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That's a good point, but again consumers can understand "the brain is smarter than any others on the market" and "holy crapnuggets :)p) check out how we got the camera to take pictures this good" vs RAM (which consumers still don't understand after 30+ years of a PC industry existing).

I'm not saying your points aren't valid, but Apple does a TON of work internally deciding what to focus on, and RAM is just not compelling to normal consumers and for whatever reason it seems to confuse them.
i don't really think them not mentioning RAM is an issue. There are dozens of reviews available before new iPhones hit the shelves.
 
Why is Apple so secretive about RAM? It makes no sense to me. Everyone finds out anyway; they may as well just list it in the specs.

Apple doesn't list RAM because they don't want to get locked into a meaningless spec war with Android. Android uses JAVA, which because of its memory management, requires roughly 1.5 to 2 times more RAM. That means a 1 GB iPhone is roughly as good as a 1.5 to 2GB Android phone, and 2 GB is roughly equivalent to a 3 to 4 GB Android phone. That's too hard to explain, so they just don't mention it.

Edit: Also, it's just confusing for 80% of the population, who probably could not tell the difference between RAM and storage memory.
 
I kinda wonder though, how do you come to that number? What workflows? Any captured data on actual memory use, or just anecdotal evidence?

I do think it is time for 2GB devices (especially the plus), but when I see people state this as fact with no hard evidence, it does suggest that us developers are simply not doing our job, or that we can't optimize correctly? Or somehow play no part at all?

To a point, the trade off is more RAM means less battery life, even in standby, as you have to keep that RAM powered and refreshed to maintain the data stored there. So you need to counteract it with a bigger battery or smaller transistors.

the "ram uses battery life" argument isn't something i really agree with, based off of personal research on the internet people generally agree that ram is the least power-hungry element of the phone.. so increasing 1gb to 2gb or 2gb to 3gb won't make a noticeable difference.

as for the "any captured data on actual memory use", i have been looking at the amount of memory used since the iphone 4 using jailbroken cydia apps.. it's no secret that as the years progress ios uses more and more ram (due to higher resolution displays,more advanced apps etc) and whilst 2gb will be fine for this year, do you really think in 3-4 years it'll still be as smooth as it is this year? i don't. but for those who upgrade every year, 2gb will be great. Unlike last year's model, 2gb is enough for this year
 
i don't really think them not mentioning RAM is an issue. There are dozens of reviews available before new iPhones hit the shelves.

I think the reviews are definitely what Apple wants. To them its about how the product functions, they'll tout the engineering when they need to, but at the end of the day it really is ALL about the user experience.

I hope you didn't think I was getting confrontational with you, I like these technical minded back and forth discussions here.
 
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Ok so with iOS 8/9 I now have nearly all the apps I use running in the background for constant location services updates. With iOS 9 running on my iPhone 6 Plus, I noticed that there is a lot of lag time. I thought that this might just be the Beta's but even the GM is slow when switching apps. I look forward to the extra 1GB from the 6s I have pre-ordered!


1GB. And how that RAM gets used depends on what is multitasking, and how many recent apps you expect to remain resident in memory at once.
 
Keep in mind, before the "wowz it took soon long" wave comes in, this 2GB of RAM is going outperform many/most of the 3GB+ devices out there. The amount of work they've done in memory compression (acquiring firms like anobit) and tuning the OS to the hardware is just staggering.
Yes and no.

Safari's just a PITA with 1GB of RAM. Also app switching.
Optimization or not, iPhones needed this much earlier.
You can only optimize so much and since RAM is pretty cheap and the profit margin of iPhones staggering they have taken too long.
Now that that's fixed we can concentrate on another, possibly even more hurtful under-specced aspect of iPhone, base storage capacity.

Glassed Silver:mac
 
Having used the 6+ all year since launch, I can tell you the problem is only there if you tend to leave ton of apps open (as in don't clean up the multi-tasking list of apps) and have background app refresh running for ALL apps.

Then again its really not a problem though as some apps will crash every once in a while which is almost normal on mobile devices. I wouldn't say the lack of extra 1GB of RAM crippled the 6+ in anyway and for vast majority of consumers, its still optimized to the point where they will not noticed the lack of RAM.

That isn't how multitasking works on iOS. It just means all your apps have to be reloaded from memory every time you open them rather than effectively "unpaused" by the OS. In the long term, clearing out the app switcher does next to nothing to benefit either performance or battery life.

And that's why it's called the app switcher.
 
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Why is Apple so secretive about RAM? It makes no sense to me. Everyone finds out anyway; they may as well just list it in the specs.

Because they don't want to get into a 'spec war' with Android phones, regardless of the user experience and optimisation once the 'average' consumer starts comparing phones on paper they're only going to see numbers and presume more RAM = better.

Hence why the only statistical comparisons Apple makes with new hardware is generally against older Apple products and generally it's the performance of the A-chips CPU & GPU performance - something that can't be directly compared to any other phone brand on paper.

Anything else is a broad 'best smartphone on the market' type claim which isn't objectively quantifiable.
 
LOL You do know the goal posts will move again, right? There will just be complaining that they don't have 4GiB RAM now.

Actually, it seems more people on this forum (presumably 6 & 6+ owners not planning to upgrade) are asserting that the RAM increase is pointless, and that 1 GB is plenty for everyone..!

Apple can't win!!
 
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Yes and no.

Safari's just a PITA with 1GB of RAM. Also app switching.
Optimization or not, iPhones needed this much earlier.
You can only optimize so much and since RAM is pretty cheap and the profit margin of iPhones staggering they have taken too long.
Now that that's fixed we can concentrate on another, possibly even more hurtful under-specced aspect of iPhone, base storage capacity.

Glassed Silver:mac
My guess is they've been waiting for LPDDR4 to hit the price point and density they've been designing around for the last few years. Apple is VERY picky when it comes to component purchasing, and I don't blame them, they are responsible for more NAND purchasing than any other device maker on the planet. It's one thing if your component is just going to ship in a few million units, to have it be in THE product of the company...well you don't just throw anything in there because "its pretty cheap".

But yes, I was having major issues on my iPad mini on iOS 8, not so much on my 5s (but it'd be nice for my music to remember where it was as I listen to lectures I have to import and don't always remember to check "remember position").
 
Apple does focus on specs, though--every year they talk about GPU and CPU performance.

They don't focus on specs. They focus on results. They didn't tell you that the iPad Air 2 has three cores, they don't tell you at how many GHz the iPad Pro runs, and they won't tell you how much RAM the newest iPhone has. They tell you how much faster they are than previous models, which is what's actually relevant.
 
I think the reviews are definitely what Apple wants. To them its about how the product functions, they'll tout the engineering when they need to, but at the end of the day it really is ALL about the user experience.

I hope you didn't think I was getting confrontational with you, I like these technical minded back and forth discussions here.
Not at all :)
 
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