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Xcode Confirms 2GB of RAM in iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, 4GB of RAM in iPad Pro

NT1440 said:
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").
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We don't know if Apple is using DDR4 yet...though we're only a tear down away from knowing.
 
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Pelea said:
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.
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Except here's the key difference: when I turn the display off, I still need to power the RAM. When the CPU is asleep, I still need to power the RAM. Dynamic RAM that we've used for ages can't hold the data unless it is powered and refreshed every so often. While it doesn't affect on "lit screen" time much, it does affect the total runtime you can get out of the device, and acts as a constant drain on the battery, no matter what you are doing. In Apple's world where battery life is being held by being efficient rather than bigger batteries, and they are also trying to hold a standby time to some bar, having that constant drain is something you don't want.

Pelea said:
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
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Of course hardware changes (display, 64-bit) and the like will affect RAM consumption. You aren't even going to see me argue that the 6+ isn't stretched from RAM. However, the statements of fact of what is a minimum, etc are naive without the data to show it, and the scenario you are using to set the bar for that minimum.

Am I happy to see the increase? Sure. But I also know why the engineering behind this isn't so cut and dry.
 
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ValO said:
I know, but at this development speed ,Apple will have an arm based desktop/laptop soc that will surpass Intel based desktop and laptops cpu' s (about 180?? % increase from A7 to a9x). This a9x already dishes current Intel M cpu' s.
In 2 years the current 12 inch MacBook will be arm based, with arm based OSX.
The current iPad pro will pave the way to develop the apps for it.
And further develop of the smart connector, will enable Apple to develop powerful hybrids.

It won' t be able to compete with workstation cpu' s in 2 years, but in 6 years it will.
X-86 for consumers is dying.
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in 6 years intel will have something better as well so your point is not too well thought out. If apple goes arm based on their laptops that will be the end of my mac usage. I moved to mac in part because they went w intel w my 2007 macbook, but if they start doing stupid decisions again I will move away.

Apps are wayyyy too limited to be useful in arm atm and don't see them lifting many of said limitations on workflow in the next few years w the way apple has been locking everything and just opening enough when others do something before them.
 
TSE said:
File explorers for locally-held files are going to be a thing of the past. Cloud is the future. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not next year. But within the next decade.
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Yeah keep telling yourself that. Cloud storage is the future. But local storage will still be needed.
 
Shookster said:
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.
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I think also because it is not a completely accurate comparison to other phones, so they don't want to make it. I think many would agree, due to Apple making the software and hardware, that a given amount of RAM on on an iPhone is "more" - (as in better optimized) than than the same amount of RAM on a competing device (but certainly not 2 for 1 - LOL). But layman don't understand that difference. So it is wiser from a marketing perspective to not compare the hardware. I don't know what that difference in actual RAM utilization is - so don't hate on me please. But my guess is that this is the reason they stay away from marketing it and therefore having to explain the disparity. My mother, and my daughter, really don't care. They understand screen resolution, 64gb v 128gb, megapixels of a camera, and that it runs 80% "snappier". Oh, and "wow, that rose color is pretty".
 
Carlanga said:
in 6 years intel will have something better as well so your point is not too well thought out. If apple goes arm based on their laptops that will be the end of my mac usage. I moved to mac in part because they went w intel w my 2007 macbook, but if they start doing stupid decisions again I will move away.

Apps are wayyyy too limited to be useful in arm atm and don't see them lifting many of said limitations on workflow in the next few years w the way apple has been locking everything and just opening enough when others do something before them.
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It will be interesting to see what happens to computing devices in the next couple of years, with the current A series chips from apple atleast in geekbench 3 scoring reaching near 2011 i5 processors, intel testing Core M chips for mobile phones, the continuum feature for windows phones which makes them pretty much little PC's as long as the app is a universal windows apps. Nice times ahead.
 
macfoxpro said:
I am going from a iPhone 6 Plus to a iPhone 6S. Anyone else doing this? Not sure if I will regret it or not. Any reason why I would, other than screen size???
2GB of RAM is great news.
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I'm doing the same. 6+ to 6S. OIS might be missed, as will the larger screen, but I'm thinking my hand and pocket will both thank me.
 
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solipsism said:
They aren't secretive about it, they simply don't consider that a relevant part of their spec sheet. That same goes for countless other specs. For example, they list the A9 chip but they don't tell you the CPU or GPU speed, or even how many cores each has. Why good would that do for marketing the device? Would it help customers buy an iPhone over an Android phone if they compare the CPU clock rate and the amount of RAM to find that Apple will have a lower amount in both cases? Any customer that looks at those across disparate OSes and HW architectures doesn't understand how performance works.

Bottom line: All that matters is that the device works well, and no one has better track record of well balanced devices than Apple.
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Well, if it's about CPU performance Apple should be really proud if you compare them to Android flagships like the S6 or the Note 5. Hell, even the A7 eats the Exynos found in the S6 by about 90 points in a Geekbench single-core benchmark, even though the A7 is more than 1.5 years older than the Exynos 7420. And the A8 eats the Exynos by 300+ points, even though it's clocked considerably lower. Keep in mind that it's the single-core scores that matter on a phone. Most of the stuff inside phones is heavily single-threaded and so a higher performance core is better than slapping a lot of lower performance cores in a phone just to get the benchmarks up high.

If Apple should be proud of anything it's their CPU designs.
 
C DM said:
Because for computers it has been done that way for ages and plays a more important role.
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That wasn't an excuse for laptops vs desktops. Phones are pocketable computers just as laptops are lapable computers.
 
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