Is 1GB Of RAM Is Disastrous?

[lordofthereef]

I wouldn't be too upset if it stayed at 1GB of RAM.

No, no, don't lynch me yet. Let me explain.

If the new iPhone and iPad are released with 2GB of RAM, app developers will update all their apps with a larger memory pool in mind. This will mean that new versions of apps will start to suck on older devices. Even mobile websites might start to suck on older devices, because they will be tested on newer iPhones and iPads with 2GB of RAM.

If the new phone and tablets are released with 1GB of RAM, the memory constraint doesn't change. The fact that the iPhone and iPad already run great with 1GB means it's not absolutely necessary to go to 2GB yet.

Yes, 2GB would be nice, but I like to look on the bright side, and staying at 1GB will mean another year that apps and mobile websites won't become more bloated.

Thank you for putting the torches and pitchforks away.

Did this happen when we went from 512 to 1GB? Serious question by the way, because I don't know. I ask because, if it did happen, this is a legitimate concern. If it didn't, I am not so concerned.

Either way, at some point, when the do inevitably drop more ram in this thing, the device from just a year before will become effected. So I honestly don't personally see this as a valid reason/justification/excuse (having trouble picking the right term if you couldn't tell lol) for leaving RAM the way it is.

 

[nostresshere]

The larger the standard ram/storage is, the more the code seems to take. It was not that long ago when we bought hard drives that were measured in MB, no GB. Ram too. And we ran some pretty slick programs, with much slower processors.

 

[Applejuiced]

But plenty of them can at least keep half a dozen tabs open in a browser without needing to reload.

Smoothness was never my personal reason for wanting ore ram. I do more web browsing on my phone than any other device.

"Disaster" isn't a word I would use to define 1GB. But it certain is a less than desirable experience when web browsing. May not be an issue for most. I don't really know.

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Yes.

True, it would certainly be a welcome addition if it happens.
So what is this ram safari browser issue that some keep posting about?
When you click on the tab the page reloads?
Wouldnt that be a good thing so I don't have to manually reload the page when I open it to view the latest info on it?

 

[osofast240sx]

I will be getting the iphone 6, 5.5 inch. But I have heard many reports and many people saying it will have 1gb of ram.

I didnt realise this was an issue until people brought up that their tabs keep needing to refresh and I realised yes that is true so would it not be better if we had 2 gb? Of course iOS is very optimised but there is only so much you can do software wise.

So yes I will be getting the iphone 6 but look the galaxy note 4 has just been announced for release, which has 3gb of ram. I mean this phone is the direct competition of iphone, and has 3 times more ram, allegedly.

Obviously the iphone 6 hardware design is fixed now nothing can be done. But its true hardware wise apple are already behind with the big screen, and thick bezels, but the ram is probably a bigger issue.

I have not had any of the reloading issues and nothing to comprise my User Experience.

 

[lordofthereef]

True, it would certainly be a welcome addition if it happens.
So what is this ram safari browser issue that some keep posting about?
When you click on the tab the page reloads?
Wouldnt that be a good thing so I don't have to manually reload the page when I open it to view the latest info on it?

Depends on how long it's been sitting there.

If I am just referencing things and have a few tabs open, no, not really all that good. I can br bouncing between three tabs and refreshing one or two each time. On a news site, great. On a site that doesn't have a tendency to update their info multiple times a day, not so great.

 

[wilky76]

If the iPhone 6 does launch with 1GB of ram which now seems more likely then so will the 6S, then when the iPhone 7 comes along in 2016 then we see 2GB of ram for iOS10, by that time 4GB will be the norm on Android.

Even if the 5.5 does appear i can also see this being 1GB to.

And the same will go for the new iPads aswell.

Apple must feel that their current software runs fine on 1GB, and will continue to use just 1GB for both iOS8 & 9, until they reach the limits of what they can do with this amount of memory before adding 2GB.

I've no doubt iOS10 will also run great on just 1GB of ram, but 2GB will be needed for the new features in iOS10 & the iPhone 7.

 

[cfedu]

If the iPhone 6 does launch with 1GB of ram which now seems more likely then so will the 6S, then when the iPhone 7 comes along in 2016 then we see 2GB of ram for iOS10, by that time 4GB will be the norm on Android.

Even if the 5.5 does appear i can also see this being 1GB to.

And the same will go for the new iPads aswell.

Apple must feel that their current software runs fine on 1GB, and will continue to use just 1GB for both iOS8 & 9, until they reach the limits of what they can do with this amount of memory before adding 2GB.

I've no doubt iOS10 will also run great on just 1GB of ram, but 2GB will be needed for the new features in iOS10 & the iPhone 7.

They could put 2 Gb in the 6S, I see no reason why they could not. Based on previous iPhones the 6S will be almost identical externally, but internally it can have a big change.

