What is the RAM on iPhone 5s. RAM in the iPhone - check the RAM

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As usual: first the video version, and for those who like to read, there will be a text version below.

Video version:

“Why do you need 4 GB of RAM on a smartphone ko-ko-ko. This is not a computer!!!11” – I constantly read such opuses in the comments under my videos. The video was made specifically to explain why I am in favor of increasing the amount of RAM on smartphones. Well, at least let them do a quick swap (swap), but this is even less realistic than seeing 8 GB of RAM on a new smartphone.

Yes, the video is a bit oversimplified, I didn't say that apps can share as well as the Android OS itself, but that would have bloated my amateur article even more.

Why do we need 2-4-8 GB of opera in smartphones? It's just a phone! To answer this question, let's define some terms. First, a modern smartphone is a full-featured mobile PC based on an OS based on the Linux kernel. Secondly, the majority of users already now use smartphones and tablets more intensively than a desktop PC or laptop. I understand that there are gamers, editors, analysts and other professions where a good PC with a comfortable large screen is indispensable. Yes, what is there, I myself work on a PC, but! If you look at the number of programs used daily on a PC and on a smartphone, suddenly it turns out that the smartphone receives a greater load than the PC! For many, this comes as a surprise, but you can figure it out for yourself.

Here are the applications that I use on my PC and smartphone every day for a week. From the list, I removed such programs as Explorer, antivirus, calculator and other background things, like the same Google Play services. Otherwise, this list would be inflated even more. Even just looking at this list, you can understand that installing a large amount of RAM on a smartphone is completely justified. But if I have not convinced you, then let's see what tasks users assign to PCs and smartphones.

Smartphone RAM

If we mainly work and play on a stationary computer, then for a smartphone the main tasks are content consumption (I mean surfing, YouTube, web services, a cube, online magazines, etc.), communication, of course, and navigation, which is implemented in smartphones indecently better than in navigators. Moreover, a smartphone is endowed with much more capabilities than a computer, hence the situation arises that people have more active programs installed on a smartphone than on a PC or even a laptop.

But how much memory do we need in a smartphone? In fact, the more the better. Sounds very pop, but I'll explain what's the catch here.

Here are screenshots of three smartphones. All of them have just been unpacked and do not have only standard installed applications and “clean” Android. Yes, the first smartphone had Yandex.Browser pre-installed, and the third one had an update utility, but they won’t do the weather for us. It would seem that everything is logical, the less RAM in a smartphone, the less free memory is available to us. But, do you notice anything?

In each of the three cases, the Android system takes up a different amount of RAM. But why is that? After all, there is only one system! Okay, there, TouchWiz can take some 3 gigabytes of RAM with its services, we are already used to this, but what's the matter here?

Like any OS, Android consists of many processes, services (or daemons, as is customary here), modules, and so on. That is, it is a composite structure. If our device does not have enough memory, then we selectively throw out various functions from memory. This does not mean that they will not work, just that they will be loaded more slowly, since they will be stored on flash memory. For example, we can throw out a part of the interface from the RAM, and when you open the menu, it will not load immediately. On budget models, this happens very often, for example, the ringtone rings, but the application interface has not yet been drawn, and it is impossible to answer the call.

On the other hand, on the contrary, we can dump all the services and system applications from the swap into the RAM, and then our “bare” Android will grow to a gigabyte or even two, but any application loaded there will respond as quickly as the processor allows. True, and this is not always possible. Why? Yes, everything is simple. It is enough to see how much RAM at the peak applications can consume. In recent versions of Android, this is very easy to do.

So that you do not accuse me of pointless rhetoric, let's take a specific example, with a specific smartphone. Since we started with the LG G4, let's use its example to see how much memory applications requested and calculate how much memory we would like to have “ideally”, that is, so that we don’t have to resort to using flash memory at all.

Here is a real graph of peak RAM consumption by system applications. Yes, LG G4 is not the best example, it has a really heavy shell with branded services, etc., but that's even more revealing. For maximum smooth operation without running third-party applications, this device requires about 2600 MB of RAM! Of course, I'm exaggerating a little here, since this is not an average memory consumption, but peak. But that's the point, so that the smartphone does not climb to flash memory even at peak loads.

