iPhone 4 Confirmed to Have 512MB of RAM (Twice the iPad and 3GS)

[MacFly123]

Isn't that what we predicted last year, iOS versions of iLife and iWork? Good to see these predictions (albeit slowly) coming true!

Yes. Now you honestly have to cut Apple a little slack. They are essentially building an entirely new gesture based, multi-touch, operating system that will replace Mac OS X eventually. They have done a LOT of work!

What is interesting to me is that they aren't quite branding the lifestyle apps the same on the iOS devices. I think they should more clearly brand them as iLife. Like instead of Photos, iPhoto and through in some editing and filters etc. In iOS 4 it will be much more like iPhoto with faces and places etc, but I think they need to brand them all like iLife. That way it would further differentiate the iOS platform from the competition! Oh, and iMovie should be free! Treat it more like Mac OS X, brand it all as iLife and include it all!

I am very interested to see what Apple does with Mac OS X 10.7. I think we will start to see some serious convergence of Mac OS X and iOS!

 

[bwb]

I thought it had been independently verified that the A4 wasn't the Cortex A9 architecture, but rather the A8 with modifications done by the recent Apple acquisition Intrinsity, who specializes in supercharging chips? Apple purchased rights to the ARM Cortex A8 architecture and then used their in house people to modifiy it to their liking, making it probably as much an Apple designed chip as it is an ARM chip.

Yep, along with help from P.A. Semi, who was also acquired by Apple.

To the original poster:

It has a 1ghz ARM cortex A9 Multi-core processor with Apples seal of approval. Apple did not make the A4. ARM did and then Apple purchased ARM and called it an Apple processor. I'm sure Apple tweaked it a bit but ARM did all the work before the chip maker was acquired my Apple. The chip is technically 1.3ghz but has been clocked down by Apple to reduce heat and power consumption. Apple does this quite often with chips such as intel in imac, which are also all under clocked slightly.

a. ARM never manufacturers chips, only the IP (intellectual property) of the design, and b. there is much more to these system-on-chips than the ARM core. Take a look at teardowns of the A4 and you will find many IP blocks from many companies, not just ARM. All of these decisions on what IP blocks to include and how to best integrate them to minimize energy consumption while meeting performance and latency constraints takes expertise.

The 'processor' as you think of it is just one part of the A4. The A4 includes many more types of features than what you would find in an Intel Core 2 (I5, I7, whatever) desktop or laptop processor.

To put it another way: saying that "It has [... an] ARM [...] processor with Apples [sic] seal of approval. Apple did not make the A4. ARM did and then Apple purchased ARM and called it an Apple processor." would be kinda like saying this about the iMac: "It has an Intel desktop with Apple's seal of approval. Apple did not make the iMac. Intel did and then Apple purchased Intel and called it an Apple computer." It is both factually incorrect and makes no sense.

 

[TurboSC]

just got my shipping confirmation on my iPad, got the iPhone 4 on reserve @ RadioShack... maybe I should have waited to purchase the iPad, oh well, more toys to play with.

 

[macintoshi]

i will wait 4...

I find my self screaming at my iPhone 3G all the time, because it's sSOOOO Fing slow! It better have 512 or I'm going to flip out! I can't stand slow computers.

i will wait 4 iphone 4g---->arn 1,5ghz---->1'024mb ram---->8mpix cam---->3mpix frontal cam----->64gb-128gb Space----->LTE=4G----->Amoled

 

[adztaylor]

I'm glad I waited to get an iPad (I'll be honest I came so close to getting one!) bet the next generations are gonna be amazing hopefully adopting some of the iPhone 4's features.

 

[Ries]

Hmmm, the extra RAM doesn't make Safari load webpages faster, it doesn't make programmes open and operate faster. That is all down to the processor. The extra RAM allows you to open more and bigger things, but it doesn't make those things any faster. The quote was how much faster the device would be with the extra RAM, but it's actually the faster processor that does this.

Yes it does, it prevents unessessary wasted cpu cycles! Open 20 tabs in safari with tons of images. Then revisit all of the tabs. The one with 128 MB has to "reload from network and render" while the 256MB has to "render" only. The operation to revisit all 20 tabs will be completed faster on the 256MB model, therefore the user experience will be, the phone is faster, even if they have the same CPU.

 

[CptBucky]

To all those saying the iPhone has a superior display to the iPad, it doesn't. "Retina" display is just Apple's fancy term for saying they put a few more pixels in than its competitors. The iPad has an IPS panel and more pixels than the iPhone.

