In early March, the company Vivo introduced the world’s first smartphone with 6 GB of RAM — now this indicator is the flagship. Top Apple phones are equipped with 2 GB of RAM, Samsung 4 GB of RAM. Colleagues from Zoom decided to find out what amount of RAM actually enough to the average user in 2016.
The experiment is based on personal feelings and (in part) on the tables of benchmarks, all conclusions are subjective. Below are seven options of RAM available in modern smartphones.
512 megabytes
Time of flowering: 2011
Best models: iPhone 4S, Nokia Lumia 520
This volume was considered the top Android five years ago. The same amount of RAM got the iPhone 4 and 4S, the latter has survived to our days is probably the update to iOS 9 was his last. As for Windows Phone, then there is 512 MB Lumia 520 has left the brightest trace in the history: in January of this year she held a 12.9% share of all WP devices.
Alas, now 512 MB is officially obsolete. With this size are only sold low end Android smartphones in the price range from three to seven thousand. Naturally, no updates to Android 5.1 (and 6.0) is not expected. Applications will slow down, and the cache will have to constantly clean. The only acceptable option is to buy a smartphone as a backup, not load apps and use the touch as a “dialer”.
1 Gigabyte
Time of flowering: 2012
Best models: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, A-line Samsung, Microsoft Lumia 535
For example, gigabytes of RAM can make a profound conclusion: Apple is able to optimize the mobile OS under the amount of RAM, and Google. Android-devices GB was a symptom of the flagship four years ago, and in iOS all the way — even now more or less up iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus work flawlessly with a tiny (by Google’s standards) amount of RAM.
In Microsoft all controversial. On the one hand, high-end phones already have much more RAM, on the other, the middle and budget smartphones operate perfectly well with a Gigabyte. The updates on latest OS versions are supported, too.
Current Android also finally made friends with this volume: the market enough devices with gigabytes of RAM, and a 5.1 Lollipop pre-installed.
The main disadvantage — the applications running in the background. For example, on the iPhone 6 if you watched the movie in the browser, then put it on pause and have searched the social network, the next time you visit the browser page with the movie will reboot and you will have to rewind to where you left off. In other mobile OS is similar.
1.5 gigabytes
Time of flowering: 2013-2014
Best gadgets: LG G4s, the Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016)
A compromise that Asian companies have come up with for their mini-flagships. To take about 300-400 dollars for a machine with a Gigabyte — shame, and to put two gigabytes is expensive (and pointless, if the main flagship of the same).
Accordingly, help and a half gigabytes of cache can be cleaned less often, the interface will be smoother, but no revolution compared to the gigabytes you’ll notice is how heavy the content will continue to “fly” in the standby mode.
2 gigabytes
Time of flowering: 2013-2014
Best gadgets: iPhone 6s, iPhone, SE, LG Nexus 5, Nokia Lumia 930
All Android flagships have moved on this amount in 2013, Microsoft — in 2014, Apple, in 2015. Objectively, two gigabytes of RAM is enough for all needs — from watching video to ultra-high-quality games weighing 1.5-2 GB. The best proof of universalism 2GB RAM — the iPhone 6s Plus, which is tearing the Galaxy S7 edge, Pure Moto X and Nexus 4 and 6P with 3 GB of RAM, performance tests.
Of course, the main role in this victory was played by the A9 chip (with 80% more powerful than the A8), but two gigabytes is not a bit annoying: the menu does not twitch and does not slow down, everything opens smoothly, and the “hard” content without a hitch be put on pause (and subsequent resumption). Same story with the Lumia 930, which was developed already in late 2013: no stuttering, no pauses in the work. With Android everything is a little worse (sometimes a smartphone responds to touch with tiny delay), but even the Nexus 5, which in the autumn will be three years, still quite suitable for demanding users.
3 GB
Time of flowering: 2014-2015
Best models: Samsung Galaxy S6, LG G4, HTC One M9, Microsoft Lumia 950
In 2014, the smartphone industry was overtaken by the crisis of the genre: the vendors are confused which parameter should be improved, so ran “pump” all the characteristics. Of course, RAM is also supposed to get a Gigabyte, which now does not seem superfluous — such a volume flagships (and flagship) for a long time is protected from interruptions in the operation of the interface.
Microsoft with 3 GB of RAM, there are just two phones — 950 and 950 XL. Most likely, they would be great and functioned with two gigabytes, but in Redmond reinsured and added a “fashion” the amount of RAM. Apple, apparently, is mutated up to three gigabytes this fall, when will release the iPhone 7, however, confirm this information is not: no one will be surprised if Cupertino will retain two gigabytes, and the seventh iPhone will again be the champion of benchmark tests.
4 gigabytes
Time of flowering: 2016
Best models: Samsung Galaxy S7, 5 Pro Meizu, LG V10
This amount is enough to forget the phrase “RAM of the smartphone” at least until the end of next year. However, there is a caveat: sometimes the RAM can’t keep up other features — then the owner of the gadget is waiting for a severe disappointment.
For example, in 2015 released the ASUS ZenFone 2 in versions with 4 GB of RAM, but hit the left of users have complained about weak battery, dim the screen backlight and fragile cover (although the new cover is in the range of 500 rubles).
By and large, between three and four gigabytes of RAM is not much difference, so when choosing a smartphone this criterion in any case should not be decisive.
6 GB
Time of flowering: 2016
Best models: Vivo Xplay 5 Ultimate Edition, Meizu Pro 6 (future)
In the last year or two Chinese companies fell in the tactics hit in the headlines with the help of the world’s first products. For example, in June was presented the first ever smartphone with a 10-core processor, but the name of that gadget, probably, already nobody will remember.
Perhaps the same fate awaits Vivo Xplay 5 Ultimate Edition. This smartphone has a metallic body, 5,43-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1400 pixels, glass Gorilla Glass 4, Snapdragon 820, 6 GB RAM, 128 GB internal memory, 16-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel front module and battery capacity of 3600 mAh.
Next smartphone with 6 GB of RAM will, most likely, Meizu Pro 6. In addition to an impressive amount of RAM he will get a Full HD screen and processor Samsung Exynos 8890. Why rich Chinese are placed in the casing as much as six gigabytes of RAM is a huge mystery.
