Video Shows Benefits of 2GB RAM in iPhone 6s

[aleni]

I'm still not sure that there's anything that practically shows that going from 1 GB to 2 GB of RAM will result in any noticeable battery performance changes.

Oh yes it is. It's not reloading a lot of apps from scratch again. Like games, my fitness pal, safari, instagram, etc etc.

In my daily use, all of those are staying intact when i open it now. The games are light though. Bitcoin millionaire and bridge constructor.

 

[C DM]

They could've put in an A8 again too but instead they put in the arguably best phone chip on the market, the A9. Apple is such a generous company. (See how silly that logic is?). Also, doubling the RAM of the totally functional and highly rated iPhone 6 is significant, yet people still have something to whine about



Who is "resisting" the increase? There's a weird thing here with strawman arguments. You have people saying "Ah HA! More RAM *does* help when you said it wouldn't!" when of course no one said that, they just said their experience was fine with 1 GB.

Quite a few people essentially said that actually. They didn't just say their experience was fine they would usually say that people who need more RAM are doing things that they should be doing on a computer rather than a phone on a tablet, effectively saying that there isn't a need for make RAM in general since everyone should be fine using the device like they do. Plenty of discussions would go that way whenever this topic would be brought up in different threads.

 

[Glassed Silver]

Fine. Then sir, maybe you should move on and use other non-Apple products since you seem to have zero faith that Apple will give you what you want in the products you use. Wow.

Why do you feel the need to say something like that?

Clearly I don't like the other options on the market either, otherwise I'd have long switched I guess, but there are still benefits, doesn't mean that I cannot criticize Apple for what they do wrong.
In fact, I think it makes total sense, after all I want the best I can get for my money, so just like wanting strong competition I want that company to feel some heat by its WELL PAYING customers.

So why not go to a forum and exchange thoughts on Apple's performance from a customer point of view, or is that basking in numbers like we're ALL shareholders at a meeting here what you want this community to be?
Since, to be frank, as a customer I couldn't care less about their latest profits, but threads about that for some reason get all the applause, as soon as someone who loves their Apple products comes here and points out areas where Apple is slacking like mad it's all attack mode.

I've said it many times before, I'll say it again: Apple without fire is watered down.
Just like any company, Apple maybe a little less so, but as I have spent thousands of Euros on their products I sure as hell want to point out what I don't like, so I'll give them the fire they need.
Several years ago it was their underdog position that forced them to deliver properly, now apparently it has to be customer feedback.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[HenryDJP]

Why do you feel the need to say something like that?

Clearly I don't like the other options on the market either, otherwise I'd have long switched I guess, but there are still benefits, doesn't mean that I cannot criticize Apple for what they do wrong.
In fact, I think it makes total sense, after all I want the best I can get for my money, so just like wanting strong competition I want that company to feel some heat by its WELL PAYING customers.

So why not go to a forum and exchange thoughts on Apple's performance from a customer point of view, or is that basking in numbers like we're ALL shareholders at a meeting here what you want this community to be?
Since, to be frank, as a customer I couldn't care less about their latest profits, but threads about that for some reason get all the applause, as soon as someone who loves their Apple products comes here and points out areas where Apple is slacking like mad it's all attack mode.

I've said it many times before, I'll say it again: Apple without fire is watered down.
Just like any company, Apple maybe a little less so, but as I have spent thousands of Euros on their products I sure as hell want to point out what I don't like, so I'll give them the fire they need.
Several years ago it was their underdog position that forced them to deliver properly, now apparently it has to be customer feedback.

Glassed Silver:mac

Don't stretch this out to be a conversation we never had. I wasn't replying to you for criticizing Apple. You're making stuff up now. I was replying to you for you saying that Apple will never get any better in terms of them adding ram to their products. All I said was to give Tim Cook some time to correct some of Jobs' hard-headed ways of thinking. If anything I was agreeing on some respect. Then you start off about him being in the company for 4 years. Big Wow, 4 years. Maybe you should take over running a major corporation and make major changes after it's successor laid a strong foundation for the company.