Don't expect to have a "retina" display on the iPad anytime soon, if ever. To put one on would mean it would have to support a resolution almost twice that of Full HD. This is not only pointless, but impractical too as it would mean HD content would look worse, websites would look tiny and it would require a serious, serious GPU to drive that amount of pixels which would eat up battery life.

A small bump in resolution may be a year away, a quiet ram upgrade may arrive sooner. But declaring the iPad obsolete is stupid.

 

[Eso]

The full retail price of a 16 gig iPhone 4 is $599 right? It is $100 more than the 16 gig iPad WiFi.

Yes, but it's cheaper than the 16 GB 3G iPad, which is a more fair comparison considering that both are 3G capable.

 

[macintoshi]

amoled vs retina

To all those saying the iPhone has a superior display to the iPad, it doesn't. "Retina" display is just Apple's fancy term for saying they put a few more pixels in than its competitors. The iPad has an IPS panel and more pixels than the iPhone.

Don't expect to have a "retina" display on the iPad anytime soon, if ever. To put one on would mean it would have to support a resolution almost twice that of Full HD. This is not only pointless, but impractical too as it would mean HD content would look worse, websites would look tiny and it would require a serious, serious GPU to drive that amount of pixels which would eat up battery life.

A small bump in resolution may be a year away, a quiet ram upgrade may arrive sooner. But declaring the iPad obsolete is stupid.

Yes but...http://www.intomobile.com/2010/06/0...till-better-then-iphone-4-retina-display.html

and http://www.oled-display.net/retina-display-apple-vs-amoled and http://www.oled-display.net/why-apples-iphone-4ghd-does-not-come-with-an-standard-amoled-display

 

[Aaargh!]

I'm glad I waited to get an iPad (I'll be honest I came so close to getting one!) bet the next generations are gonna be amazing hopefully adopting some of the iPhone 4's features.

Why are you glad you waited ? Buying an 1st gen iPad won't prevent you from buying the iPad 2 next year.

I see the iPad as a $500-a-year subscription, with the exception that you can keep or sell the old one when the new version is released.

 

[MikeDTyke]

It has a 1ghz ARM cortex A9 Multi-core processor with Apples seal of approval. Apple did not make the A4. ARM did and then Apple purchased ARM and called it an Apple processor. I'm sure Apple tweaked it a bit but ARM did all the work before the chip maker was acquired my Apple. The chip is technically 1.3ghz but has been clocked down by Apple to reduce heat and power consumption. Apple does this quite often with chips such as intel in imac, which are also all under clocked slightly.

This is so incorrect, it needs rectifying.

ARM Holdings designs the architecture, instruction set and provides cores and integration support for other companies building ARM compatible chips.

Apple bought PA-Semi and Intrinsity, both companies with experience of working with ARM processors. The A4 heritage most likely comes from Intrinsity, as they demo'd a 1Ghz SINGLE A9 core processor a few months before it was bought.

It's highly unlikely that the A4 is operating at 1GHz and it certainly isn't multicore. I believe the clock speed is lower, confirmed by the fact Apple left it off their feature list. Why announce it's using an A4 running at ~700-800Mhz, when other manufacturers are now churning out 1GHz snapdragons. People just get into a Mhz, mine's better than yours argument. Apple's more interested in presenting what the whole widget does.

The lead time in developing processors is so long that the true fruits of buying PA-Semi and Intrinsity are likely to show up in the A4's successor. Whether that appears next year is anyones guess.

BTW, i'm stoked the iPhone 4 has 512mb of ram, it's the one hardware failing Apple should have sorted in all devices it releases this year.

 

[blackcrayon]

Why are you glad you waited ? Buying an 1st gen iPad won't prevent you from buying the iPad 2 next year.

I see the iPad as a $500-a-year subscription, with the exception that you can keep or sell the old one when the new version is released.

Clearly now that the iPhone 4 has 512 megs of RAM, all apps developed from here on out for all iOS devices will require at least 257 megs... Rendering the iPad useless

The "should have waited" or "glad I waited" claim is pretty silly- either you like the iPad and use it often (making it a good purchase), or you don't have a want/need for one so you don't buy it. But it's not like it's on a contract and you're stuck with it if you do. And it's probably not even $500/year- You'll be able to sell your 1st gen for at LEAST $250-$300 next year if you want the new one...

 

[MikeDTyke]

While it's great that the iPhone has such good technology, I think it's pretty ridiculous that the iPad, which is being marketed as a laptop replacement, has less power than a phone.

It's never been marketed as a laptop replacement, that's all in your head.