If we imagine working with a browser or Vkontakte and Instagram applications, then we will already get almost 4 GB of occupied space in RAM. The fact is that all these social network applications very quickly eat up the available amount of RAM to smoothly display an endless news feed, which is loaded into RAM in order to be quickly displayed again by swipe. With the browser, everything is generally painfully familiar. Yes, according to my measurements on this smartphone, it consumed up to 1100 MB of RAM. Why be surprised?

The same browsers on a PC with the same functionality consume the same amount of memory when browsing intensively. There is nothing unusual about this! But this is why we love our bakeries - I put in 32 GB, and when you open 5-10-20 programs, you always know that it will open as quickly as possible, and will not be pulled up from a slow flash memory. Why should we deny ourselves a good amount of RAM in a smartphone?

RAM in the iPhone - why does not lag?

And here we smoothly move on to the most important question from the audience: they say that Apple smartphones had only one gigabyte and everything worked perfectly! What's the matter here?! Well, let's talk about everything in order.

Let's say we need to run two banal applications: chrome and instagram. Let me remind you that the first one can consume up to 1.5 GB of RAM, and the second about 500 MB with active use. Here you need to understand: regardless of the OS, programs such as a browser cannot consume radically different amounts of memory. Especially if it's the same app! For non-believers, I advise you to run any popular browser benchmark and compare it with the results of cross-platform benchmarks, but more on that separately. There is a difference, but it is so small that it can be neglected. So what's the deal then, you ask? Well, let's see, when running these applications, we have no choice - we need to use the swap.

Apple's "magic" optimization doesn't exist

Both of them will not get into the RAM. Ok, let's say we have Instagram active, so we swap chrome with several tabs. I repeat, this situation will be inevitable, both for the iPhone 6 and for the state employee on Android for $ 75. In order to understand why the iPhone 6 is still faster, you need to understand how the so-called “apple magic optimization” works. These guys realized that it makes no sense to fight for a stupid increase in the amount of RAM, since in order to radically change the situation in a smartphone, there must be at least 8 GB of RAM, as in a modern normal PC. It's too expensive. Therefore, they went the other way. Since we need to transfer an array of data from the swap to the RAM, isn't it easier to make flash memory as fast as possible?

And they did just that! Yes, the iPhone 6 only had one gigabyte of RAM, but it also had the fastest flash storage array.

The speed of the flash drive of even the old iPhone 6 is significantly superior not only to the state employees of their time, but also to modern inexpensive models with 1 GB of RAM. There's not even anything to argue about!

iPod touch and their platform, namely iOS, distributes system memory in a dynamic mode, allocating separate areas for background and main tasks. During this mode, the use of memory for solving tasks of inactive programs is temporarily stopped.

The nuances of RAM on iOS

Basically, iOS does a great job of allocating RAM. This makes it possible to have access to those applications that are used more often and respond faster. The operating system does not provide for the task of systematizing and disposing of information garbage in the form of objects that were not claimed by programs. Therefore, some applications may borrow a certain segment of memory and refuse to release it in response to an OS request. It is logical that the performance of the gadget is catastrophically reduced.

Loyal cleaning of RAM

Usually, gadget users, when such a problem occurs, resort to a reboot. But there is another way that allows you to clear the RAM in a way that is more loyal to the system.

Unlock your gadget.
Press its power button and keep the position until the "Power off" sign appears.
But instead of using this slider, press and hold the Home button (5-15 seconds) until the home screen appears.

This scheme is responsible for reloading the SpringBoard system application, which is responsible for the main screen. It completely frees memory from those processes that are inactive.

The use of such an algorithm excludes the removal of the task manager or applications. The task manager stores those applications that have been used recently and the connections are "frozen" in standby mode.

Reason for using the presented algorithm

If open programs have stopped giving feedback or react very slowly, then the indicated scheme will help solve the problem. If you clean the RAM while applications are running, they will simply disappear.

