A smartphone was just announced with more RAM than a standard laptop — here's why RAM matters on a smartphone

 

• RAM is a super-fast type of memory that stores the apps you've opened since you turned on your phone.
• That memory lets you return to an app you've previously used and pick up right where you left off, without delay.
• Without RAM, apps would close themselves when you switch to another app, causing delays when you revisit one you've previously used.
• The more RAM your phone has, the more apps it can store for quick access, which results in an overall feeling of your phone working faster.

A phone called the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition was recently announced and it has 10GB of RAM, a number that, for many, is just another confusing number.

But once and for all, we're going to explain what RAM is and why it matters in a smartphone. This post is a great place to start.

First, the name. You don't really need to know that "RAM" stands for "random access memory." But what you do need to know is that RAM is a super-fast type of storage — faster than your phone's main storage where your apps, photos, videos, and music live — and it helps your smartphone work and feel fast.

Here's how RAM works and what it does in your smartphone

• You can think of RAM as your pocket and your phone's main storage as your backpack. It's much faster to pull something out of your pocket than it is to pull something out from your backpack.
• When you turn on your phone, and open an app for the first time, your phone pulls the operating system (OS) and app's data from your phone's slower main storage and stores the bulk of that OS and app data in your phone's faster RAM so you can use different elements and features of the OS and app quickly.
• When you're finished with the app you're using, your phone keeps the app and whatever you were doing on it in your phone's RAM, even if you switch to another app.
• When you return to an app you used a while ago, it'll open right where you left off, as if you never even left the app, because it's been stored in your phone's RAM. Essentially, apps you used are kept running in the background while you use other apps.
• Switching between apps and picking up right where you left off is often called "multitasking." If a phone is said to multitask well, it's because it makes good use of RAM or simply has a ton of it.
• If a phone didn't have RAM, apps would fully close whenever you switch apps. That means apps would need to fully re-open, as if you opened them for the first time after turning on your phone, which causes a delay before you can use the app.
• Your phone's main slower storage could potentially keep your OS and used apps running in the background, but it's much, much slower than RAM. Your phone could have the fastest chip in the world and it would still feel slow without RAM.

• So, yes, more RAM is generally better, but it's not that simple

Indeed, more RAM means your phone can store more of the OS data and apps you often use for quick access. It gives off the impression that your phone is incredibly fast because the OS and apps you've previously used are ready to use straight away when you return to them.

But you might look at the iPhone XS's paltry 4GB and compare it to the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition's 10GB of RAM, and immediately think the iPhone XS is an inferior device. But it's not quite that simple.

Apple uses a relatively low 4GB of RAM on its iPhones because they've optimized the iOS operating system, components, and the way it handles app data to perform very well with only 4GB of RAM. The same goes for Google and its own Pixel 3 phones, which "only" have 4GB of RAM compared to other Android devices with 6GB or more.

With Android devices that aren't made by Google, you could say the optimization is generally less efficient. There are so many Android devices out there with difference specs and versions of Android that optimization is almost never going to be as good as it is with Apple and its iPhones. So a lot of Android devices will have 6GB or more of RAM in order to perform as well as an iPhone with 4GB of RAM.

With that said, the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition — which runs Android — has so much RAM that it could brute-force itself to better app multitasking than the iPhone XS, and any other phone for that matter.

Do our phones really need 6GB and 8GB of RAM?

Memory management is more important than simply throwing-in more powerful hardware

Phones such as the OnePlus 3, LeEco Le Max 2, ZUK Z2 Pro, Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe, Vivo Xplay 5 Elite, and Meizu Pro 6 already pack-in 6GB of RAM

Remember how the Android phone manufacturers wanted to beat each other in the mad processor race? Processor cores went up from two to ten in a few years. Similar trend was seen in the screen area. So much that the recent phones can give tablets a run for their money. Now in order to one up each other, the manufacturers have turned to RAM. Phones such as the OnePlus 3, LeEco Le Max 2, ZUK Z2 Pro, Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe, Vivo Xplay 5 Elite, and Meizu Pro 6 already pack-in 6GB of RAM. That's more than what you get in most laptops. However, is it just a gimmick or something actually useful?