To quote Apple it is a new class of device that exists between the functionality of a smartphone and a laptop.

 

[DeepIn2U]

It has a 1ghz ARM cortex A9 Multi-core processor with Apples seal of approval. Apple did not make the A4. ARM did and then Apple purchased ARM and called it an Apple processor. I'm sure Apple tweaked it a bit but ARM did all the work before the chip maker was acquired my Apple. The chip is technically 1.3ghz but has been clocked down by Apple to reduce heat and power consumption. Apple does this quite often with chips such as intel in imac, which are also all under clocked slightly.

ARM does NOT make any chips ~ NADDA.
EDIT: MikeDTyke beat me to it.

Also the A4 is NOT a Cortex A9 chip; its an A8 ... it does NOT get multi-core cpu; dual-cpu chip it does (SOC with DSP imbedded on the same die). This was already confirmed a few months before iPad release.

 

[dieburnbot]

I haven't really found a problem with my iPad only having 256 mb of ram. It runs fast and safari hasn't crashed on me yet. The iPad is awesome because of the giant screen. It's just not the same experience browsing the Internet on the tiny iPhone screen no matter what dpi it has. I pick browsing the Internet on the iPad over the iPhone any day of the week.

 

[tkingart]

I love Apple products, I swear by them, and building something that you know will become obsolete soon is to be expected, nothing new there- but building to be obsolete out-the-door with something you're planning to release shortly after, is kind of ridiculous. I'm sure it makes for great profits, but this strategy is sure to piss off a lot of customers.

The battle of display tech is great, the real winner in these battles are the consumers. Something I've been reading though- I don't know if the details are accurate or just companies throwing spec's around, but the iPhone 4's 336ppi claim only holds true at 1.5 feet away from your eyes, I read somewhere that the actual number is something like 477ppi. The iPhone 4 screen is 800:1 contrast, Super AMOLED is 100,000:1, and per pixel lit (doesn't require a backlight) uses less energy, has a wider viewing angle. Super AMOLED is also 260ppi, not even that far off to make what I think would make a massive difference, though the contrast- certainly would be noticeable. I remember the first time I went from an 8,000:1 contrast display to a 100,000:1, and the difference was night and day. I honestly don't know if any of this really makes a difference that any of us will actually notice except for the contrast with certain photos with stark contrasts, but I am more interested than ever to see a Retina Display side-by-side with Super AMOLED.

None of this of course doesn't mean that the iPhone 4 isn't a superior product, I believe what makes it superior isn't each part, but the sum of all parts. That's precisely where I think other smart phones are falling short, and why iPhone 4 is setting sales records.

 

[John Dillinger]

I love Apple products, I swear by them, and building something that you know will become obsolete soon is to be expected, nothing new there- but building to be obsolete out-the-door with something you're planning to release shortly after, is kind of ridiculous. I'm sure it makes for great profits, but this strategy is sure to piss off a lot of customers.

The battle of display tech is great, the real winner in these battles are the consumers. Something I've been reading though- I don't know if the details are accurate or just companies throwing spec's around, but the iPhone 4's 336ppi claim only holds true at 1.5 feet away from your eyes, I read somewhere that the actual number is something like 477ppi. The iPhone 4 screen is 800:1 contrast, Super AMOLED is 100,000:1, and per pixel lit (doesn't require a backlight) uses less energy, has a wider viewing angle. Super AMOLED is also 260ppi, not even that far off to make what I think would make a massive difference, though the contrast- certainly would be noticeable. I remember the first time I went from an 8,000:1 contrast display to a 100,000:1, and the difference was night and day. I honestly don't know if any of this really makes a difference that any of us will actually notice except for the contrast with certain photos with stark contrasts, but I am more interested than ever to see a Retina Display side-by-side with Super AMOLED.

None of this of course doesn't mean that the iPhone 4 isn't a superior product, I believe what makes it superior isn't each part, but the sum of all parts. That's precisely where I think other smart phones are falling short, and why iPhone 4 is setting sales records.

Apparently the 477 ppi is for someone who has perfect vision, but that most will come in under the 326 ppi, which is what the iphone has, article on macrumors a few days ago i think, also wired.

 

[John Dillinger]

Interesting

But you dont need more than 256 ram on your frickin phone. People are getting so excited.
My 3Gs is smooth as butter. Seriously, when have you ever been like 'gosh' wish my crappy iphone had more ram?? Its a phone people.

