iPhone 6 Plus Teardown: Twice as Big a Battery as iPhone 5s [Update: 1 GB RAM Confirmed]

[Medic311]

Okay, I didn't mean to specifically call you out as angry that was my mistake. Yes it is a good conversation I am enjoying. Certainly some are angry, but I am not saying you are. In fact, you don't seem angry.

yeah not angry at all

i still have my iPhone 5 and will prob not jump up until the 6S. after all, IMO...the "S" versions of iPhones seem to have all of the fixes of the original release heheh

i am excited for tomorrow though. i enjoy following the news and seeing the retail traffic. i'll get to play around with a 6 tomorrow since the girlfriend pre-ordered one for delivery tomorrow.

 

[576316]

Glad they chose the gold. Only real ballers can rock the gold iPhone.

I rock the gold iPhone so hard.

 

[Sonmi451]

yeah not angry at all

i still have my iPhone 5 and will prob not jump up until the 6S. after all, IMO...the "S" versions of iPhones seem to have all of the fixes of the original release heheh

i am excited for tomorrow though. i enjoy following the news and seeing the retail traffic. i'll get to play around with a 6 tomorrow since the girlfriend pre-ordered one for delivery tomorrow.

Yes S versions are always better, but then again, the next version is always better than the S version previous. It's a vicious cycle!

 

[cfedu]

yeah not angry at all

i still have my iPhone 5 and will prob not jump up until the 6S. after all, IMO...the "S" versions of iPhones seem to have all of the fixes of the original release heheh

i am excited for tomorrow though. i enjoy following the news and seeing the retail traffic. i'll get to play around with a 6 tomorrow since the girlfriend pre-ordered one for delivery tomorrow.

I think the 5 will be one of the most future proofed iPhone as if has more usable Ram then the following 2. I would definitely keep it till the 6S!

 

[himanshumodi]

my criticisms are perfectly valid. your defense of Apple's decision to use 1GB is slanted to say the least.

who said i am angry? i am actually enjoying this lively debate with fellow forum members. are you angry?

Yes, surely the RAM spec is a profit maximizing decision. Clearly, a business call was made on whether or not 1 GB of Ram would be perfect for 1 year, and adequate for 2 years considering the software roadmap. Someone within Apple said yes to that.

In the end, I don't see anyone defecting to competition on account of RAM specs. From apple's perspective that's what matters. And from my perspective as a user, yes I care about experience. Perhaps I shouldn't be blindly trusting Apple to have taken the right decision for the hardware. From the uber-thinness vs thicker battery standpoint, I certainly don't. But I will end up giving them the benefit of the doubt that the device will do me well, with my past experience as an Apple mobile device owner. I still have an iPad 2 on iOS6 chugging along decently well.

 

[linuxcooldude]

I think some people obsess too much about specs. Hardware is only one half of the equation. A well coded operating system is the other. While other phones were still laggy, the iPhone was still faster with only 256-512MB of RAM. I've seen more efficient software reduce processor load in half. Even when the iPhone eventually gets 2GB RAM people will then move on to complain about some other hardware they perceive is not enough.

 

[lk400]

5 tabs is nothing. Try 10 and have other apps open in the background. Then see how 1GB holds up. If the next question is "why would you have all of that going at the same time?" , my question right back would be it's a premium smartphone that is advertised as being "the best" by Tim Cook and it should be able to do that in 2014.

Also, 1GB becomes less and less effective at handling operations as time goes on. Thus making the lifespan of this phone less than it should be

There is no legitimate argument against having 2GB of memory in iPhones and iPads these days. Battery life impact is negligible and it is strictly and solely a cost savings and thus profit increasing move to still use 1GB. Same goes for still keeping the 16GB iPhone but then jumping up to a 64 and then saying its a "deal" for consumers bc it's the same price as what the 32GB used to be. Right....

There are legitimate arguments beyond profit - you dont know what the company is thinking about in making this design choice. Not saying this is my view, but for example, they may be trying to enforce a kind of self imposed restraint on developers. As the vast majority of programs are non-apple, they cant really enforce efficeint programming. By restricting resources, they create an environment where developers have to work extra hard and come up with more efficient solutions instead of just accepting one that works. The end game of this, of course, would be to avoid the kind of bloat that the PC industry went through in the late 90s and 2000s where increasing computing power was largely offset by bloating of software.