There are more things wrong with Apple that need attention other than Ram in an iPhone. I hope you realize that? You're looking at this from a selfish point of view rather than a realistic one. It takes time for a CEO to fix a lot of what's wrong with a company. The new Microsoft CEO is having a tough time turning around Steve Ballmer's mess. As much as I don't care for Microsoft I think the new CEO is definitely on the right track in terms of his way of thinking but it will take many years for him to fix Microsoft and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

As far you coming to a forum to "exchange thoughts". Sure, let's all join together and have a pity party hating on Apple. Apparently that's what you prefer to see going on rather than people being happy with their products. You should go directly to Apple with your concerns. Telling each other here about our displeasure in the company builds a snowball effect.

And the part of your post that I boldfaced, don't give me that. There's more criticism against Apple on this forum then there are people who celebrate them. You should feel right at home. Don't anyone dare say they are satisfied with their Apple product, they will be called an blind Apple apologist.

See, I would support your post.....in fact I have supported most people's posts in regards to the ram, but your post came across suggesting that all Apple's competitors are doing everything right and Apple's the only one screwing up with no chance of them getting better. That's why I replied to it. You can deny that's what you were suggesting but you're not the one receiving your posts, the rest of us are.

 

[kaielement]

It's enough if you don't need 20 tabs stored in memory

I found that even with one tab open it would reload. For example one time I left Safari with one tab open to look at a phone number in my contacts. I needed the phone number to input on a form I was filling out. I got the number went back to Safari only to find the page reloaded and I had to input all the info again. Super annoying. That is one of the reasons I love the 6s is the 2gb of ram.

 

[antonm73]

Just checked that phone out. It's good but TBH it's a low to mid range phone. The geekbench scores are in the range of the iPhone 5, which you can get hold of for just a few quid more than this phone these days, but some of the features such as the display, the camera (despite having more megapixels...) and battery won't be as good as the 5.

At the end of the day you get what you pay for, and spec sheets aren't the be all and end all of a phone, they are just one aspect you have to consider.

It is low to mid correct. Benchmarks are okay but lets face it real world usage is what the user experiences. The iPhone 5S is still £379 for the bottom of the range not really comparable at more than double the cost of that low-end Android. BTW this is not a iPhone vs Android debate. I just think Apple are getting even more greedy than ever and the least that they could do is pack some decent RAM amount of RAM in it. I bet your bottom dollar that if the new iPhone had 4GB in it then they would have made that news plenty known.

 

[antonm73]

The only "spec" Apple is behind their competition is RAM amount. A9 is faster than anything out there.

And so they should at the cost. I'm not knocking the iPhones hardware, I'm knocking the sheer greed of charging that amount for a phone and not packing it with 4GB when compared to competitors phones.

 

[macduke]

Don't like the shape and it's too light, so not interested. Still happy with my 5S.

Ummmm…the 5s is 120g and the 6s is 143g. You want an even heavier phone? I think the shape is more comfortable than the 5s, but that combined with the materials and finish make it very slippery. So I can see that point. But not the weight. If anything being lighter would make it less prone to slipping out of the hand and impact the ground with a little less force.

 

[symphara]

The only "spec" Apple is behind their competition is RAM amount. A9 is faster than anything out there.

That is worthy of a "what did the Romans ever did for us moment"...

As far as specs go, Apple is behind the competition not only on RAM quantity but now type of (LPDDR4), plus many others such as camera (quality & resolution), screen tech (OLED > IPS), battery life, probably anything but single-thread CPU speed etc.

The spec in question (1Gb to 2Gb of RAM) is crucial. I am very happy for the 6s owners that they're getting 2Gb of memory. The one thing that drives me completely nuts on my iPad, and the reason why I will never buy another one, is the awful browsing experience, with constant tab reloads and the daily "A problem occurred with this webpage so it was reloaded", probably also due to the general lack of memory.

My lowly Android phone, with its 2Gb of RAM, won't evict a web page even if I exit the browser and start Hearthstone, which is the worst memory hogger I have.

 

[Jsameds]

It is low to mid correct. Benchmarks are okay but lets face it real world usage is what the user experiences. The iPhone 5S is still £379 for the bottom of the range not really comparable at more than double the cost of that low-end Android. BTW this is not a iPhone vs Android debate. I just think Apple are getting even more greedy than ever and the least that they could do is pack some decent RAM amount of RAM in it. I bet your bottom dollar that if the new iPhone had 4GB in it then they would have made that news plenty known.

