iPhone 4S only has 512MB of RAM
- Thread starter chrmjenkins
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verwon
macrumors 68030
Never kept one for a whole year, yet, myself! LOL
Oh I'm right there with you... I've had my iPhone 4 for like 16 months now, as I'm sure you have as well... and that's just too long...
I'm sure I'll be buying a new one this time next year when they launch an LTE phone.
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It's lets you brag to your friends who have phones with only 512mb that your phone has better numbers, even if their phone runs better than yours.
Digits is digits yo... numbers don't lie right?
pgiguere1
macrumors 68020
If I'm not mistaking, iOS has the same core OS as Mac OS X and uses the same scalable memory management method that makes it more efficient, and will in fact take as much RAM as you throw at it to speed things up. Applications and the OS never take a constant amount of RAM. It's not like Windows. People with Mac Pros with 32GB of RAM will have like 10GB used even if they run the same basic applications as us.
Here's more info about it: http://developer.apple.com/library/...tual/ManagingMemory/Articles/AboutMemory.html
Also, I did mention in my first post issues with only using the OS and a single application with another in the background. I'm not even talking about pre-loading most used apps into the RAM. Just the applications I have in use will have issues or irritating refreshes that could be avoided by having more RAM. In the examples of "online" apps I mentioned, the iPhone seems to delete data altogether until it downloads it again. It's not even dumped to flash, so if you've lost your connection while it pages out, you're screwed. Same goes for my music app crash example, it doesn't dump everything onto flash before crashing. Maybe only the track info and volume but not the track location, so even if you waited for the application to reboot, the track would still start over from beginning.
You could say I'm a "poweruser" that's very demanding about his phone, but I don't see how I make no sense.
Up until the iPhone 4, Apple favored the iPod touch for "gaming" amd that's what they promoted with their commercials.
Also remember the first and second generation iPod touch were faster than their iPhone counterparts mainly because Apple let those iPod touch run at faster clock speeds than their iPhones.
So the iPod touch didn't always come second to the iPhone.
pgiguere1
macrumors 68020
I disagree. It would be true if all the iPhone did was run a single app at a time excluding every app that includes a web browser or streaming. Then developers would be in full control and every app could be optimized for the iPhone's amount of RAM.
That's not what happen. With an iPhone, like with a computer, you're in total control of your content. You can go on any website you like, open as many tabs as you want while possibly having Maps tracking your location, music playing in background (it could even be streamed), emails coming in, various push notifications from apps, then you could switch back to another app that you previously oppened, etc.
Unlike console, you're not limited to a certain number of tasks or content. And BTW a PS3 sucks at web browsing, even without other stuff going on at the same time. If it was one of the main features of the PS3, I would care about its RAM.
ThetaSigma
macrumors regular
It doesn't bother me too much. Quality over quantity 
It's not how much you have, it's how you use it.
I know it's now exactly the same, but a PS3 has 256MB RAM. It runs Battlefield 3 (although not perfectly but damn it's good), which needs at least 4GB RAM on PC. PS3 came out the same year as the first iPhone, and it's still going strong.
It's not how much you have, it's how you use it. I know it's now exactly the same, but a PS3 has 256MB RAM. It runs Battlefield 3 (although not perfectly but damn it's good), which needs at least 4GB RAM on PC. PS3 came out the same year as the first iPhone, and it's still going strong.
mrapplegate
macrumors 68030
Until iFixit tears it apart, why worry? We will know soon enough. That being said, I do hope for 1GB onboard, but won't regret my decision if there is 512MB.
Spec geeks are idiots. I trust Apple to bring me a faster experience while not compromising battery life
I believed I heard the same when Apple released iPad with a measly 256mb RAM and fanbois defend that iOS just works and specs don't matter.
Guess what, lack of sufficient RAM means stuttering experiences. As apps become more intensive, 512mb RAM may not be sufficient in a year or so.
JForestZ34
macrumors 6502a
Yeah but android is getting better and better as the months go by.. Just like ios they have to work bugs out..
