC 2026 with upgraded Apple Intelligence features, but it appears that iPhone 17 owners may not be able to access some advanced AI capabilities.
Back in June 2024, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence on iOS 18 with strict hardware requirements, supporting only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models.
This decision excluded the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus from AI feature access, surprising many since Apple usually supports software on older devices.
However, many expected this to be temporary because the initial on-device AI system required a minimum of 8GB RAM, causing standard models with lower specs to miss out.
Now, with iOS 27, a similar situation is happening again: Apple has introduced new AI features that the latest standard model, iPhone 17, cannot support. Two key features unavailable on the iPhone 17 are the iOS 27 on-device AI model and the new AI-based Siri voice customization.
The main reason remains RAM capacity: the standard model has only 8GB RAM, while the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max have 12GB RAM. This likely also affects iPad and Mac devices, which need at least 12GB RAM to use these features.
.source:9to5Mac