Samsung Galaxy S26 Series Said to Offer More RAM; iPhone 17 Lineup May Get 12GB RAM

Samsung's Galaxy S26 series is still months away from a potential launch, but a new leak suggests some key hardware upgrades on the devices. The flagship lineup, which is expected to include the vanilla Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26 Ultra, is said to pack more RAM than their predecessors. The RAM upgrade is likely to handle all the improved and Galaxy AI features that are expected to be available with the new lineup. The leak also hints at the RAM details of the iPhone 17 series.

New Samsung Galaxy S26 Series Leak Suggests RAM Upgrade

Tipster Jukan Choi (@Jukanlosreve), citing data from Macquarie Research, states that next year's Galaxy S26 series will pack 16GB of RAM. The new leak indicates that the upcoming Galaxy S series might be available in a 16GB RAM option in all markets. This would mark an upgrade over the existing Galaxy S25 series.

In the current lineup, only the Galaxy S25 Ultra offers 16GB of RAM in select markets, such as Korea and China. The vanilla Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+ pack 12GB of RAM.

Further, the tipster claims that Apple will offer 12GB RAM option in its iPhone 17 series this year. The lineup, which is expected to include vanilla iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max, could go official in September this year. This would be an improvement over the 8GB RAM in the current iPhone 16 models. Next year's iPhone 18 series is said to stick with 12GB.

The rumoured memory upgrade in the Galaxy S26 series could contribute to better performance of  Galaxy AI-powered features as well as multitasking, and gaming. This would allow Samsung to reinforce its position in the highly competitive smartphone space, especially against Chinese smartphone brands, many of which already offer smartphones with up to 24GB of RAM. Handsets like the OnePlus 13 and the Red Magic 10 Pro series are sold with up to 24GB RAM.