TECH NEWS – While Apple is rumored to be cutting back on RAM, the opposite is being said about the South Korean giant.

Samsung faced heavy criticism for the underwhelming specs of the Galaxy S24 lineup, which eventually led the company to offer 12 GB of RAM as standard in the Galaxy S25 models. The Galaxy S25 Ultra was the only variant with 16 GB of RAM, available only in Korea, China, and Taiwan. With AI features becoming more common, memory demand is on the rise—prompting one research firm to predict that Samsung will equip the Galaxy S26 series with 16 GB of RAM worldwide in 2026.

According to Macquarie Research, the 2026 Galaxy models will come with 16 GB of RAM, and this has also been corroborated by insider Jukanlosreve. If true, this would place Samsung ahead of Chinese rivals that continue to push the limits of flagship specs. With 16 GB of memory, even the base model can support more AI-driven features, run more apps in the background, and offer smoother multitasking.

Macquarie expects that the RAM capacity of the Galaxy S series will increase to 16GB in 2026.

Meanwhile, the iPhone’s RAM is expected to rise to 12GB in 2025, but remain at 12GB in 2026 as well. pic.twitter.com/bz26rbTYQR

— Jukan Choi (@Jukanlosreve) June 23, 2025

As for Apple, the research firm expects no RAM increase: the iPhone 17 will reportedly remain at 12 GB, with the base model capped at just 8 GB. This could give Samsung a lead. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from TF International Securities even speculated that the entire iPhone 18 range will feature 12 GB of RAM—including the base variant.

Generative AI appears to be pushing smartphone manufacturers to upgrade their hardware more seriously. The added RAM in the Samsung Galaxy S26 lineup may also contribute to stronger quarterly sales figures in the future.

Source: WCCFTech