Im not saying this is the right view, that I agree with this, or anything. Im just saying that you dont know the real reason they havent upgraded yet, so saying the only reason is "profit" seems a little simplistic.

 

[dba415]

I can't believe there are people actually defending apples decision to put only 1gb of ram.

Its been 3 years with 1 GB of ram. All other flagship phones have at least 2 gb of ram, including windows phones that also run a heavily optimized OS just like iphone.

Nokia doesn't insult its costumers by shipping the 1520 with 1 Gb of ram, even though they probably could have.

 

[Medic311]

Yes, surely the RAM spec is a profit maximizing decision. Clearly, a business call was made on whether or not 1 GB of Ram would be perfect for 1 year, and adequate for 2 years considering the software roadmap. Someone within Apple said yes to that.

In the end, I don't see anyone defecting to competition on account of RAM specs. From apple's perspective that's what matters. And from my perspective as a user, yes I care about experience. Perhaps I shouldn't be blindly trusting Apple to have taken the right decision for the hardware. From the uber-thinness vs thicker battery standpoint, I certainly don't. But I will end up giving them the benefit of the doubt that the device will do me well, with my past experience as an Apple mobile device owner. I still have an iPad 2 on iOS6 chugging along decently well.

iPad 2 was stellar - i remember it performed better than my iPad 3 haha. my brother has my old iPad 2 and it runs iOS 7 smooth as butter...no issues at all.

as far as customer preference - what Apple is good at is predicting (or directing people) to what they think they want, or what they actually want without realizing it, or making them want something they might not have wanted otherwise. thinness, light weight, sapphire lens covers, sapphire displays, software features geared towards creativity, entertainment, and productivity are the marketing techniques that Apple deploys with near 100% effectiveness. it's why they will make a big deal about these types of improvements which are more tangible to the typical Apple customer (the larger % of Apple's customer base) than say a spec bump of going from Intel HD 5000 to Intel Iris graphics or going from a 2.3 to a 2.6 Ghz - both of which are meaningless to a lot of people.

i used an example in a previous post of two iPhones being advertised. the first has 2GB of memory. the second mentions nothing about memory but instead focuses on a new sapphire display, a new pixel focusing technology which means you can take photos that focus more quickly, and other Apple-branded ways of doing operations on the phone that they have perfected over the competition's products. of course it doesn't mean they can't do both, but if they can get away with picking one they will obviously choose the latter.

 

[AFDoc]

If this has 1GB of RAM, it's going to be bricked like iPhone 3G, iPhone 4 with 3GS specs and 4x pixels can't run iOS7, like iPhone 4S can't handle iOS8, like iPad 1's 256MB of RAM, like iPad 3 with 4x pixels on iPad 2 specs. iPhone 5 will run iOS11 fine with 1GB and iPhone 6 Plus will lag with less available memory.

Is this your expert opinion?

 

[Medic311]

There are legitimate arguments beyond profit - you dont know what the company is thinking about in making this design choice. Not saying this is my view, but for example, they may be trying to enforce a kind of self imposed restraint on developers. As the vast majority of programs are non-apple, they cant really enforce efficeint programming. By restricting resources, they create an environment where developers have to work extra hard and come up with more efficient solutions instead of just accepting one that works. The end game of this, of course, would be to avoid the kind of bloat that the PC industry went through in the late 90s and 2000s where increasing computing power was largely offset by bloating of software.

Im not saying this is the right view, that I agree with this, or anything. Im just saying that you dont know the real reason they havent upgraded yet, so saying the only reason is "profit" seems a little simplistic.

if i was to borrow your argument...why increase the processor capability and performance then? if their goal is not to become like PC bloat in the 2000's as you referenced...why go from an A7 to an A8? the A7 isn't even fully utilized yet so why increase the processor?

memory is the most important aspect of computing (provided you have an adequate processor). it's what makes or breaks the experience. if you have lots of memory and a slow processor - you will get the job done, it will just take more time. if you have a stellar processor and not enough memory, you will get system crashes despite attempts to use virtual memory

 

[cfedu]

if i was to borrow your argument...why increase the processor capability and performance then? if their goal is not to become like PC bloat in the 2000's as you referenced...why go from an A7 to an A8? the A7 isn't even fully utilized yet so why increase the processor?

memory is the most important aspect of computing (provided you have an adequate processor). it's what makes or breaks the experience. if you have lots of memory and a slow processor - you will get the job done, it will just take more time. if you have a stellar processor and not enough memory, you will get system crashes despite attempts to use virtual memory

I don't think they did really, its more or less the same processor. Its even smaller and uses less power. Thin is their number one priority. They could have named these new phones the iPhone 5s + and the 5s++.