 

[BenTrovato]

If the iPhone 6 does launch with 1GB of ram which now seems more likely then so will the 6S, then when the iPhone 7 comes along in 2016 then we see 2GB of ram for iOS10, by that time 4GB will be the norm on Android.

Even if the 5.5 does appear i can also see this being 1GB to.

And the same will go for the new iPads aswell.

Apple must feel that their current software runs fine on 1GB, and will continue to use just 1GB for both iOS8 & 9, until they reach the limits of what they can do with this amount of memory before adding 2GB.

I've no doubt iOS10 will also run great on just 1GB of ram, but 2GB will be needed for the new features in iOS10 & the iPhone 7.

If that's the case, that's a very disappointing 2 years of innovation or lack there of heading our way.

 

[Applejuiced]

Depends on how long it's been sitting there.

If I am just referencing things and have a few tabs open, no, not really all that good. I can br bouncing between three tabs and refreshing one or two each time. On a news site, great. On a site that doesn't have a tendency to update their info multiple times a day, not so great.

True, makes sense then.
Hope the 5.5 inch model has more ram.

 

[wilky76]

They could put 2 Gb in the 6S, I see no reason why they could not. Based on previous iPhones the 6S will be almost identical externally, but internally it can have a big change.

True they could put 2GB in the 6S, but ever iPhone for that gen have had the same amount of memory and i don't see that changing.

 

[osofast240sx]

If the iPhone 6 does launch with 1GB of ram which now seems more likely then so will the 6S, then when the iPhone 7 comes along in 2016 then we see 2GB of ram for iOS10, by that time 4GB will be the norm on Android.

Even if the 5.5 does appear i can also see this being 1GB to.

And the same will go for the new iPads aswell.

Apple must feel that their current software runs fine on 1GB, and will continue to use just 1GB for both iOS8 & 9, until they reach the limits of what they can do with this amount of memory before adding 2GB.

I've no doubt iOS10 will also run great on just 1GB of ram, but 2GB will be needed for the new features in iOS10 & the iPhone 7.

Apple has looked in a company that has developed 6gb ram chips for mobile use.

 

[tigres]

Ram is pathetic on iPad mini.
Tab reloads and crashes are just a way of life on it.

 

[cfedu]

True they could put 2GB in the 6S, but ever iPhone for that gen have had the same amount of memory and i don't see that changing.

3G had 128MB
3Gs had 256 MB

4 had a single core
4s had a dual core

5 32 bit
5S 64 bit

there is no rhyme or reason, its all about what apple wants us to have!

 

[myforwik]

The fundamental memory principal of iOS is that apps drop their ram usage when asked to do so - if they don't they are killed off (more correctly apple never accelts them in the first place). For safari this means dropping ram cache.

Apple will make the decision for ram purely on there use stats and performance testing. Everything we know suggests most users never run into low memory situations. What they do run into is situations where apps handle memory dumping in ways the user doesn't like (such as safari auto reloading).

You would think they could have safari save and load to flash. One of the leaks had an unexpected 1GB flash chip. It's possible apple are doing this:
1gb ram
1gb flash cache, such that ram is one level above it.
16/32/64/128fb storage.

The advantages of flash cache is that it uses way less energy. Ram has to be continuously powered and refreshed every few milliseconds. It also takes up a lot of space on the Soc.

The seperate packages for the flash chips could be because they will use a faster SSD style grade for the 1GB chip.

 

[Carlanga]

If the 5.5" has a rumored resolution that's higher than the iPads it'll definitely need 2gb at least. My retina mini struggles with 2-3 tabs if that

you need to update to the latest fw...

 

[myforwik]

Many people talking about safari seem to not know this trick:

If you enter and then leave private browsing, and you select keep-all - this will prevent those pages from ever being auto reloaded. It works because safari cannot refresh them because it no longer has the previous modes session/cookie information.

Even if the system runs out of ram it will store the open pages and content to flash.

 

[bandofbrothers]

Serious question: have the people who complain about issues with more than a few tabs opened tried using a browser other than Safari? Because I use Chrome on my phone, and while I don't usually have a lot of tabs open anyway since my phone has never been my primary device for web browsing, I haven't experienced the tab problems that others have described.

I use Atomic Browser on my iPad Air and even tho it has not been updated in an age I have NO re load of tabs whatsoever. So in my eyes the RAM issues does not hold water if this browser does not have re load of tabs issue.

If I use Safari on my iPad Air then occasionally the tabs do reload so it's got to be the safari browser !

 

[gto55]

2Gb is a minimum today for High-End smartphones

 

[makerleone]

If apple would go with 1GB ram, i am sure that not effect on demand of iPhone 6, i think i don't require higher capacity of ram 1GB is good for me. but if apple will gives 2GB ram so i won't have any problem to go with it.