4GB RAM is only necessary on a mobile device in 2015 if your device has poor memory management. Sorry but it's the truth. And adding that to the iPhone 6 wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference performance wise as it doesn't even max out 2GB.

I know you can get cheaper Android devices, but like I said you get what you pay for in the end, and IMO the iPhone 6S is worth every penny. It truly is an astounding phone, I literally couldn't be happier with it

 

[macduke]

That's the same reason as it is for desktop computers, ie, it doesn't help to explain this purported difference. I think you might be confusing here the theoretical increase if things were moved to 64-bit without any modification and the actual increase after people make the obvious changes to their code to adapt it to 64-bit.

My real world experience seemed to match their numbers. The 64-bit chips would eject things from memory much sooner than they did on my iPhone 5. It was especially apparent when switching between tabs in Safari. My 5 could hold several tabs open and my 6 Plus could not. Same thing with my Mini 2 with the A7 vs my iPad Air 2.

 

[ke-iron]

Anyone else not seeing that big of a difference?

It's a huge difference. I came from a 6 to a 6s plus. It's way faster! One or 2 seconds might not seem much but during constant use m, you'd get used to it as it feels so much snappier!

 

[symphara]

4GB RAM is only necessary on a mobile device in 2015 if your device has poor memory management. Sorry but it's the truth.

You know, Android actually has excellent memory management. As the owner of both iOS and Android devices, I can tell you that only with iOS I have to (frequently) swipe away stuff that's open, to try and get better behaviour from the device. Certainly, the fact that Android phones have more memory helps too. Even my old (now retired) Nexus 4 had 2Gb of RAM and I never worried about memory usage or had to close background apps so that not everything had to reload, all the time, as it does on iOS.

I know you can get cheaper Android devices, but like I said you get what you pay for in the end, and IMO the iPhone 6S is worth every penny. It truly is an astounding phone, I literally couldn't be happier with it

Personally I think it's great that you're happy with the 6S. But it's certainly not always the case that you get what you payed for in the end. This idea is silly. I can give you tons of examples of cheaper products outperforming more expensive ones, and I'm sure that if you thought about it, you'd realize it too. Value for money is what's important here, and some Android phones have far greater value for money than the latest iPhone.

Nothing wrong with having the latest iPhone and loving it, but not everyone who doesn't have one is doing so because they cannot afford it...

 

[Dmunjal]

4GB RAM is only necessary on a mobile device in 2015 if your device has poor memory management. Sorry but it's the truth. And adding that to the iPhone 6 wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference performance wise as it doesn't even max out 2GB.

I know you can get cheaper Android devices, but like I said you get what you pay for in the end, and IMO the iPhone 6S is worth every penny. It truly is an astounding phone, I literally couldn't be happier with it

Samsung TW and maybe other skins have poor memory management but stock Android is just as good or better than iOS. I wouldn't say iOS has good memory management. All iOS does is kill applications when memory is full. Nothing genius about that.

If you're talking about how lean iOS is, that may have been true a few years ago. But iOS uses much more RAM than it used to because of the additional features that have been added.

 

[crazysword]

That is worthy of a "what did the Romans ever did for us moment"...

As far as specs go, Apple is behind the competition not only on RAM quantity but now type of (LPDDR4), plus many others such as camera (quality & resolution), screen tech (OLED > IPS), battery life, probably anything but single-thread CPU speed etc.

The spec in question (1Gb to 2Gb of RAM) is crucial. I am very happy for the 6s owners that they're getting 2Gb of memory. The one thing that drives me completely nuts on my iPad, and the reason why I will never buy another one, is the awful browsing experience, with constant tab reloads and the daily "A problem occurred with this webpage so it was reloaded", probably also due to the general lack of memory.

My lowly Android phone, with its 2Gb of RAM, won't evict a web page even if I exit the browser and start Hearthstone, which is the worst memory hogger I have.

If you want to be taken seriously, you need to make sure your facts are correct.

"not only on RAM quantity but now type of (LPDDR4)"

It's already LP-DDR4

"such as camera (quality & resolution)"
The S6/Note 5 have the best camera sensor right now at 16mp and 1/2.6'". Apple would need to improve on this by implementing a bigger sensor.

I will wait for DxO mark to review the camera before drawing a conclusion though.

