iPhone XS How many apps can iPhone 8 and XS keep active in RAM?

[Rockadile]

I’m currently using an iPhone 6. I can keep about 1-3 apps active in the background depending on usage. No games, just apps like social media, banking, and Apple apps.

I've grown tired of waiting on apps that have to do the “cold start” logo boot up. Apple apps take no more than 2secs but others can take 6-8secs if they’re not in the RAM.

I don't force quit apps and turning background app refresh on for a week had no perceivable difference so I concluded the 1GB RAM was too low for my usage.

So I was wondering how many apps the newer iPhones can keep active in the RAM.

 

[internetrando]

More than I use. Reloads aren’t something I see these days.

 

[secretk]

More than I use. Reloads aren’t something I see these days.

iPhone XS Max has 3 GB RAM right? I am asking because I see reloads all the time both on my iPhone and iPad. However they both have 2 GB RAM and man that RAM is not enough. Makes me go crazy. Quite often apps are unresponsive. And even if they are, they get reloaded every 20/30 minutes. And do not even make me start talking about the Safari tabs reloading issues. Get reloaded every time. I have disabled the animations just to speed up a little the loading process because it is slow. Seriously that's the thing I dislike the most in iOS.

Based on my experience and my usage (which might be not the average one) I would not accept iOS device with less 4 GB RAM honestly. I have some concerns that 3 GB would not be enough.

For reference though I have open 15 tabs in Safari and overall around 45 apps. It's how I use such devices. It's the same with my Android phone.

 

[internetrando]

iPhone XS Max has 3 GB RAM right? I am asking because I see reloads all the time both on my iPhone and iPad. However they both have 2 GB RAM and man that RAM is not enough. Makes me go crazy. Quite often apps are unresponsive. And even if they are, they get reloaded every 20/30 minutes. And do not even make me start talking about the Safari tabs reloading issues. Get reloaded every time. I have disabled the animations just to speed up a little the loading process because it is slow. Seriously that's the thing I dislike the most in iOS.

Based on my experience and my usage (which might be not the average one) I would not accept iOS device with less 4 GB RAM honestly. I have some concerns that 3 GB would not be enough.

For reference though I have open 15 tabs in Safari and overall around 45 apps. It's how I use such devices. It's the same with my Android phone.

XS Max has four gigs of RAM. XR is the only current model (2018 release) that has three gigs.

I cannot give you exact numbers, simply because estimating the RAM requirments and system behavior varies too much.

What I can say is this - it will be considerably better than what you are experiencing on an iPhone 6.

 

[secretk]

XS Max has four gigs of RAM. XR is the only current model (2018 release) that has three gigs.

I cannot give you exact numbers, simply because estimating the RAM requirments and system behavior varies too much.

What I can say is this - it will be considerably better than what you are experiencing on an iPhone 6.

Ah my mistake. Sorry. If it's 4 GB I am not surprised that you don't have issues . I do think that in my case 4 GB RAM would vastly improve things .

Btw what I described is not experienced with iPhone 6 . It's with iPhone 8 and 2018 regular iPad. So basically iOS devices with 2 GB RAM. Iphone 6 has 1 GB RAM so it must be even worse.

 

[now i see it]

Until an iPhone ships with 8GB of ram, you'll never have enough. A browser (on the Mac) can consume 16GB of ram with lots of tabs open.

 

[Jimmy James]

But It’s about the user experience. Not the specs. 1GB is enough. It’s apple, after all.

~This forum circa iPhone 6.

 

[CTHarrryH]

And it is how Apple manages memory and apps. The fact that they are still there may not make much difference depending upon background activity

 

[Rockadile]

iPhone XS Max has 3 GB RAM right? I am asking because I see reloads all the time both on my iPhone and iPad. However they both have 2 GB RAM and man that RAM is not enough. Makes me go crazy. Quite often apps are unresponsive. And even if they are, they get reloaded every 20/30 minutes. And do not even make me start talking about the Safari tabs reloading issues. Get reloaded every time. I have disabled the animations just to speed up a little the loading process because it is slow. Seriously that's the thing I dislike the most in iOS.

Based on my experience and my usage (which might be not the average one) I would not accept iOS device with less 4 GB RAM honestly. I have some concerns that 3 GB would not be enough.

For reference though I have open 15 tabs in Safari and overall around 45 apps. It's how I use such devices. It's the same with my Android phone.

Thanks for the info. You're more of a power user than me, I try to keep no more than 5 Safari tabs and close the excess. Seems like the 8 would be the bare minimum for me so I'll just have to get use to the notch and get XS.
[doublepost=1553114909][/doublepost]

But It’s about the user experience. Not the specs. 1GB is enough. It’s apple, after all.

~This forum circa iPhone 6.

circa iPhone 5s*

5s owners can still use the latest iOS

 

[nviz22]

Until an iPhone ships with 8GB of ram, you'll never have enough. A browser (on the Mac) can consume 16GB of ram with lots of tabs open.

4gb on iOS is fine for most folks. Apple isn’t going to double the RAM in one year.

 

[secretk]

Thanks for the info. You're more of a power user than me, I try to keep no more than 5 Safari tabs and close the excess. Seems like the 8 would be the bare minimum for me so I'll just have to get use to the notch and get XS.

Yeah it definitely seems that I tend to exploit my devices more than the average user . It's weird because most people equate power users with playing games and not with multiple open apps or tabs. I however do not play games at all. I do tend to open lots of apps and tabs though. I guess this is how I exploit the system.

 

[Rockadile]

Yeah it definitely seems that I tend to exploit my devices more than the average user . It's weird because most people equate power users with playing games and not with multiple open apps or tabs. I however do not play games at all. I do tend to open lots of apps and tabs though. I guess this is how I exploit the system.

It's all relative. Since I also don't game on it, how it handles as a workhorse is our power measurement.

 

[hovscorpion12]

One tab on Safari, 30 Apps open. iPhone X with 3GB RAM. Zero Lag unless on landscape. When I’m on landscape in safari and open Twitter, it’s a bit slow with the reloads. Other then than that no issues.