It certainly doesn't "lack RAM", it has less RAM than the iPhone 4 and certainly less than the next version will have, but you won't use up 256MB at all. Not to mention, it's all flash memory, the storage space is nearly as fast as the RAM AND the type of multi-tasking that iOS uses, Apple could easily utilize a "Page File / Swap File" type setup IF that RAM was utilized. It doesn't really need it at this point for any software currently out there.
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Is the current iPad really THAT slow???
- Thread starter PhaserFuzz
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Sorry to go against the grain of common opinion here, but mine is noticeably slower compared to my desktop. It's only slower loading web pages, nothing else. And maybe not significantly so, but noticeably so.
Not slow, but it has very little RAM.
There is only usually 100-150MB of usable RAM when the iPad is running without apps, it gets annoying when Apps can't run in the backgorund or have to refresh like Safari.
There is only usually 100-150MB of usable RAM when the iPad is running without apps, it gets annoying when Apps can't run in the backgorund or have to refresh like Safari.
That has nothing to do with the RAM, and everything to do with the way "Mutlitasking" on iOS works. It's not ACTUALLY multitasking. My iPhone 4 has twice the RAM, and if I have just safari open, switch to another App (which is using little RAM) Safari will refresh. Same with everything else, maybe if later updates offer REAL multi-tasking, then this generation of iPad will fall behind and not be able to handle it, but right now it's enough RAM to handle current software. Future-proofing a mobile device, right now, isn't going to happen. As long as people are buying them up, it doesn't make business sense, and it's such a race for performance it's hard to do so and keep the price marketable. This whole mobile product race is kind of a Carbon Copy of the desktop hardware race of several years ago.
Just so you know you are not alone.
My iPad, and I suspect everyone else's, also renders a web site much slower than my desktop computer.
CPU Speed, GPU Speed and RAM I guess are the reason why.
Oh and the fact the iPad cannot get the full speed from the network, due to it's internal antenna construction does not help either. Even though I'm sure it's fast enough for the iPad to handle
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)
My iPad is running just as fast as the day that I got it, even after doing the iOS 4.2 update.
My iPad is running just as fast as the day that I got it, even after doing the iOS 4.2 update.