Only 3 i Phones can access the best version of Siri AI — here’s which features are exclusive to Apple's 'most powerful on-device model', AFM Core Advanced, and whether you should care about them | Tech Radar
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Only 3 i Phones can access the best version of Siri AI — here’s which features are exclusive to Apple's 'most powerful on-device model', AFM Core Advanced, and whether you should care about them
If you've got an older i Phone, there's no need to panic... yet
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The i Phone 17 Pro (left), AFM Core Advanced logo (center), and i Phone Air (right) (Image credit: Future / Apple)
I was in charge of live-blogging WWDC 2026 earlier this week, and keeping up with Apple’s device requirements for i OS 27, Apple Intelligence, and Siri AI felt like a job for someone with a photographic memory.
All three software packages have different entry criteria (and that’s to say nothing of i Pad OS 27 and mac OS Golden Gate), so after the show, I published an i OS 27 and Siri AI compatibility explainer, which will tell you whether your i Phone can support Apple’s upcoming i OS features.
I’m not going to repeat all those device requirements here, but a big point of confusion has been the exclusivity of Apple’s "most powerful on-device model", known officially as Apple Foundation Models (AFM) Core Advanced. Only three i Phones — the i Phone 17 Pro, i Phone 17 Pro Max, and i Phone Air — have enough RAM (12GB) to access this model and, therefore, the very best version of Siri AI. But what does that mean, exactly?
The device requirements of AFM Core Advanced (Image credit: Apple)
According to Apple's press release on Siri AI, the two features exclusive to AFM Core Advanced are voice customization and more advanced systemwide dictation.
The former gives you the ability to customize the expressiveness and pace of Siri’s voice — anyone with access to Siri AI can still choose from a set number of Siri voices, but you’ll need an i Phone 17 Pro, i Phone 17 Pro Max, and i Phone Air to make Siri speak faster, slower, and with more or less enthusiasm.
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The second feature — more advanced systemwide dictation — is arguably the more significant. It essentially means those top-end i Phones are more effective at converting speech into accurate text than older or less advanced i Phones. This updated dictation engine "automatically handles capitalization, punctuation, and formatting as [you] speak," Apple says, meaning you can "speak naturally and trust that [your] words will appear clearly, accurately, and as intended".
To be clear, this doesn’t mean that if you own, say, an i Phone 15 Pro, your Siri will be incapable of converting speech into text. Yes, Siri has been awful at doing just that in the past — anyone who’s tried to send a message using Car Play will know what I'm talking about — but my understanding is that Siri AI, in being an entirely new version of Siri, will bring improved dictation at a foundational level (i.e. to all compatible i Phones).
But for those who rely on dictation to send messages or navigate their i Phone hands-free, the difference in dictation capabilities between the best i Phones and older models may be more consequential.
Apple's Craig Federighi explaining the architecture behind Siri at WWDC 2026 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)
At this point, it’s not entirely clear whether Apple’s AFM Core Advanced model will also result in noticeably faster query resolution for the i Phones equipped with it. Dictation is not the same as interpretation — Apple has only said that these i Phones will be better at the former, not the latter.
But given that AFM Core Advanced is a 20-billion-parameter model that only exists on i Phones with 12GB of RAM, it figures that these i Phones will be able to perform AI tasks more quickly than those equipped with Apple’s 3-billion-parameter AFM Core model and only 8GB of RAM.
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Incidentally, more RAM also facilitates faster app loading and more seamless switching between apps, though the differences between i Phones on those fronts are already negligible (the i Phone 15 Pro feels just as fast to navigate as the i Phone Air, for instance). What's more, i OS 27 is making app loading and switching faster for all compatible i Phones, so having more or less RAM isn't a cause for concern outside of AI.
At the moment, then, it looks like owners of the i Phone 17 Pro, i Phone 17 Pro Max, and i Phone Air are simply getting a more customizable Siri, and one more capable of converting speech into text.
That’s not ideal for i Phone 16 Pro or i Phone 17 users who thought they were buying a phone “built for Apple Intelligence” — lawyers at the ready! — but these i Phones are capable of running all the Apple Intelligence features revealed at the software’s announcement in 2024 (so, actually, put down your pitchforks).
I THOUGHT THE IPHONE 16 WAS BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP FOR AI? Apple not supporting everything on their less than 2 year old AI devices is insane. https://t.co/u Uz 3p FYt Z7 June 8, 2026
I THOUGHT THE IPHONE 16 WAS BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP FOR AI? Apple not supporting everything on their less than 2 year old AI devices is insane. https://t.co/u Uz 3p FYt Z7 June 8, 2026
Of course, in classic marketing fashion, Apple’s small print on the matter leaves the door ajar for more features to be made exclusive to the AFM Core Advanced model: “Apple’s most powerful on-device model and the features it enables, like expressive voices and more advanced dictation, are available on…,” reads the press release. ‘Like’ is the operative word there — more hardware-exclusive features are surely coming down the line, ones which require more compute power than Apple’s base AFM Core model can provide.
But for the moment, I do think the furore is a little overblown. If you own an Apple Intelligence-compatible i Phone, you’re getting all but two of the features announced at WWDC 2026.
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Axel is Tech Radar's Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site's Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and Four Four Two, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion.
Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining Tech Radar in 2020, where he earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.
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