More RAM in Android Phones – and why that’s stupid!

[Ink]

Read article: The Samsung Galaxy S20 has more RAM than most laptops – and that’s stupid
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You might have noticed that Samsung has released several new phones recently, and the Galaxy S20 range are the latest handsets to come with a frankly ludicrous amount of RAM: a choice of 8GB and 12GB of the stuff.

The fact that Samsung is pushing phones with that kind of memory is at best pointless, and at worse insulting to customers who are paying for RAM they shouldn’t need.

More streamlined and better optimized operating systems, like Chrome OS and Linux, don’t need that kind of RAM. That’s why you see Chromebooks with 2GB and 4GB of the stuff – and they run absolutely fine.

Android, the operating system the Samsung Galaxy S20 runs on, is the most successful operating system in the world for a reason – it’s lightweight and versatile enough to run on billions of smartphones and tablets, the vast majority of which have nowhere near 8GB of RAM.

Meanwhile, the Android apps that you’ll be running on the Galaxy S20 will be designed for the bulk of Android devices which have limited RAM capabilities.

Putting that much RAM into a smartphone isn’t cheap – and the Samsung Galaxy S20, at a price of $999 / £899 / AU$1,499, is one of the most expensive smartphones ever. It’s $100 more than what the Galaxy S10 launched at, and a big part of that high price will be because of the RAM. That means that Samsung is charging people for something I just don’t think they are going to use. That’s not good.

There’s also more serious longer term repercussions of Samsung using this much RAM, however.

You see, if this encourages smartphones to contain ever-more RAM, we could see smartphone OSes and apps becoming ever more bloated. If they have all that RAM to play around with – why waste all that time trying to optimize them?
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[Local Host]

Is not stupid cause people will buy it, they only care about the bigger number and think instantly it's better (even though that amount of RAM is unneeded for Android).

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

The writer is definitely an idiot and short-sighted... many people are gaming on their phones, and when you see the graphics on some games, you better have lot of RAM...
After all, nobody is forcing you to buy the Flagship model...

 

[Local Host]

The writer is definitely an idiot and short-sighted... many people are gaming on their phones, and when you see the graphics on some games, you better have lot of RAM...
After all, nobody is forcing you to buy the Flagship model...

The smartphones are limited by their CPU and GPU, more RAM won't miraculously increase performance.

Having 50 apps loaded into the RAM, won't use more than 3GB (and you won't find any smartphone game using 4GB, leave alone 16GB). Not to mention the more RAM a phone has, the higher the power consumption is.

Nowadays, with more memory available, the perception that free RAM is an indicator of performance is a misconception. In fact, for a smartphone it’s the opposite, loading an app from storage into memory requires a lot of processing power.

Vendors will engage in a specifications war where they’ll overprovision the amount of RAM simply because it’s a selling point (which is what is happening here).

 

[ForgottenSeer 85911]

phone OEMs take advantage of people just wanted highest specs willing to pay for it without question
laptop OEMs do it all the time with discrete GPU which raises price $400 for most people who not need it
such "upselling" sales just increases gross margins

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

Having 50 apps loaded into the RAM, won't use more than 3GB (and you won't find any smartphone game using 4GB, leave alone 16GB). Not to mention the more RAM a phone has, the higher the power consumption is.

Yeah? do you have an Android 10 phone? my S10+ already uses 3.5GB without anything opened, and im not the kind of user who install 100 apps with gazillion of processes who run in the background....so yes, i need at least 8gb.
More the OS develop, more RAM you will, as any other OS.

 

[Local Host]

Yeah? do you have an Android 10 phone? my S10+ already uses 3.5GB without anything opened, and im not the kind of user who install 100 apps with gazillion of processes who run in the background....so yes, i need at least 8gb.
More the OS develop, more RAM you will, as any other OS.

Samsung can't be used as an example for Android OS, cause Samsung phones are bloated with unnecessary changes to the UI, APPs and Kernel (to the point it even has more vulneraries compared to a clean Android OS).

A clean Android OS doesn't use 3.5GB whasoever.

Any Android Smarpthone that isn't from Google, that doesn't have Android One, is bloated. Is the same as claiming Manjaro needs 8GB of RAM, cause you tried a custom version off it, bloated with changes and software.

 

[Handsome Recluse]

they only care about the bigger number and think instantly it's better

until they figure out the gist of things.

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

Samsung can't be used as an example for Android OS, cause Samsung phones are bloated with unnecessary changes to the UI, APPs and Kernel (to the point it even has more vulneraries compared to a clean Android OS).

Samsung is the reason Android became popular... people buy Samsung, not Android, like people buy Iphones , not IOS,
then years later you could see all those Chinese phones and especially Huawei,
Google Phone? never see anyone with one, they are mostly a US thingy LOL

A clean Android OS doesn't use 3.5GB whasoever.

There is no such thing as a clean android OS, because they are supposed to be shipped with the most popular apps (Facebook, Candy Crush, etc...), this is what most buyers expect, they don't want a naked OS, they aren't geek looking for performance. They want use dozen of apps and games simultaneously and want the phone to handle them.

Any Android Smarpthone that isn't from Google, that doesn't have Android One, is bloated.

Google phones are niche market worth only in the US , it is at the bottom of the list worldwide . Without the big names such as Samsung or Huawei, Android would be no better than Windows Mobile...