"screen tech (OLED > IPS)"
Right it's probably time to move on to OLED for the increased power efficiency. That being said let's wait for displaymate to review the 6s before deciding whether one is better than the other.

"battery life"

I am very surprised to hear that you included this. I guess you mean battery capacity, not "life".

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9662/iphone-6s-and-iphone-6s-plus-preliminary-results

Battery life seems to be the best in class.

One of the reasons why I am considering switching to an iPhone is because of the battery life. My Note 3 has horrible standby battery life and this is one issue that has plauged Android phones since inception.

Until they fix the wakeclock/google play/ etc, they phone just drains away even when not in use.

 

[TommyA6]

That is worthy of a "what did the Romans ever did for us moment"...

As far as specs go, Apple is behind the competition not only on RAM quantity but now type of (LPDDR4), plus many others such as camera (quality & resolution), screen tech (OLED > IPS), battery life, probably anything but single-thread CPU speed etc.

The spec in question (1Gb to 2Gb of RAM) is crucial. I am very happy for the 6s owners that they're getting 2Gb of memory. The one thing that drives me completely nuts on my iPad, and the reason why I will never buy another one, is the awful browsing experience, with constant tab reloads and the daily "A problem occurred with this webpage so it was reloaded", probably also due to the general lack of memory.

My lowly Android phone, with its 2Gb of RAM, won't evict a web page even if I exit the browser and start Hearthstone, which is the worst memory hogger I have.

iPhone 6s uses LPDDR4 RAM, has as good camera as the competition and beats everything in CPU/GPU tests. Even multicore.
The only mobile display on par or slightly better than iPhone 6 Plus is Galaxy S6/Note 5.

 

[symphara]

Samsung TW and maybe other skins have poor memory management

To directly quote you, "that may have been true a few years ago". I bought this spring a new (and cheap) Galaxy Alpha to bridge me to the next Nexus, and, having no experience with TouchWiz, I expected to dislike it, possibly hate it (never having read good things about it).

I was left perplexed as to what's the fuss about. TouchWiz is not extraordinary in any way. It fully resembles stock Android or, for that purpose, the iOS interface, practically the difference is in insignificant details. There's no memory "management" problem, for sure, it wouldn't be anyway since this is done by the kernel and not the launcher. But in any case it's fast and lean. Perhaps it was bad prior to 2014, certainly not now.

 

[antonm73]

4GB RAM is only necessary on a mobile device in 2015 if your device has poor memory management. Sorry but it's the truth. And adding that to the iPhone 6 wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference performance wise as it doesn't even max out 2GB.

I know you can get cheaper Android devices, but like I said you get what you pay for in the end, and IMO the iPhone 6S is worth every penny. It truly is an astounding phone, I literally couldn't be happier with it

well that's the main thing I suppose.

 

[QuarterSwede]

I have 3 widgets on my iPhone.

3 is 2 too many in my experience. I can load one and it's manageable. Any more than that and it's reloading apps and tabs constantly.

 

[symphara]

If you want to be taken seriously, you need to make sure your facts are correct.

Disclaimer: I don't intend to be taken seriously. Happy?

"not only on RAM quantity but now type of (LPDDR4)"

It's already LP-DDR4

Ok didn't know that. Strike it off the list. Still, 3Gb of LPDDR4 > 2Gb of LPDDR4. Case closed.

"such as camera (quality & resolution)"
The S6/Note 5 have the best camera sensor right now at 16mp and 1/2.6'". Apple would need to improve on this by implementing a bigger sensor.

I will wait for DxO mark to review the camera before drawing a conclusion though.

Wait until the new Xperia Z5. I've seen photos taken by journalists (not the utterly stunning ones demo'ed by Sony) and they were, ahem, equally stunning. Different class to the iPhone altogether.

"screen tech (OLED > IPS)"
Right it's probably time to move on to OLED for the increased power efficiency. That being said let's wait for displaymate to review the 6s before deciding whether one is better than the other.

My sister visited me a couple of months ago. She's an avid iPhone user - she'd had, I believe, every single one. Upgrades religiously. We went out mountaineering (I live in Switzerland) and I forgot my DSLR, so we ended up taking photos with our phones. We used the phones about equally much, which was a lot.