Removing applications from the task manager in forced mode has the opposite effect of the expected effect: battery life dries out faster, and not vice versa, as is commonly believed.

This method will be appreciated by owners of retro iPhone models containing less than 1 GB of RAM.

Apple has never chased benchmarks and numbers. When the first Android smartphones with 6 GB of RAM first appeared, some iPhones still had 1 GB of RAM installed. And you know, that was enough! Moreover, when iPhones were compared with the same phones with an incredible amount of “RAM”, Apple smartphones were doing competitors in terms of speed. But the needs of buyers are such that you won’t win the race on optimization alone - you need to install powerful hardware along with a fast OS.

The RAM in the iPhone 11 Pro seems to be enough, but I would like more

iPhone 11 problem

The fact that the new iPhones work an hour or even several hours longer than their predecessors is great in itself, it’s even better that the new ones are so much faster, but everyone really wanted to know, and preferably before the release, exactly how many gigabytes RAM installed on board the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and . Now the curtain is already ajar - everywhere the value of RAM is 4 GB. But even a week after the presentation, the “experts” said that the iPhone 11 received 4 GB, and the 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max received 6 GB of RAM.

Compared to last year's iPhone XR and its 3 GB, this would have been simply gorgeous, but Apple did not immediately double the RAM. Why? I don’t have an answer to this question yet, but in Cupertino, most likely, there were reasons for this.

By the way, a few days before the presentation, the results of synthetic testing of the iPhone 11 got on the Web, which showed that the smartphone is equipped with an A13 processor, about 13% more powerful than the A12, as well as 4 GB of RAM. Already then about 6 GB; it was so inflated in the media that many still think that their iPhone 11 Pro Max has 6 gigabytes of RAM installed. Let's breathe, guys.

What's new in iPhone 12

Previously, when RAM was measured in hundreds of megabytes, it was easier to transfer the superiority of competitors. By equipping iPhones with less RAM, Apple even challenged Android smartphone makers. But the reality is that Apple will have to install 6 GB of RAM in new iPhones.

And no, not at all because last week Barclays analysts allegedly talked to sources among Apple suppliers who showed them all the cards (and, by the way, told about the fact that 2020). I will say right away that Apple suppliers still have no idea how much RAM the new iPhones will have. Even in Cupertino, probably, they themselves have not decided. With the same success, you can make a statement that the iPhone 12 will have an A14 processor - 50% faster and 30% more energy efficient.

Read also - iPhone 11 Pro Max. And that's ok

No, the increased amount of RAM is necessary for the iPhone because it is becoming increasingly difficult to create high-quality software. More recently, users of iOS 13.2 applications, if working in one application, switch to another application and then return back. The content in the first application was automatically reset, which indicated a lack of RAM (did this affect you? our Telegram chat). Yes, Apple fixed this with an OS update (although not everyone), but I was not very pleased to minimize the application for a couple of seconds, return to it and find that all the information was reset. On the iPhone 11 Pro Max, this simply should not happen.

COD: Mobile for iPhone 11 Pro Max

Therefore, I would not be surprised if the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max have 6 GB of RAM. Still, competitors are on their heels, and such mistakes as with iOS 13.2 should not be repeated.

Previously, when buying a new iPhone, we did not think much about the amount of RAM in it. Phones did not develop so quickly and there was simply no need for this.

Then the iPhone line got bigger, technologies moved forward in small steps, and now, when buying a new smartphone, the question immediately arises: “How much RAM does it have?”.

All programs have evolved along with smartphones, and now it will be difficult to run modern software on an old phone, because the lack of resources will immediately tell about itself.

How much RAM is on an iPhone?

The main advantage of all iPhones has always been the rational use of resources. iOS is always trying to get the most out of your phone so that you can comfortably use it.

But whatever one may say, after a couple of years you already understand that multitasking is no longer the same and programs do not start up so quickly. When choosing a new gadget, I suggest checking the characteristics of the desired purchase.