 

[lordofthereef]

I use Atomic Browser on my iPad Air and even tho it has not been updated in an age I have NO re load of tabs whatsoever. So in my eyes the RAM issues does not hold water if this browser does not have re load of tabs issue.

If I use Safari on my iPad Air then occasionally the tabs do reload so it's got to be the safari browser !

The atomic browser seems to store the tab on your internal solid state storage. You can take a look by opening a bunch of tabs, going into settings>usage and looking at the difference between atomic and safari.

I just tested by opening 6 tabs (max on the free version) and had a 15mb file whereas safari, with the ame six tabs, is under 1MB.

I am absolutely not saying this is necessarily a problem. It's actually quite a nice way to solve the tab reloading issue. I will play around with the free version and perhaps even buy the full version. I wish the icon wasn't so damn ugly though lol.

 

[Technarchy]

Disastrous? No, but it sure as hell is not a good thing.

 

[mtneer]

Apple has managed to move beyond the specification race. They actually go out of their way to not release any details about technical specifications; or at least do not highlight specifications prominently.

Apple still sells Macbooks with 3 year old hardware and even today, if you go to the Macbook forums, there are people contemplating purchasing one new, full price.

Core Apple users here who actually know and care about these kind of specifications will buy the iPhone no matter what - even if Apple went nuts and reduced RAM to 512MB.

Others who do know and care about these specification are Android users, and will not be buying the iPhone anyways.

Everybody else is clueless and will remain clueless, just buying whenever they hear about the new iPhone from some morning show or a friend/ coworker and get tempted to buy something new. They probably will not even realize that their webpage refreshed, or heck, that Safari even had the ability to do tabbed browsing.

 

[bandofbrothers]

The atomic browser seems to store the tab on your internal solid state storage. You can take a look by opening a bunch of tabs, going into settings>usage and looking at the difference between atomic and safari.

I just tested by opening 6 tabs (max on the free version) and had a 15mb file whereas safari, with the ame six tabs, is under 1MB.

I am absolutely not saying this is necessarily a problem. It's actually quite a nice way to solve the tab reloading issue. I will play around with the free version and perhaps even buy the full version. I wish the icon wasn't so damn ugly though lol.

I don't mind the icon tbh.

I'm just happy that I no longer have the re loading tabs I had with Safari.

 

[nerdAFK]

I wouldn't be too upset if it stayed at 1GB of RAM.

No, no, don't lynch me yet. Let me explain.

If the new iPhone and iPad are released with 2GB of RAM, app developers will update all their apps with a larger memory pool in mind. This will mean that new versions of apps will start to suck on older devices. Even mobile websites might start to suck on older devices, because they will be tested on newer iPhones and iPads with 2GB of RAM.

If the new phone and tablets are released with 1GB of RAM, the memory constraint doesn't change. The fact that the iPhone and iPad already run great with 1GB means it's not absolutely necessary to go to 2GB yet.

Yes, 2GB would be nice, but I like to look on the bright side, and staying at 1GB will mean another year that apps and mobile websites won't become more bloated.

Thank you for putting the torches and pitchforks away.

Dude, that's not the attitude to innovate.
Old stuff will eventually be obsolete.
Yeah, iPhone and iPad already run great with 1GB, but it could do MUCH better if they got 2GB. Do not settle.
Plus, Apple should've put 2GB of RAM in iPhone 5s and iPads last year.

 

[recoil80]

I wouldn't be too upset if it stayed at 1GB of RAM.

No, no, don't lynch me yet. Let me explain.

If the new iPhone and iPad are released with 2GB of RAM, app developers will update all their apps with a larger memory pool in mind. This will mean that new versions of apps will start to suck on older devices. Even mobile websites might start to suck on older devices, because they will be tested on newer iPhones and iPads with 2GB of RAM.

If the new phone and tablets are released with 1GB of RAM, the memory constraint doesn't change. The fact that the iPhone and iPad already run great with 1GB means it's not absolutely necessary to go to 2GB yet.

Yes, 2GB would be nice, but I like to look on the bright side, and staying at 1GB will mean another year that apps and mobile websites won't become more bloated.

Thank you for putting the torches and pitchforks away.

I don't agree.
Apps that require a lot of ram and power are usually games, and of course games are optimised for the latest hardware. Of course a game released today sucks on an iphone 4 and 4S but is not just about RAM amount, is the CPU and GPU power missing.
More ram means more apps loaded at the same time without being purged from memory, so faster multitasking and no reloading.

But let's suppose you are right.
What happen if iPhone 6 is released with only 1GB of RAM?
You are happy today, and next year iPhone 6S is out with 2GB of RAM, so your iPhone 6 with only 1GB of ram starts to have problems with apps.

The more ram they put in, the better is for customers. The battery impact is low, so you gain performances at almost no cost.