 

[ghettochris]

What a BEAST of a size also.

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I think they are saving 2gb for the a model next year. Apple innovation seems to be decreasing steadily

yeah, 2gb this year would have been some real innovation!

 

[Medic311]

I don't think they did really, its more or less the same processor. Its even smaller and uses less power. Thin is their number one priority. They could have named these new phones the iPhone 5s + and the 5s++.

haha the 5S+

that's great. they advertised 2X graphics though right?

 

[H2SO4]

There are legitimate arguments beyond profit - you dont know what the company is thinking about in making this design choice. Not saying this is my view, but for example, they may be trying to enforce a kind of self imposed restraint on developers. As the vast majority of programs are non-apple, they cant really enforce efficeint programming. By restricting resources, they create an environment where developers have to work extra hard and come up with more efficient solutions instead of just accepting one that works. The end game of this, of course, would be to avoid the kind of bloat that the PC industry went through in the late 90s and 2000s where increasing computing power was largely offset by bloating of software.

Im not saying this is the right view, that I agree with this, or anything. Im just saying that you dont know the real reason they havent upgraded yet, so saying the only reason is "profit" seems a little simplistic.

So they’re doing this with the soldered in RAM on the latest Macs too?

 

[Medic311]

yeah, 2gb this year would have been some real innovation!

"there's one more thing"....

"the iPhone 6 Plus 2. now with all of the great features of the iPhone 6 Plus, with a full 2GB of memory. Apple engineers have worked very hard and for the past several years, in designing a way to incorporate 2GB of memory when we specifically told them not to. Apple has never allowed this to happen, ever before, and i am truly proud to be able to share this with all of you today. included in the iPhone 6 Plus 2, is a new feature we are calling Multi-Multi-Tasking, and boy have we patented it. where as before you could multi-task on your phone by double tapping the home button, Apple engineers were able to fool us into thinking there wasn't multi-tasking by implementing 3-finger gestures similar to that in OS X to access true multi-multi-task mode. we didn't even know it existed, that's how hard our engineers worked on this feature. so now customers have the option not to multi-task by double tapping the home button, or multi-multi-task by using 3-finger swipe. and we are including this new feature, a first ever for Apple, for just $100 more than the iPhone 6 Plus. so there it is...the iPhone 6 Plus 2."

 

[cfedu]

haha the 5S+

that's great. they advertised 2X graphics though right?

Well the 5s++ does have a graphics display that is almost 2x the size.

 

[jrswizzle]

5 tabs is nothing. Try 10 and have other apps open in the background. Then see how 1GB holds up. If the next question is "why would you have all of that going at the same time?" , my question right back would be it's a premium smartphone that is advertised as being "the best" by Tim Cook and it should be able to do that in 2014.

Also, 1GB becomes less and less effective at handling operations as time goes on. Thus making the lifespan of this phone less than it should be

There is no legitimate argument against having 2GB of memory in iPhones and iPads these days. Battery life impact is negligible and it is strictly and solely a cost savings and thus profit increasing move to still use 1GB. Same goes for still keeping the 16GB iPhone but then jumping up to a 64 and then saying its a "deal" for consumers bc it's the same price as what the 32GB used to be. Right....

Trying right now on my 5S....

10 tabs open, plenty of apps....once I let each tab load the first time I didn't have any issues

Even told half this response, bounced through apps and tabs and came back to the spot I left off.

I'd welcome 2GB of ram...but at this point I see no problem.

And since I was a 32GB customer who now gets 64GB for the same price I was paying, I'm pretty stoked.

 

[andyyardley]

The only hope then is that the A8 has dedicated GPU memory instead of a Unified Memory Architecture. Otherwise thats a whole lot of extra memory used up over the 5/5S for high res graphics rasterisation, and a whole lot of app/safari tab refreshing going on.

