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Feeling the RAM crunch on iPhone 6/6 Plus devices

A

anonymous guy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 18, 2010
505
126
Full disclosure, I use an iPhone 6 Plus.

While there have been efforts made to "efficiently" manage tasks in the background, the 1GB of RAM in these devices are really starting to rear its ugly head even in limited use.

Often I only leave 3 or so applications active in the background, such as Music, Safari and a third party social app. I don't play games, so the device isn't being taxed heavily.

Even with native apps like Music, switching back to it after a few minutes of not listening to a track, the application will automatically refresh and take me back to the main artist list rather than the last track played. It seems like having more than one Safari tab open at a time is cause for refresh as well. Sometimes I will have the Google application open for a quick search, switch back to Safari or messaging for a moment, then switch back to Google and the program is already killed and restarting.

I used to carry a iPhone 5, and I didn't think that app refreshing was as aggressive during iOS 6/7. Maybe iOS could be getting too bloated for its own good, but it's looking like the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are already being hamstrung by the decision to only go with 1GB of RAM.
 
T

Timmeh8604

macrumors member
Oct 21, 2014
69
0
I too am getting frustrated with my plus as safari crashes a lot and is constantly refreshing even with one or two tabs open. Other apps reloading as well as games just ruins the smoothness of iOS.
 
T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,313
2,387
Oregon
I honestly haven't had any of these problems on my 6 plus. I will note that I rarely have more than 3 tabs open in safari, but I do switch between half a dozen different apps on a regular basis.
 
rugmankc

rugmankc

macrumors 68020
Sep 24, 2014
2,196
648
It must be individual phones.

I opened 5 new tabs with a total of 15 opened. That's counting the number of pages shown when I tap on the 2 square boxes on bottom right of screen.


No crashes and delays other than my works 1.5mb wifi--:(
 
Shanghaichica

Shanghaichica

macrumors G5
Apr 8, 2013
14,645
13,144
UK
I'm on my second 6 plus (went from 64GB to 128 GB). The first one I had for 8 days and didn't have any issues. This one I've only used for 2 full days so it's too early but so far it's been fine. I never thought that 1GB ram was an issue on my iPad air either. It runs smoothly. I rarely ever close my apps.
 
vmaniqui

vmaniqui

macrumors 6502a
Mar 8, 2013
562
1
California
Timmeh8604 said:
I too am getting frustrated with my plus as safari crashes a lot and is constantly refreshing even with one or two tabs open. Other apps reloading as well as games just ruins the smoothness of iOS.
Click to expand...

my problem with my 6+ is the blank pages when i go to the previous page. and sometimes when i am browsing, the page will just turn all white. when i press the screen so lightly, that's when it will refresh. not sure if the 6 has this issue. if not then i might, and said, i might go in that direction. what's holding me up is my carrier was kind enough to let me unlock my 6+. and now i've got an unlocked 6+.
 
C

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,155
People practically live on their phones this day in age. Even a casual user runs into the issues you are talking about which I would consider casual use (music app + social networking).

I use a 4S for work, you think 1 gb is bad try 512mb. Running pandora + maps + message app with find my friends under details I can crash springboard. Trying to use the "take photo" option in Messages.app will crash the app if I'm background task (music, GPS). I'll need to quit that stuff or use the camera app.


So when I use my 6 its like a breath of fresh air. Multitasking is light years better. Having 2 gb of RAM would be
 
Tsuchiya

Tsuchiya

macrumors 68020
Jun 7, 2008
2,310
372
I notice. It bothers me a little.

Genuinely curious why Apple just didn't up the RAM, but then a lot of the decisions made regarding the 6/6+ baffle me.
 
sunking101

sunking101

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2013
7,416
2,656
Tsuchiya said:
I notice. It bothers me a little.

Genuinely curious why Apple just didn't up the RAM, but then a lot of the decisions made regarding the 6/6+ baffle me.
Click to expand...

They (and most smartphone manufacturers) have run out of ideas. They knew that a bigger screen would be sufficient in itself to flog millions of iPhones and they've obviously worked out that more RAM next year will guarantee likewise.
Quite why the industry reviewers haven't ripped them a new bunghole over this RAM issue is another matter.
 
C

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,155
T5BRICK said:
I honestly haven't had any of these problems on my 6 plus. I will note that I rarely have more than 3 tabs open in safari, but I do switch between half a dozen different apps on a regular basis.
Click to expand...

Shanghaichica said:
I'm on my second 6 plus (went from 64GB to 128 GB). The first one I had for 8 days and didn't have any issues. This one I've only used for 2 full days so it's too early but so far it's been fine. I never thought that 1GB ram was an issue on my iPad air either. It runs smoothly. I rarely ever close my apps.
Click to expand...

Wait till later releases of iOS.

Beginning with iOS 9 there will no longer be a limitation of devs needing to code for devices with 512 mb of RAM (iPhone 4S and iPad 2). The 6 will have performance similar to the 4S as it will likely be the last iOS device with 1gb of RAM. Newer iOS devices will all have 2gb and devs will be utilizing it to the best of Apples limitations.

