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Is 1GB Of RAM Is Disastrous?

K

Konvictz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 25, 2014
182
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I will be getting the iphone 6, 5.5 inch. But I have heard many reports and many people saying it will have 1gb of ram.

I didnt realise this was an issue until people brought up that their tabs keep needing to refresh and I realised yes that is true so would it not be better if we had 2 gb? Of course iOS is very optimised but there is only so much you can do software wise.

So yes I will be getting the iphone 6 but look the galaxy note 4 has just been announced for release, which has 3gb of ram. I mean this phone is the direct competition of iphone, and has 3 times more ram, allegedly.

Obviously the iphone 6 hardware design is fixed now nothing can be done. But its true hardware wise apple are already behind with the big screen, and thick bezels, but the ram is probably a bigger issue.
 
If the 5.5" has a rumored resolution that's higher than the iPads it'll definitely need 2gb at least. My retina mini struggles with 2-3 tabs if that :(
 
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No, it wouldn't be disastrous. My 5S and my iPad Air run amazingly. They're precision machines that do not disappoint when it comes to performance.

Do browser tabs refresh sometimes? Of course. So what. I don't fill out long, heavy forms with my browser on my phone. If I ever do, I'll select/copy my text before swapping to another tab/app, but really, for heavy work that like, I tend to use my rMBP.

Right now, safari on my 5S has 15 tabs open. This is pretty typical for me. My iPad Air has 8 .. that's a bit low, but I recently closed out a bunch of tabs on it.

If the 6 has 1GB of RAM, there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth by people that like big numbers, but I'm quite certain it'll be a performance powerhouse. Apple's not going to release something that's falling over itself.

As for bezels ... I don't see how this is an area Apple is 'behind'. I appreciate having enough dead space around the very sensitive screen that I can hold it a variety of ways without worrying about accidentally interacting with something. I use my phone one handed constantly, and having a healthy bezel means I can keep a good grip on it (to avoid dropping it) and not worry about spurious input to the screen.

I think people forget: design decisions like this are thought about at great length at Apple. The bezels they have are not because they can't figure out how to not do them -- I think their manufacturing prowess has long since proven itself -- it's because Apple feels strongly it'll provide a better user experience for the most number of users over other options.
 
Yes, that is right. Apple has decided to cripple the new phone. As a result, the 50 million they have in production will not be sold.
 
I think 1gb of ram wouldn't be a disaster but anything but 2gb would be ridiculous in this market and given Apple's previous ram upgrade trends, and given the current limits of 1gb.
 
I wouldn't be too upset if it stayed at 1GB of RAM.

No, no, don't lynch me yet. Let me explain.

If the new iPhone and iPad are released with 2GB of RAM, app developers will update all their apps with a larger memory pool in mind. This will mean that new versions of apps will start to suck on older devices. Even mobile websites might start to suck on older devices, because they will be tested on newer iPhones and iPads with 2GB of RAM.

If the new phone and tablets are released with 1GB of RAM, the memory constraint doesn't change. The fact that the iPhone and iPad already run great with 1GB means it's not absolutely necessary to go to 2GB yet.

Yes, 2GB would be nice, but I like to look on the bright side, and staying at 1GB will mean another year that apps and mobile websites won't become more bloated.

Thank you for putting the torches and pitchforks away. :)
 
Everyone seems to think so for some reason.

I've said many many times, for the iPhone, 1GB is enough, for the iPad, it isn't, it's that simple.
 
My guess is the 4.7" iPhone Air will have 1gb but the 5.5' iPhone Pro will have 2gb which will rage many people. :cool:





:apple:
 
Oh, let me add one more thing.

This might be the reason why Apple hesitates to up memory size so much. They want a good experience for all their users even on slightly older devices. Memory is one of the most direct constraints on app development on a platform. As soon as you decide to double the available memory, developer behavior WILL change. And it's not always to add more features; devs may be more lazy about optimizing, wasting RAM when they needn't.

So Apple may actually be trying to help by keeping it at 1GB. Who knows.
 
Konvictz said:
... I didnt realise this was an issue until people brought up that their tabs keep needing to refresh and ...
Click to expand...

I bet 95% of the users out there have no freaking idea how much RAM is in their device, and don't care either.

Whining about it what this new device has or doesn't have won't change it either.
 
eoblaed said:
As for bezels ... I don't see how this is an area Apple is 'behind'. I appreciate having enough dead space around the very sensitive screen that I can hold it a variety of ways without worrying about accidentally interacting with something. I use my phone one handed constantly, and having a healthy bezel means I can keep a good grip on it (to avoid dropping it) and not worry about spurious input to the screen.

