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iPhone 8/Plus IPhone 8+ will age better than the X

T

tonybarnaby

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 3, 2017
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Being new to iphones, I was shocked to see the newest phones have only 3gb of ram. I would be happier with 4. Not for today, but in a year or 2. The fact the 6 only has 1gb of ram and can still run ios11 is incredible to me. The basic Android flagship has anywhere from 4-8gb of ram. 8gb on the OnePlus 5t is excessive and a bit of a marketing ploy, but more ram is always good.

Eventually 3gb of ram will not be sufficient. I think the X will become limited sooner than the 8+, due to face Id and the other sensors and features it has over the 8+. The 8+ was outdated looks wise the day they announced it, but I just feel like using an 8+ in 2020 or 2021 could be better than a first gen x at the same time.

Did Apple purposely limit the ram this year so that 2018 they could cause more people to buy a 4gb iphone? If they produce a 6.5" x plus with 4gb of ram, how much faster would the net result be, since it would probably have second gen face id plus new emoji and AR capabilities?
 
raqball said:
No because most normal people don't have a clue what's in their phone. Geeks who are obsessed with specs probably amount to a very small fraction of sales.
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They may not know the difference in specs, but everyone will notice if a phone is smooth or glitchy. That's why so many people love iPhones because they "Just work" right.
 
2gb worked fine so 3gb will definitely help with future iOS features. I don’t have many complaints with iOS 11 but one of them would definitely be ram management. iOS 11 seems to need to reload certain apps and tabs much more frequently than iOS 10. I hope they fix that with future update or in iOS 12
 
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I'm happy, but I think I need band 71 and 4gb of ram. I just want to own a phone for 3 years. The longest I've made it in my life is 1 year on my galaxy s7e.
 
Hi,
I personally come from Android, too. And what I know so far and like about iOS is that it runs really smooth with much less resources than Android. Especially in terms of RAM. That is why I don't think 2 or 3 GB of RAM in an iPhone is by any means worse than 4 or 6 GB in an Android device...
Everyone seems to get disappointed by the work of iOS 11 but in my opinion it still works much better than most of Android phones. So, I assume 2 or 3 GB of RAM is still sufficient for iOS and will be in the following 2 - 3 years or so.
 
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Most of us only keep our phones 1 - 2 years anyway. I think a lot of people are making too much of the RAM issue in the iPhone X in the other thread.

Specs and performance are two different things. For me, the iPhone X has performed with grade A- marks. I am very happy with that.
 
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BasicGreatGuy said:
Most of us only keep our phones 1 - 2 years anyway. I think a lot of people are making too much of the RAM issue in the iPhone X in the other thread.
Click to expand...

Geeks being geeks.. Normal people couldn't care less. Its the same as the Intel -v- Qualcomm modem argument where people flip out over nothing at all. I remember correctly from a few years ago, maybe it was the 2013 MacBook Pro, that people were returning them 10 times trying to get the screen they read online was better. I can't remember which it was maybe they were returning the LG for a Samsung screen or vise-versa... Why? Because the internet said one was better than the other.

Apple had to remove the script that allowed people to see which screen they had that's how bad it was. I had the one that was deemed to be the terrible screen and it looked fine to me...

3GB of RAM is fine and 95%, or more, of actual users don't give a hoot...
 
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BasicGreatGuy said:
Most of us only keep our phones 1 - 2 years anyway. I think a lot of people are making too much of the RAM issue in the iPhone X in the other thread.

Specs and performance are two different things. For me, the iPhone X has performed with grade A- marks. I am very happy with that.
Click to expand...
I'm used to buying and selling phones every few months, but I'm tired of that. Hopefully iPhones this fall have 4gb and a 3000mah battery to really give them some longevity.
 
tonybarnaby said:
I'm used to buying and selling phones every few months, but I'm tired of that. Hopefully iPhones this fall have 4gb and a 3000mah battery to really give them some longevity.
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I don't see the need for selling and buying every few months. That is not what I would call normall behavior, in my opinion. Maybe you should look at the reasoning behind that behavior, instead of looking at the tech.

I understand that our phones are, for all intent and purposes, small computers. At the same time, I am not of the mindset, that I want my iPhone X (or the next phones) to do all the same things my 2017 iMac can. And I think that is where a lot of people get lost in constantly looking for something that isn't marketed as such, nor intended to be a full-fledged desktop replacement.
 