RAM in the first generation iPhone, 3, 3GS

Apple's first phones made an incredible breakthrough at the time. Everything that was inside the device was something special and seemed incredible.

In 2007, the needs in the software sense were completely different and we did not need so many resources to be satisfied with the work of our gadget.

first generation: 128 MB EDRAM;
3 : 128 MB EDRAM;
3GS: 256 MB EDRAM.

Today, this number seems incredibly small, but then there were no such a number of applications and the phone had completely different requirements for running programs.

These oldies are still in use today. It was this line that came out during the life of Jobs and at that time it was just a breakthrough in all directions.

When the iPhone first came out, absolutely everyone wanted it. Its design is simply incredible and now it is one of the most legendary models of all the released phones from Apple.

4 : 512 MB eDRAM;
4S: 512 MB eDRAM.

Despite the same amount of RAM, the second phone is faster due to the processor. In general, even now, through the pain, you can use both phones.

Then we were met by a wonderful generation of 4-inch phones. The design was very similar to the iPhone of the previous generation, but still there was a twist.

The body of the phone has completely changed, due to which it has become lighter and more pleasant to hold. The larger body made it possible to significantly change the filling.

5 : 1 GB LPDDR2;
5S: 1 GB LPDDR2;
5C: 1 GB LPDDR2;
SE: 2 GB LPDDR3.

Now everything worked even faster and at the moment so many smartphone lovers can see one of these models. The latest SE model has already become an update for those who really love the 5S. Old building, but modern stuffing.

Now we forget about small screens and now we have real shovels in our hands. A large space in the case allows you to make the stuffing of iPhones more fun.

We are starting to slowly catch up on the screens of our competitors on Android. But still, no one is chasing the amount of RAM.

6 : 1 GB LPDDR3;
6 Plus: 1 GB LPDDR3;
6S: 2 GB LPDDR3;
6S Plus: 2 GB LPDDR3.

The 6th generation increases the frequency and due to this 1 GB does not look so sad, but with the release of the 6S everything just starts to fly. And now you can see that 6 and 6 Plus were just a warm-up before the release of something more.

RAM in iPhone 7, 7 Plus

The design of this generation hasn't gone too far, just a few tweaks and a couple of new colors. Now processors have replaced their cores with more.

Cameras have improved markedly - this has become the highlight of this line. Now we need more RAM and as a result we see such a picture.

7 : 2 GB LPDDR4;
7PLUS: 3 GB LPDDR4.

The plus's dual camera forced Apple to put as much as 3 GB into it. The real killer of competitors enters the ring and every day it becomes more and more interesting what will happen in the generation with the letter S.

RAM in iPhone 8, 8 PLUS and X (10)

2017 brought as many as three new iPhone models. If the first two are a slightly updated seven, then the anniversary gadget decided to blow up the market with its characteristics, new design and, of course, features.

Despite the fact that Android smartphones continue to chase the amount of RAM, Apple remains true to itself and prioritizes proper optimization.

8 : 2 GB LPDDR4;
8PLUS: 3 GB LPDDR4;
10 : 3 GB LPDDR4.

We will remember this year for such technologies as Face ID, because it can completely turn the whole essence of unlocking gadgets, and security in general. Also noteworthy are Animoji and Portrait Lighting.

RAM in iPhone XS (10S), iPhone XS MAX (10S MAX), iPhone XR (10R)

It's good that the sizes of phones have stopped and now they just come up with something new from what already exists.

This is exactly what they did with the iPhone XS MAX. We take iPhone X design + iPhone 8 PLUS dimensions = brand new iPhone XS MAX. In addition, there was also a budget iPhone XR.

XS: 4 GB LPDDR4;
XS MAX: 4 GB LPDDR4;
XR: 3 GB LPDDR4.

Time goes by and the size of RAM is also growing. In some tests, the new iPhones outperform the iMac. We certainly expected this, but not so soon.

Results

I think this information was very interesting for you and now you will not ask anyone for the amount of RAM in any iPhone model.

The amount of RAM is getting bigger every day, but will we use such resources to their full capacity.