If you think ios is perfect you are living in a dream world.. They are finally adding features that should have been on the original iphone 3-4 yrs later.. Looks like a fail to me...
James
sentinelsx
macrumors 68010
]
Hey xda called, they wanted to know which new overclocked rom you are running so their brand new phone doesn't lag. Also how about sharing your battery saving tips so I can get a few hours. Which services and radios should I be constantly fiddling with turning them on and off to save my battery?
RAM - Random Access Memory. It's the fastest place for your CPU to store and access information. When you multitask, your RAM can fill up, causing some older, low priority information to be overwritten. If you use a program that needs information that was overwritten, the CPU must go back to where it originally got the information and write it back to the RAM for use. If your phone constantly has to go to the harddrive or internet for information, it will feel slow.
This is the way I understand it anyway.
Young Spade
macrumors 68020
Spec geeks are idiots. I trust Apple to bring me a faster experience while not compromising battery life
Having more RAM compromises battery life?
LIVEFRMNYC
macrumors G3
RAM = Random Android Mistakes
Um, because 512 MB simply isn't enough? My iPhone 4 is often very sluggish. Safari has to reload tabs because it runs out of RAM, the iPod-app crashes if I skip too many tracks too quickly, third party apps crash... I'm not surprised though, Apple's devices are often RAM-starved. Hell, I sold my iPad 1 just because it couldn't rub sensibly on it's measly amount of RAM.
1 GB RAM would certainly have made me upgrade, but now I'll have to think about it.
chrmjenkins
macrumors 603
Apple doesn't advertise RAM in its iPhones. If and when it changes to 1GB, we will find out through developers.
Yes. Developers lobby behind the scenes tireleslly to get Microsoft or Sony to include more RAM in their consoles. It directly affects how much they can do.
very very marginally. Nothing you would ever likely notice.
IPad 2 has no reason to support 1080P. The screen can't display it and the camera isn't intended to record it.
ZBoater
macrumors G3
Neither does the iPhone. Unless I missed the memo the screen on the 4S is not 1920x1080.
jav6454
macrumors Core
But it does record it.
BlizzardBolt
macrumors 6502
Near flawness multitasking with A5 chip.
No or very little lag.
1GB ram extends your 4S versatility
Well said
If the iPhone4S doesn't have 1GB RAM, that is a fail.
After all the android phones that have 1GB RAM, anything less is unacceptable.
ZBoater
macrumors G3
I realize that. But not being able to display it is no reason to not support recording or playback of 1080p. That was my point.
Young Spade
macrumors 68020
1) That was my point. You missed the sarcasm.
2) mmmm.... no. Seeing that nobody is going to watch a 1080p movie on an iPhone's screen, you could make the same argument against the iPhone.
The iPad 2 only needs to be good enough to sell, which it is. Apple isn't going to update it until they feel the need to; just like right now. They don't "need" to redesign, they don't need to do this and that and that and this because the iPhone is selling, and will sell, all this and next year.
The only other "good" tablet right now is the Kindle Fire, which isn't even a "direct" competitor, but will definitely sell a TON this holiday season.
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Have you not looked at the price/performance of the MBP or, rather, any computer Apple sells? With the iMacs that's more understandable, as you're getting a lot "more", but for everything else, you're paying a ton for underpowered (compared to similarly priced hardware) machines.
1200 for a MBP with only 4 gigs of RAM and a 320 hd. Of course, there are other things like the OS, build quality, and software (again, OS) that drive up the price, but Apple makes BIG margins on their sells; they could easily bump up the specs of ALL of their computers and still make money.
But they don't, because people still buy and they still make tons of money.
But don't get me wrong; I could have gotten a SGS2 instead of preordering the iPhone for 299, and I could have gotten an alienware computer instead of buying the 2011 MBP. However, the OS is THE reason why I'm going with it.
Closed ecosystem > Open one at this point in time. (In terms of iOS/Android)
BlizzardBolt
macrumors 6502
Yes people do buy if it has inferior specs but Android still has the greater marketshare.
Windows also has a greater marketshare, same specs but at a lower price.