Now, at the time she had the 6, so of course, put this in perspective. But three things happened:

(1) she was amazed at how good the (rather unspectacular pentile-matrix 1280x800, if you ask me) AMOLED looked compared to her IPS, which was definitely washed out when looked at side-by-side.
(2) she was amazed at how much better photos my Alpha took, as in, there was really no comparison (mind you, it needs reasonably good light and we certainly had it)
(3) her phone died at some point. Mine lasted until we got home. True, I had to turn on the power-saving mode in the evening, but it saw me home.

"battery life"

I am very surprised to hear that you included this. I guess you mean battery capacity, not "life".

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9662/iphone-6s-and-iphone-6s-plus-preliminary-results

Battery life seems to be the best in class.

One of the reasons why I am considering switching to an iPhone is because of the battery life. My Note 3 has horrible standby battery life and this is one issue that has plauged Android phones since inception.

I'm not sure what you mean by "best in class", but my father-in-law's ancient Z1 lasts two days on one charge. I saw this first-hand.

Until they fix the wakeclock/google play/ etc, they phone just drains away even when not in use.

Personally I don't have any battery problems with mine. Lasts a full day with my use pattern.

Unless the 6s lasts two days on a charge, it's far from being "best in class".

 

[ISanych]

Great. So now I can finally have 50 websites open (who doesn't need that!) at the same time, meanwhile I am still envying my friends with wireless charging.

Currently I cannot open 1 page (http://www.theguardian.com) on iPad Air without issues - it is often reloaded couple of times before safari gives up. Most reliable way to do it - is to kill safari and start it again. And don't tell me about guardian app - it is crap. Wireless charging is easier to solve - there are such cases.

 

[Ethosik]

Sure, but the fact that those chasing specs forget is that when the ceiling is raised, developers build bigger buildings, rather than better, more space-efficient buildings. Then the higher ceiling is no longer high enough, and users start clamouring for more.... and the cycle never ends. Users need to keep the heat on developers, including Apple, to ensure the RAM footprint needed for apps is kept as optimal as possible. Was RAM the only way to store background pages? Couldn't Apple have quickly cached that page to disk and restored it again quickly, rather than reloading over the network? There's usually more than one solution to the problem.

Exactly, it will be frustrating if they add 3GB in for 7 or 7s. Soon developers will create apps that need the 2GB, then you won't be able to use it on your 6. That is why Apple is lagging behind on the RAM. Not because they are cheap. Designing a new processor costs more than putting more RAM in. Do you guys SERIOUSLY think it is just Apple being cheap?

 

[Ethosik]

Didn't say near future.
Also didn't say they'll never upgrade RAM again, just that they'll be too slow to do so again.

Giving Tim Cook more time? What for?
He's been in absolute control of the company for 4 years now and I have a whole list of things that accumulated during that time that I don't like about Apple, many of which arose during those 4 years.

I see some positive change under Cook, but a lot of bad change as well.

More time, it's not like it's 2013 anymore, he's showing his priorities clearly and I don't like some of them.

Glassed Silver:ios

Do you guys seriously think that Apple doesn't plan for the 7 and 7s already? The Apple Watch and most of the recent stuff was probably STARTED under Steve Jobs.

 

[yticolev]

My sister visited me a couple of months ago. She's an avid iPhone user - she'd had, I believe, every single one. Upgrades religiously. We went out mountaineering (I live in Switzerland) and I forgot my DSLR, so we ended up taking photos with our phones. We used the phones about equally much, which was a lot.

Now, at the time she had the 6, so of course, put this in perspective. But three things happened:

(1) she was amazed at how good the (rather unspectacular pentile-matrix 1280x800, if you ask me) AMOLED looked compared to her IPS, which was definitely washed out when looked at side-by-side.
(2) she was amazed at how much better photos my Alpha took, as in, there was really no comparison (mind you, it needs reasonably good light and we certainly had it)

AMOLED colors are not accurate. You might like excessive color saturation better, but you cannot say with any truth that the pictures are better based on your phone screen. Upload and look at both camera's pictures on a high resolution computer screen (or even a highly saturated TV) to compare properly on the same page.

 

[anomie]

This is the best feature of the new iPhone and Apple won't even specifically acknowledge it.

Sometimes, specs DO matter.

THAT is the best feature? What are you? A child? People in business couldn't care less.