 

[macs4nw]

Do you all honestly believe that a company that spends as much on R&D as Apple, that is as heavily scrutinized as Apple, and that has over $100B sitting in the bank like Apple, would seriously choose to nickel and dime their customers and hamstring their flagship device for a relatively small amount of money that is an extra GB of RAM? I mean that just defies all logic or reason, clearly they have their reasons and clearly they've thought about it, and came to the conclusion 1 GB was right for this device at this time. Yes, when they're selling the volume they are even a small amount of money per device amounts to a lot when summed up, but they're smart enough to not be penny wise and pound foolish to put out a substandard product that would result in them losing customers in the long run.

One of the most sensible, well reasoned posts in this thread!
Btw, the extra battery life and improved camera have persuaded me to go for the 6+.

 

[Grolubao]

Thank you Apple for making my decision easy not to buy the iPhone 6

 

[myname70]

Who cares for the "real absolute" figures of the RAM? !!! And why we should spend time to discuss it at all?! We should discuss the phone performance, is it OK, has it some lags, freezes etc. If the phone performance is fine -then all is OK and does not matter what figure -8 or 9 is put inside. That is why Apple has never put in its spec the RAM amount , simply because it is not relevant. We are here like a hypochondriac who as soon as see 1GB start feeling bad without any reason and without any physical symptoms )

 

[subjonas]

5 tabs is nothing. Try 10 and have other apps open in the background. Then see how 1GB holds up. If the next question is "why would you have all of that going at the same time?" , my question right back would be it's a premium smartphone that is advertised as being "the best" by Tim Cook and it should be able to do that in 2014.

Also, 1GB becomes less and less effective at handling operations as time goes on. Thus making the lifespan of this phone less than it should be

There is no legitimate argument against having 2GB of memory in iPhones and iPads these days. Battery life impact is negligible and it is strictly and solely a cost savings and thus profit increasing move to still use 1GB. Same goes for still keeping the 16GB iPhone but then jumping up to a 64 and then saying its a "deal" for consumers bc it's the same price as what the 32GB used to be. Right....

I don't know why they don't put in 2 GB but it's gotta be for any other reason than cost. Apple is too perfectionist.

 

[cfedu]

Do you all honestly believe that a company that spends as much on R&D as Apple, that is as heavily scrutinized as Apple, and that has over $100B sitting in the bank like Apple, would seriously choose to nickel and dime their customers and hamstring their flagship device for a relatively small amount of money that is an extra GB of RAM? I mean that just defies all logic or reason, clearly they have their reasons and clearly they've thought about it, and came to the conclusion 1 GB was right for this device at this time. Yes, when they're selling the volume they are even a small amount of money per device amounts to a lot when summed up, but they're smart enough to not be penny wise and pound foolish to put out a substandard product that would result in them losing customers in the long run.

Thats exactly what the did with the first iPad, half the ram as the iPhone 4 and more than twice the pixels to push. Look how well the intentionally crippled iPad was supported. The iPad 2 with a camera was also magical. Who would have thought to put a camera on it!

 

[H2SO4]

Who cares for the "real absolute" figures of the RAM? !!! And why we should spend time to discuss it at all?! We should discuss the phone performance, is it OK, has it some lags, freezes etc. If the phone performance is fine -then all is OK and does not matter what figure -8 or 9 is put inside. That is why Apple has never put in its spec the RAM amount , simply because it is not relevant. We are here like a hypochondriac who as soon as see 1GB start feeling bad without any reason and without any physical symptoms )

That’s a crock. If it’s the experience then they’d not waste time making the screen over 400ppi when apparently retina means we can’t tell the difference anyway. (They do post specs for this too).
Why harp on about 64 bit and fps and f2.2 and 1.5 microns and 4G and 3x faster and lots of other crap.

It’s because on the RAM front they have nothing to boast about. I promise you if they'd have put 4GB in the phone you’d hear about it on their site and you’d hear about how simply relevant it is here on MR.
They’d be gushing and having orgasms about the ‘experience’. Can you imagine the mess on the screens.

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I don't know why they don't put in 2 GB but it's gotta be for any other reason than cost. Apple is too perfectionist.

Like what?
So perfectionist?