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BasicGreatGuy said:
I don't see the need for selling and buying every few months. That is not what I would call normall behavior, in my opinion. Maybe you should look at the reasoning behind that behavior, instead of looking at the tech.

I understand that our phones are, for all intent and purposes, small computers. At the same time, I am not of the mindset, that I want my iPhone X (or the next phones) to do all the same things my 2017 iMac can. And I think that is where a lot of people get lost in constantly looking for something that isn't marketed as such, nor intended to be a full-fledged desktop replacement.
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You're probably right. Buying andv selling phones means I get to try out a bunch and not lose a ton of money either. I'm ready for some stability now.
 
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tonybarnaby said:
I just want to own a phone for 3 years. The longest I've made it in my life is 1 year on my galaxy s7e.
Click to expand...
I have a 6s+ as my primary phone. Bought in September 2015.

iPhone 5 bought on launch day September 2012 is my secondary phone.

I also have a 4s that was passed along to me. No idea when it was bought.

Before iPhone I had an HTC Touch Pro for 3.5 years. And before that a Sanyo Katana for 2.5 years.

Doing 2 to 3.5 or more years with a phone is easy when you don't have a lot of money and your habits don't change over time. There's nothing I do now that I haven't done in the past on any of these phones (well, except apps on the Katana).
 
tonybarnaby said:
I'm used to buying and selling phones every few months, but I'm tired of that. Hopefully iPhones this fall have 4gb and a 3000mah battery to really give them some longevity.
Click to expand...

Every few months for buying and selling smart phone seems like a lot, I can see how that would be fatiguing. Generally we know most consumers do not upgrade annually, likely because of subsidized Carrier bills, rising smart phone costs and consumers typically do not focus on marketing enough with smart phones. Even those who upgrade annually, look for validation on what entices them to want to upgrade for the most part. Even with all the latest specifications/hardware for new iPhones every year, the two main core parts of the iPhone that keep me retained is iOS and security.
 
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tonybarnaby said:
Being new to iphones, I was shocked to see the newest phones have only 3gb of ram. I would be happier with 4. Not for today, but in a year or 2. The fact the 6 only has 1gb of ram and can still run ios11 is incredible to me. The basic Android flagship has anywhere from 4-8gb of ram. 8gb on the OnePlus 5t is excessive and a bit of a marketing ploy, but more ram is always good.

Eventually 3gb of ram will not be sufficient. I think the X will become limited sooner than the 8+, due to face Id and the other sensors and features it has over the 8+. The 8+ was outdated looks wise the day they announced it, but I just feel like using an 8+ in 2020 or 2021 could be better than a first gen x at the same time.

Did Apple purposely limit the ram this year so that 2018 they could cause more people to buy a 4gb iphone? If they produce a 6.5" x plus with 4gb of ram, how much faster would the net result be, since it would probably have second gen face id plus new emoji and AR capabilities?
Click to expand...
In our house are iPhone 8 Plus, X and two IPP. None are slow or glitchy.
 
tonybarnaby said:
They may not know the difference in specs, but everyone will notice if a phone is smooth or glitchy. That's why so many people love iPhones because they "Just work" right.
Click to expand...
Extra ram is for more to do with apps not refreshing..smoothness isn’t down to what ram it has.
 
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I’d be surprised if they bumped up the RAM to 4gb this fall. Probably in 2019.
 
As others have said, most people don’t know or care how much RAM is in their phone, or even what that really means. They just care that the phone runs smoothly. And frankly, because of hardware and software optimization, iOS devices run as well or better with 2 or 3 GB of RAM as Android device do with 4 or 6, and typically exhibit greater longevity. Numbers don’t tell the whole story.
 
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I had a 7 Plus that I upgraded to the X solely because I was on Apple's upgrade program
If I hadn't upgraded I would have been perfectly happy, and have even thought of moving to the SE
Not everyone requires the latest and greatest or the most powerful phone on the planet
For what I ask of my phone, most any model (Android or iPhone) from the past 4 years would probably be sufficient
 
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If iPhones would run on Android you would have a point, but they don't so 3GB is more than enough (hell even the 2GB in the iPhone 7 isn't any problem).
 
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