Now i agree most phones are bloated with apps, but this is how the business is, and you can't say 8gb RAM is too much when most phones requires them.

 

[Local Host]

Samsung is the reason Android became popular... people buy Samsung, not Android, like people buy Iphones , not IOS,
then years later you could see all those Chinese phones and especially Huawei,
Google Phone? never see anyone with one, they are mostly a US thingy LOL


There is no such thing as a clean android OS, because they are supposed to be shipped with the most popular apps (Facebook, Candy Crush, etc...), this is what most buyers expect, they don't want a naked OS, they aren't geek looking for performance. They want use dozen of apps and games simultaneously and want the phone to handle them.


Google phones are niche market worth only in the US , it is at the bottom of the list worldwide . Without the big names such as Samsung or Huawei, Android would be no better than Windows Mobile...

Now i agree most phones are bloated with apps, but this is how the business is, and you can't say 8gb RAM is too much when most phones requires them.

Funny cause the first thing I'm asked when someone comes to me with a smartphone is to remove all the bloatware companies like Samsung have on their phones, since I started recommending phones with Android One, I've had no complains (and this is a thing outside US).

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

My S10+ is from US, and honestly there isn't much bloat to remove as i used to have before. And the latest "GUI" is quite good with useful functionalities.

 

[Outpost]

Yeah? do you have an Android 10 phone? my S10+ already uses 3.5GB without anything opened, and im not the kind of user who install 100 apps with gazillion of processes who run in the background....so yes, i need at least 8gb.
More the OS develop, more RAM you will, as any other OS.

It seems to me an excessive consumption. In my F1 6GB the RAM used is 2.2GB

 

[SumTingWong]

Well. Android OS is not well optimize than ISO. Instead adding more RAM, why don't they, and by they I meant Google and smartphone manufacturers optimizing Android OS. More RAM lead to more power consumption.

 

[Aleeyen]

There has been no innovation in the smartphones for past few years. The companies now just focusing on the cameras just to increase there sales. You can easily see the ads, they just show the camera features. In the same way increasing the RAM is another tactic to make people think they are getting a better product and make more money.
Mostly people don't buy things by judging if they are good or not, people buy those things that are put into their minds. A bad product with good advertising sells more than a good product with bad advertising.

 

[enaph]

Well. Android OS is not well optimize than ISO. Instead adding more RAM, why don't they, and by they I meant Google and smartphone manufacturers optimizing Android OS. More RAM lead to more power consumption.

It's nearly impossible because Android has to support wide range of devices.

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

It seems to me an excessive consumption. In my F1 6GB the RAM used is 2.2GB

I own 3 phones, all with more or less the same apps (Facebook, viber, etc...), i use a 3rd party launcher and sms apps. Because the stock ones really suxx and have none of the functionalities I need. .

Using Aida64 to get device stats:

1- Samsung S10+ Android 10 (8GB), 4100MB/7500MB total memory.

2- Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra, Android 9 (4gb installed), Sony is king of optimizing the OS for less power consumption, it uses 2400/3800MB total memory.

3- Huawei nova 3i, Android 9 (4GB) uses 2500/3800MB total memory .

As you see the consumption are similar between the Sony and Huawei. taken separately the Samsung seemed to use more but in fact the ratio is almost similar as the others, just the numbers are bigger.

like computers, more RAM you have, more the OS use it.

Sure, I could reduce RAM usage by removing many of the apps, especially the launcher, but it not what I want from my smartphone.

 

[BVLon]

The writer is definitely an idiot and short-sighted... many people are gaming on their phones, and when you see the graphics on some games, you better have lot of RAM...
After all, nobody is forcing you to buy the Flagship model...

Having more RAM means a lot of code can be kept ready. Those guys are checking the memory actively in use, but they forget there is a pre-buffered part of the memory (you can see my Windows working laptop cached all available memory for me). Since memory is powered on all the time, the more memory you've got, the less power will be wasted in reading from the storage. This increases your battery life, the speed of software and your overall satisfaction.
And memory is also cheap nowadays.

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

@BVLon exact, but you know those blog/articles sensationalist writers are often people with very limited technical knowledge, barely understanding how things works... Instead of blaming the quantity of RAM they should complain about why batteries aren't removable anymore...
This is the real scam perpetrated by the smartphone vendors.

 

[ForgottenSeer 85911]

they should complain about why batteries aren't removable anymore...
This is the real scam perpetrated by the smartphone vendors.

battery wear begins immediately
within 1 year one begins to see its effect
Android phone OEMs have not hidden that a mobile device is really intended to have about a 3 year life span
things are meant to be purchased every few years
phone culture does not care
lining up to pay $1000 for next flagship
monthly install payments make it seemingly painless too
phone culture permits the Android device scam and perpetuates it

phones espeically Andfoid are scam, scam, scam
Google knows it

 

[Local Host]

@BVLon exact, but you know those blog/articles sensationalist writers are often people with very limited technical knowledge, barely understanding how things works... Instead of blaming the quantity of RAM they should complain about why batteries aren't removable anymore...
This is the real scam perpetrated by the smartphone vendors.

The bateries aren't removable due to water protection, there's no scam behind it.

Plus there lots of phones on the low and mid range market with removable batteries, since they not supposed to be water proof (people pay premium for that nonsense, as well as the extra RAM and many other features).