5 ms·

It's kinda strange, honestly: 2011's state-of-the-art Android phones (Galaxy S2) had 1GB RAM, and yet Apple is still stuck on that maximum, while Android has lo

It's kinda strange, honestly: 2011's state-of-the-art Android phones (Galaxy S2) had 1GB RAM, and yet Apple is still stuck on that maximum, while Android has long moved on to 2GB on flagships. Kind of a shame :(

positr0n 12y ago
The Galaxy Note 3 has 3GB of RAM and that was released a year ago.
encoderer 12y ago
And yet they continue to pack more power into a smaller package. So how do you explain it? Ram is cheap and small. Yes it uses power but not all that much and certainly it would be worth it for a more powerful device. The only logical explanation I can come to is... more RAM won't make a meaningful impact on the experience. More ram is the cure-all on a desktop but that's not apples-to-apples.
- jayd16 12y ago
  >And yet they continue to pack more power into a smaller package. Well, not this time =p
  - macwarlock 12y ago
    The A8 is fabbed using a new 20nm process, so part of the phone is more power in a smaller package.
- EpicEng 12y ago
  >more RAM won't make a meaningful impact on the experience Except when it would, as in, the case we are discussing right now.
mwcampbell 12y ago
Perhaps Apple can afford to keep iiOS devices at 1 GB of RAM and thus save battery life because iOS uses automatic reference counting rather than garbage collection, so applications' memory high watermarks stay lower. I imagine that's what Drew Crawford would argue, anyway (see http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow/ http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow...).
- scott_karana 12y ago
  Why would they save any notable battery life? I was under the impression that RAM had only negligible differences in consumption per-module, and capacity per-module has increased dramatically. Besides, the main source of power usage is the screen.
  - mwcampbell 12y ago
    Isn't RAM more of a factor for power consumption when in standby?
    - scott_karana 12y ago
      I understand that additional RAM chips onboard would cause increased power consumption, but I am confused about why a chip with the same physical footprint and more storage would cause increased standby consumption. Does a DRAM refresh for a denser chip draw substantially more power, or something? (Legitimate question, I am obviously not an expert and I'd just love to learn more about this)
      - mwcampbell 12y ago
        I'm no expert either. Honestly, I was just guessing. I observed that Apple was sticking with 1 GB of RAM for the third iPhone model in a row, and figured there must be a good reason. But maybe they're just being cheap because they think it doesn't matter.

positr0n 12y ago

The Galaxy Note 3 has 3GB of RAM and that was released a year ago.

encoderer 12y ago

And yet they continue to pack more power into a smaller package. So how do you explain it? Ram is cheap and small. Yes it uses power but not all that much and certainly it would be worth it for a more powerful device. The only logical explanation I can come to is... more RAM won't make a meaningful impact on the experience. More ram is the cure-all on a desktop but that's not apples-to-apples.

jayd16 12y ago
>And yet they continue to pack more power into a smaller package. Well, not this time =p
- macwarlock 12y ago
  The A8 is fabbed using a new 20nm process, so part of the phone is more power in a smaller package.
EpicEng 12y ago
>more RAM won't make a meaningful impact on the experience Except when it would, as in, the case we are discussing right now.

mwcampbell 12y ago

Perhaps Apple can afford to keep iiOS devices at 1 GB of RAM and thus save battery life because iOS uses automatic reference counting rather than garbage collection, so applications' memory high watermarks stay lower. I imagine that's what Drew Crawford would argue, anyway (see http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow/ http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow...).

scott_karana 12y ago
Why would they save any notable battery life? I was under the impression that RAM had only negligible differences in consumption per-module, and capacity per-module has increased dramatically. Besides, the main source of power usage is the screen.
- mwcampbell 12y ago
  Isn't RAM more of a factor for power consumption when in standby?
  - scott_karana 12y ago
    I understand that additional RAM chips onboard would cause increased power consumption, but I am confused about why a chip with the same physical footprint and more storage would cause increased standby consumption. Does a DRAM refresh for a denser chip draw substantially more power, or something? (Legitimate question, I am obviously not an expert and I'd just love to learn more about this)
    - mwcampbell 12y ago
      I'm no expert either. Honestly, I was just guessing. I observed that Apple was sticking with 1 GB of RAM for the third iPhone model in a row, and figured there must be a good reason. But maybe they're just being cheap because they think it doesn't matter.