5 ms·

Any info about the amount of RAM? They should've bumped it to 2GB. No words about it during presentation, not a single mention in tech specs on apple.com site.

Any info about the amount of RAM? They should've bumped it to 2GB. No words about it during presentation, not a single mention in tech specs on apple.com site. If this new iPad still has 1GB of RAM, it's a dealbreaker for me. Lack of RAM causes Safari to reload webpages from inactive tabs, which is a HUGE flaw. It really hurts websurfing experience and I think websurfing is one of the primary purposes of iPad.

blinkingled 12y ago
Yeah, no mention of it anywhere - not even indirect. It really is a problem for majority of the people trying to get things done with it. I got a Note 2014 edition with 3GB RAM and though there were initial software hiccups I have stuck with it - rarely do my Chrome tabs reload, background audio die or my RDP session end randomly. Alt+Tab and everything is instantly there. With the latest updates it has become quite smooth - I would say better than the iPad with simple tweaks. Plus I have a uSD slot to throw my music on. If you are looking for even a semi replacement laptop - you could do much better with Android tablets - Note or Nexus 9 if you prefer stock and don't need the stylus.
IkmoIkmo 12y ago
Agreed, web reading is a huge usecase for me, the biggest one by far, and the one in which I'm most bothered by performance changes. I couldn't care less to get a few frames faster or -5s loading times on some game, or shooting faster photos with my camera on a tablet. I care about browsing, and I have exactly the same issue with reloading webpages. In fact, it's why I use safari over Chrome because Chrome is much worse for me in that regard, despite using Chrome for everything else on every other device and disliking Safari generally. But it's the least bad with having to reload webpages.
swang 12y ago
This was a huge problem on the original iPad. I still don't understand why Apple skimps on the RAM.
- awolf 12y ago
  Less RAM more battery life. Less RAM bigger margins. Two pretty good reasons.
  - 2510c39011c5 12y ago
    I am not sure if a single stick of 2GB DDR3 RAM would consume much more power than a sinlge stick of 1GB RAM...At least on a PC, the difference seems to be negligible (such as indicated in http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-components.html http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-compon...)... Assuming ipad Air 2 has roughly the same power consumption as Air 1 (32.5 w), even if 2GB memory consumes twice the power than 1GB (on PC a DDR3 stick, which has much greater capacity, would be 2~3 w), comparing to the power consumption of CPU and screen, still the power consumed by memory is only a small fraction of the whole... Well, I am not quite familiar with this energy aspect...Perhaps some experts here could provide more insight or pointers?
    - ema 12y ago
      When the iPad is just laying around you can turn of the screen, the cpu, and the gpu, you can't turn of the ram. So while the power consumption of the ram might be negligible when the iPad is in use, it might be the majority when it isn't. So for usecases where the iPad is only used for a few minutes every hour double the ram might cut the battery lifetime by a third. Also I'm pretty sure the 32.5 watt power consumption represents the maximum, otherwise that thing would overheat without a fan.
      - 2510c39011c5 12y ago
        Yes, I agree that even if every other component is put into sleep, the memory would still drains the energy; and no matter how slow that process is, if not recharged, there will be a time the battery finally runs out. But the thing is, it looks like there is not much difference between a single stick of 1GB RAM and a single stick of 2GB RAM in terms of the power consumption rate. This is indicated in this article http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-components.html http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-compon... ; well, it's for desktop RAM but I would assume tablet RAM will behave similarly, as seen from other tablets that upgraded from 1GB to 2GB. From the user experience perspective, if there is no noticeable penalty -- the physical size and the power consumption are the same for 1GB and 2GB RAM, then why not just put in the one with larger capacity, for a better user experience? (and possibly much better for those of heavy multitasking tendency). Is that because 2GB is much more expensive than 1GB, for tablet RAM? I could not find any tablet RAM price information through googling -- it's not for retail to individual consumer but only sold in batch to manufacturers...
2510c39011c5 12y ago
After a quick search, it seems that Air 2 still has 1GB of RAM http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/comparison/213211f3b http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/comparison/213211f3b http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-iPad-Air-2-vs-Google-Nexus-9-in-depth-specs-comparison_id61810 http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-iPad-Air-2-vs-Google-Ne... If more apps on Air 2 are 64-bit than on Air 1, the memory consumption with Air 2 would be more than that with Air 1. In case the RAM size stays the same, Air 2 could see more page-in/page-out, especially when you keep lots of chrome tabs open or other tasks on... But perhaps different user groups have different usage patterns that fit different hardware configuration, and Apple might know it very well...