Currently with my 4S I can not switch from tapatalk to safari and look something up without tapatalk reloading. If I have the music app running I generally can't just switch to safari (not do anything just switch too it) and back without tapatalk reloading. These same apps could easily do that with iOS 5 and 6.

The 6 is just not very will future proofed but its the best they offer currently.
 
P

pogoyoyo

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2010
162
10
Toronto, Canada
It's no secret Apple shafted us this year, and will make a killing next year with an "s" version of both of these phones. Unfortunately I think ill be one of the people updating from a 6+ to a 6s+ because of the ram.
This phone could be so much more smooth in between app switching and animations.
 
P

PseudoPacifist

macrumors newbie
Nov 12, 2014
23
0
Oregon
pogoyoyo said:
It's no secret Apple shafted us this year, and will make a killing next year with an "s" version of both of these phones. Unfortunately I think ill be one of the people updating from a 6+ to a 6s+ because of the ram.
This phone could be so much more smooth in between app switching and animations.
Click to expand...

That's exactly where I'm at - I'm already looking forward to upgrading to the 6S Plus. Lack of RAM and UI lag is quite annoying.
 
sawah

sawah

macrumors 65816
Sep 13, 2010
1,126
686
Yeah I'm starting to get annoyed with page refreshes and lag. The page refreshes are the worst when I was in the middle of reason something and it starts me at the top :(
 
Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
1,456
Central California
pogoyoyo said:
It's no secret Apple shafted us this year, and will make a killing next year with an "s" version of both of these phones. Unfortunately I think ill be one of the people updating from a 6+ to a 6s+ because of the ram.
This phone could be so much more smooth in between app switching and animations.
Click to expand...

This is very likely going to be the case and the only significant change to the 6.

Rumor is the Apple watch and 6S are to launch in March. New iPhone 7 with 13mp camera, higher res screen and A9 chip in Oct.
 
T

thalazy

macrumors regular
Jul 6, 2012
147
24
In a van down by the river.
they got to save something for the 6s

My feeling is with the 6s they going to add 2gb ram. & will probably have the upgraded camera. Still love the phone and think it's a worthy purchase just hope I don't get too tempted if they do up the ram with the 6s to run out and buy one.
 
A

AlterZgo

macrumors regular
Mar 17, 2011
112
90
Oops. Just realized we were talking about the iPhone and I was thinking about my iPad Air 2. LOL. Nevermind.
 
Last edited:
I

Imory

macrumors 6502a
Feb 2, 2013
830
316
Wonderland
Shanghaichica said:
I'm on my second 6 plus (went from 64GB to 128 GB). The first one I had for 8 days and didn't have any issues. This one I've only used for 2 full days so it's too early but so far it's been fine. I never thought that 1GB ram was an issue on my iPad air either. It runs smoothly. I rarely ever close my apps.
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with how smoothly your phone runs. It's a result of the aggressive memory management of iOS, the larger memory footprint of 64-bit while still only maintaining 1 GB of RAM.

It's probably greed OP (don't think it would affect battery that much), because despite those claiming that Apple would fix it by software, they haven't. Respected reviewers such as Anandtech have already mentioned this issue with Safari tab reloads and ironically, the iPad Air 2 got significantly better with 2 GB of RAM. There's only so much you can do with 1 GB, unless Apple decides to change the way iOS manages memory, which I doubt.

----------
sunking101 said:
Quite why the industry reviewers haven't ripped them a new bunghole over this RAM issue is another matter.
Click to expand...

The only ones with half a brain regarding technology and specs are Anandtech and perhaps Ars Technica, and I do think they went too easy on Apple, but they did mention it in their review.

----------
pogoyoyo said:
This phone could be so much more smooth in between app switching and animations.
Click to expand...

That's the terrible coding of iOS 8, and not really related to RAM.
 
B

Bahroo

macrumors 68000
Jul 21, 2012
1,860
2
PseudoPacifist said:
That's exactly where I'm at - I'm already looking forward to upgrading to the 6S Plus. Lack of RAM and UI lag is quite annoying.
Click to expand...

My 6 plus has absolutely no UI lag at all with Reduce transparency; which seems to that any ui lag you experinence is software because my 6 Plus has absolutely no UI stutter or lag at all with Reduce transparency on
 
sunking101

sunking101

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2013
7,416
2,656
Bahroo said:
My 6 plus has absolutely no UI lag at all with Reduce transparency; which seems to that any ui lag you experinence is software because my 6 Plus has absolutely no UI stutter or lag at all with Reduce transparency on
Click to expand...

Why should we give up some eye candy which has worked perfectly on the previous two iPhones? The iPhone 4 didn't get the transparency thing when iOS7 was released because its hardware wasn't up to the task.
 
C

cababah

macrumors 68000
Jun 11, 2009
1,891
504
SF Bay Area, CA
sunking101 said:
Why should we give up some eye candy which has worked perfectly on the previous two iPhones? The iPhone 4 didn't get the transparency thing when iOS7 was released because its hardware wasn't up to the task.
Click to expand...

There's a problem if you have to disable features to get a smooth experience on a brand new phone...
 
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