Apple isnt about specs, its about their superior end-to-end Apple experience.
This is just unnecessary crap to please the fanboys and I wish Apple would stop and focus on taking over the world

 

[dieburnbot]

But you dont need more than 256 ram on your frickin phone. People are getting so excited.
My 3Gs is smooth as butter. Seriously, when have you ever been like 'gosh' wish my crappy iphone had more ram?? Its a phone people.

Apple isnt about specs, its about their superior end-to-end Apple experience.
This is just unnecessary crap to please the fanboys and I wish Apple would stop and focus on taking over the world

I have wished for more ram in my 3G it runs like **** with 128 MB. Granted I have mine jail broken with a lot of mobile substrate add ons more ram would help it immensely. I have an iPad and it runs a million times better than my 3G. I think the extra ram is going to make the experience better and bring better apps. Although if you're not planning on using those apps then the less ram is fine.

 

[mrochester]

Yes it does, it prevents unessessary wasted cpu cycles! Open 20 tabs in safari with tons of images. Then revisit all of the tabs. The one with 128 MB has to "reload from network and render" while the 256MB has to "render" only. The operation to revisit all 20 tabs will be completed faster on the 256MB model, therefore the user experience will be, the phone is faster, even if they have the same CPU.

What you're talking about is extra RAM making it possible to open bigger and more things. The extra RAM does not make opening Safari and loading those pages any faster, it just allows more of them to remain open at once.

A 3GS with 256mb RAM will open apps, Safari, Mail, Messages etc at exactly the same speed as the 3GS with 512mb of RAM. The extra RAM does not suddenly make the device operate faster - that is down to the processor. We're not talking about how much more extra stuff we can have open, we're talking about how fast the device operates. That metric is entirely down to the CPU and GPU. People keep on confusing the two thinking that double the RAM will suddenly mean eveything opens instantly, the phone will boot faster etc, which is NOT true!

 

[cmaier]

But you dont need more than 256 ram on your frickin phone. People are getting so excited.
My 3Gs is smooth as butter. Seriously, when have you ever been like 'gosh' wish my crappy iphone had more ram?? Its a phone people.

Apple isnt about specs, its about their superior end-to-end Apple experience.
This is just unnecessary crap to please the fanboys and I wish Apple would stop and focus on taking over the world

Indeed. Why would anyone ever need more than 640k ?

 

[diamond.g]

But you dont need more than 256 ram on your frickin phone. People are getting so excited.
My 3Gs is smooth as butter. Seriously, when have you ever been like 'gosh' wish my crappy iphone had more ram?? Its a phone people.

Apple isnt about specs, its about their superior end-to-end Apple experience.
This is just unnecessary crap to please the fanboys and I wish Apple would stop and focus on taking over the world

More RAM will be useful for iOS 4 application state freezing. The more RAM the more apps that can be frozen.

 

[gazzrenn]

But you dont need more than 256 ram on your frickin phone. People are getting so excited.
My 3Gs is smooth as butter. Seriously, when have you ever been like 'gosh' wish my crappy iphone had more ram?? Its a phone people.

Apple isnt about specs, its about their superior end-to-end Apple experience.
This is just unnecessary crap to please the fanboys and I wish Apple would stop and focus on taking over the world

Remember when we didn't know / care what processor speed or amount of RAM was in our phones?

<3 the 502

 

[Hitrate]

This pushes me over the edge for sure. I used to love doing multitasking on the 3GS, having many programs running in the background - but it just drained the battery too quickly, and made it too slow. Now that we get both bigger battery capacity, better CPU AND twice the ram - Bob's your uncle! Signed up for one, but I'll just enjoy my 3GS until iPhone 4 comes to Denmark, which will probably be August lol.

 

[Ries]

What you're talking about is extra RAM making it possible to open bigger and more things. The extra RAM does not make opening Safari and loading those pages any faster, it just allows more of them to remain open at once.

A 3GS with 256mb RAM will open apps, Safari, Mail, Messages etc at exactly the same speed as the 3GS with 512mb of RAM. The extra RAM does not suddenly make the device operate faster - that is down to the processor. We're not talking about how much more extra stuff we can have open, we're talking about how fast the device operates. That metric is entirely down to the CPU and GPU. People keep on confusing the two thinking that double the RAM will suddenly mean eveything opens instantly, the phone will boot faster etc, which is NOT true!

That depends on implementation. More RAM allows larger buffers and more cache, that in return can free alot of CPU cycles. Which means, if they ie. actually have an cache for the flash file system, it could make safari start alot faster than on 512MB vs 256MB. Claiming only CPU and GPU increases speed is a narrow minded uninformed view.