blinkingled 12y ago

Yeah, no mention of it anywhere - not even indirect. It really is a problem for majority of the people trying to get things done with it. I got a Note 2014 edition with 3GB RAM and though there were initial software hiccups I have stuck with it - rarely do my Chrome tabs reload, background audio die or my RDP session end randomly. Alt+Tab and everything is instantly there. With the latest updates it has become quite smooth - I would say better than the iPad with simple tweaks. Plus I have a uSD slot to throw my music on. If you are looking for even a semi replacement laptop - you could do much better with Android tablets - Note or Nexus 9 if you prefer stock and don't need the stylus.

IkmoIkmo 12y ago

Agreed, web reading is a huge usecase for me, the biggest one by far, and the one in which I'm most bothered by performance changes. I couldn't care less to get a few frames faster or -5s loading times on some game, or shooting faster photos with my camera on a tablet. I care about browsing, and I have exactly the same issue with reloading webpages. In fact, it's why I use safari over Chrome because Chrome is much worse for me in that regard, despite using Chrome for everything else on every other device and disliking Safari generally. But it's the least bad with having to reload webpages.

swang 12y ago

This was a huge problem on the original iPad. I still don't understand why Apple skimps on the RAM.

awolf 12y ago
Less RAM more battery life. Less RAM bigger margins. Two pretty good reasons.
- 2510c39011c5 12y ago
  I am not sure if a single stick of 2GB DDR3 RAM would consume much more power than a sinlge stick of 1GB RAM...At least on a PC, the difference seems to be negligible (such as indicated in http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-components.html http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-compon...)... Assuming ipad Air 2 has roughly the same power consumption as Air 1 (32.5 w), even if 2GB memory consumes twice the power than 1GB (on PC a DDR3 stick, which has much greater capacity, would be 2~3 w), comparing to the power consumption of CPU and screen, still the power consumed by memory is only a small fraction of the whole... Well, I am not quite familiar with this energy aspect...Perhaps some experts here could provide more insight or pointers?
  - ema 12y ago
    When the iPad is just laying around you can turn of the screen, the cpu, and the gpu, you can't turn of the ram. So while the power consumption of the ram might be negligible when the iPad is in use, it might be the majority when it isn't. So for usecases where the iPad is only used for a few minutes every hour double the ram might cut the battery lifetime by a third. Also I'm pretty sure the 32.5 watt power consumption represents the maximum, otherwise that thing would overheat without a fan.
    - 2510c39011c5 12y ago
      Yes, I agree that even if every other component is put into sleep, the memory would still drains the energy; and no matter how slow that process is, if not recharged, there will be a time the battery finally runs out. But the thing is, it looks like there is not much difference between a single stick of 1GB RAM and a single stick of 2GB RAM in terms of the power consumption rate. This is indicated in this article http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-components.html http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-compon... ; well, it's for desktop RAM but I would assume tablet RAM will behave similarly, as seen from other tablets that upgraded from 1GB to 2GB. From the user experience perspective, if there is no noticeable penalty -- the physical size and the power consumption are the same for 1GB and 2GB RAM, then why not just put in the one with larger capacity, for a better user experience? (and possibly much better for those of heavy multitasking tendency). Is that because 2GB is much more expensive than 1GB, for tablet RAM? I could not find any tablet RAM price information through googling -- it's not for retail to individual consumer but only sold in batch to manufacturers...

2510c39011c5 12y ago

After a quick search, it seems that Air 2 still has 1GB of RAM http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/comparison/213211f3b http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/comparison/213211f3b http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-iPad-Air-2-vs-Google-Nexus-9-in-depth-specs-comparison_id61810 http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-iPad-Air-2-vs-Google-Ne... If more apps on Air 2 are 64-bit than on Air 1, the memory consumption with Air 2 would be more than that with Air 1. In case the RAM size stays the same, Air 2 could see more page-in/page-out, especially when you keep lots of chrome tabs open or other tasks on... But perhaps different user groups have different usage patterns that fit different hardware configuration, and Apple might know it very well...