This is why Apple Intelligence only works on the iPhone 15 Pro (Max)

With iOS 18, Apple Intelligence comes to your iPhone, but only works on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple explains why that is the case.

Apple Intelligence only on iPhone 15 Pro (Max)

With the arrival of iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, Apple is introducing a new personalized AI experience: Apple Intelligence. Unfortunately, for these new AI features on an iPhone, you need the 15 Pro or the 15 Pro Max. For Macs and iPads, a model with an M1 chip or newer is sufficient. Many people wonder what the reason for these restrictions is.

In ‘The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2024’ John Gruber stated Daring Fireball this question to Apple employees John Giannandrea, Greg Joswiak and Craig Federighi. You can watch the video of this talk show below:

A17 Pro chip and 8 GB RAM

Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said the first thing Apple does with any new feature is figure out how well it works on older devices. In the case of Apple Intelligence, he believes this is the hardware required for it. He added that running such powerful models on an iPhone is pretty special.

The iPhone 15 Pro models have the A17 Pro chip. This chip has a 16-core Neural Engine that is up to two times faster than the A16 chip in the iPhone 15 (Plus) and performs almost 35 trillion operations per second. Federighi hinted that the amount of RAM is also important for the new AI features. So it may not be a coincidence that all devices compatible with Apple Intelligence have at least 8 GB of RAM.

Despite this limitation, if you have an older iPhone you still have plenty to look forward to in iOS 18. In addition to Apple Intelligence, there are several new features, and any iPhone that can run iOS 17 is compatible with iOS 18. This also applies to the iPhone XR from 2018.

If you want to use Apple Intelligence but don’t have an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, you might want to wait for the iPhone 16 series. It is expected to be launched in September, when iOS 18 will also become available.

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