I think people forget: design decisions like this are thought about at great length at Apple. The bezels they have are not because they can't figure out how to not do them -- I think their manufacturing prowess has long since proven itself -- it's because Apple feels strongly it'll provide a better user experience for the most number of users over other options.
Click to expand...

Yes, but if other companies are doing something, Apple has to do it too or they're "behind". When Apple does something unique, it's gimmicky until other companies follow them- then it's just obvious design. :rolleyes:
 
If 1gb is indeed the size it is shameful. Whether you need it or not at least 3gb should be put in just because it can.

Funny why Apple were so keen to move to 64bit yet still cripple things by still using 1gb. They should publicly come out and explain the 1gb if it isnt a case of being greedy.

My ipad air is awful with 1gb. My android phone is poor with 3gb of ram.
 
Serious question: have the people who complain about issues with more than a few tabs opened tried using a browser other than Safari? Because I use Chrome on my phone, and while I don't usually have a lot of tabs open anyway since my phone has never been my primary device for web browsing, I haven't experienced the tab problems that others have described.
 
joeblow7777 said:
Serious question: have the people who complain about issues with more than a few tabs opened tried using a browser other than Safari? Because I use Chrome on my phone, and while I don't usually have a lot of tabs open anyway since my phone has never been my primary device for web browsing, I haven't experienced the tab problems that others have described.
Click to expand...

The tab reloading issue is much more pronounced on the new iPads. iPhones mostly load mobile sites, and even if they load a full site, the resolution is still 1136x640 which is much less than iPad's 2048x1536 (1/4 of pixels).
 
We have to remember how tightly this hardware and software is designed to work together. I'm no expert, but Apple sure does know how to stretch that 1GB of RAM, whereas Android, for example, needs much more memory to make everything run smoothly.
 
Let's not focus on spec talk.
There's many other devices with better specs and none or them can compete with how smooth, nice and great the user experience is in general with Apple devices.
 
TommyA6 said:
The tab reloading issue is much more pronounced on the new iPads. iPhones mostly load mobile sites, and even if they load a full site, the resolution is still 1136x640 which is much less than iPad's 2048x1536 (1/4 of pixels).
Click to expand...

My question remains though. Do people experience it with browsers other than Safari?
 
joeblow7777 said:
My question remains though. Do people experience it with browsers other than Safari?
Click to expand...

I use Atomic and iCab and Safari, but mostly Safari. I'm more pissed off about the fact that web sites want to force me onto a crippled mobile version of their sites instead of the full "desktop version." I get the occasional tab reloading with Safari but I don't see it as the critical problem that so many folks on these forums make it out to be.

I see more tab reloading with mobile sites than desktop sites and am convinced it is NOT a ram problem but a web page coding problem.
 
zorinlynx said:
I wouldn't be too upset if it stayed at 1GB of RAM.

No, no, don't lynch me yet. Let me explain.

If the new iPhone and iPad are released with 2GB of RAM, app developers will update all their apps with a larger memory pool in mind. This will mean that new versions of apps will start to suck on older devices. Even mobile websites might start to suck on older devices, because they will be tested on newer iPhones and iPads with 2GB of RAM.

If the new phone and tablets are released with 1GB of RAM, the memory constraint doesn't change. The fact that the iPhone and iPad already run great with 1GB means it's not absolutely necessary to go to 2GB yet.

Yes, 2GB would be nice, but I like to look on the bright side, and staying at 1GB will mean another year that apps and mobile websites won't become more bloated.

Thank you for putting the torches and pitchforks away. :)
Click to expand...

To much logic.
Were the hell did I leave my pitchfork?

But for real people this is all true and makes sense. And iOS devices work fine on 1 gb
 
Applejuiced said:
Let's not focus on spec talk.
There's many other devices with better specs and none or them can compete with how smooth, nice and great the user experience is in general with Apple devices.
Click to expand...

But plenty of them can at least keep half a dozen tabs open in a browser without needing to reload. :D

Smoothness was never my personal reason for wanting ore ram. I do more web browsing on my phone than any other device.

"Disaster" isn't a word I would use to define 1GB. But it certain is a less than desirable experience when web browsing. May not be an issue for most. I don't really know.

----------
joeblow7777 said:
My question remains though. Do people experience it with browsers other than Safari?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
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