Case against it

Android phone manufacturers have been solving issues with brute force. If the battery does not last long, these people increase its capacity. In case of performance issue, the manufacturers beef-up the processor cores instead of optimising the operating system. Little wonder then, when users complained about Android's poor memory management, the brands went on to add more memory. The problem is that despite packing-in 6GB of RAM, these handsets such as the OnePlus 3 are not that great at multitasking. According to the reports, the so called "flagship killer" can't run more than 3-4 apps simultaneously. The Samsung Galaxy S7, on the other hand, can freeze and resume resource-heavy games without breaking sweat. It is a clear indication that at this point, memory management is more important than simply throwing-in more powerful hardware.

Considering that the every other smartphone user cribs about the battery life these days, adding battery intensive hardware is not a good idea. Look at the iPhones, not a single model has yet surpassed the 2 GB limit, and still Apple's phones run smooth. All this sounds even more absurd when you realise that Windows 10 runs fine on 1GB RAM for the 32-bit version and 2GB RAM for the 64-bit version. Yes, even a full-fledged computer operating system does not require so much RAM. So, while Android fans take a jab at Apple's low-specs, they fail to understand that the iPhone does not require absurdly high specs to run properly. Apple's iOS is optimised to work well with moderate hardware. All in all, what Android needs is fine-tuning more than simply upgrading hardware.

In favour:

The best case for 6GB RAM is "more the merrier". When you own an Android device, you don't say no to more RAM. Seeing how Android phones have been denied latest updates due to the low specs in the past, complaining about 6GB RAM does not seem like a good idea. You may also remember how similar argument was made when a first wave of Android phones with 2GB RAM hit the market a few years back. Fast forward to the present day, and 2GB RAM has become a norm. There is a good chance that 6GB RAM too will be treated as normal in a year or two, so why fight the change.

If you like the technicalities, it is essential to understand the difference between Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating system. What makes Android so resource intensive is its Java programming core. On top of that, UI customisation from brands make things even worse. I'm sure many of you must have noticed how some Xiaomi and Samsung phones eat over a GB of RAM just to run the OS. Apple's iOS, on the other hand, is developed from the scratch. Apple's mobile operating system has relatively less junk code, which is why it makes effective use of resources. Optimising software for Android involves multiple factors, so it is easier manufacturers to go the hardware way.

After weighing in both the options, I would say that you don't need to make a buying decision based on the amount of RAM. However, if the phone itself is good, then additional RAM won't hurt. Just don't expect it to perform significantly better than phones with relatively less RAM.

How much RAM does a phone need?

Butting heads with RAM

RAM is becoming a more reliable indicator of a phone’s performance than CPU specs. After all, a dual-core processor can be far more powerful than an eight-core one these days.

Exactly what RAM does is a little harder to grasp than a CPU’s role, though. We’re going to look into what RAM does in a phone, iOS or Android, and ask: how much of this stuff do we really need?

Watch: Samsung Galaxy Note 7 hands-on

Phone RAM: The Basics

RAM stands for random access memory. This tells you any part of the data it stores can be accessed directly. The phone doesn’t have to scan through sequentially-stored data as you might do with a CD, an old tape cassette or, most importantly, a hard drive. It’s effectively instant-access.

Today’s phones’ general storage is random access too, because it’s comprised of eMMC chips rather than little spinning disc platters, but the most important distinction remains. A phone’s RAM is going to be much, much faster than the 8GB-64GB storage you use to store apps and music.

Related: Note 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S7

RAM is used to hold the data a phone, or any computer system, is currently using. That way the speed of the storage doesn’t become a bottleneck that slows the whole system down.

In the context of a phone, this means a chunk of an app’s data is loaded into RAM as soon as the app is started. Data is then shifted from RAM into a relatively tiny but even faster chunk of memory, the CPU caches, as it’s dealt with.

If the CPU is a chef, the cache is their chopping board, RAM the kitchen cupboards, and general storage the supermarket 15 minutes down the road. That gives you an idea of how impossibly slow a phone would be if it really only used the kind of ‘memory’ we install apps onto.

RAM vs multi-tasking

Just as important, RAM is also what holds the data that enables multi-tasking. Some mobile devices now offer real Windows-style multi-tasking, where two apps are running on-screen at once. A good amount of RAM is crucial for this.

The iPad mini 4 has 2GB RAM, and can perform real multi-tasking thanks to iOS 9. The iPad mini 3 with 1GB RAM cannot. This doesn’t mean it would be impossible, of course, but that Apple thinks multi-tasking doesn’t run well enough on a 1GB RAM device.

This isn’t the most important kind of mobile multi-tasking, though. RAM is also what lets you flick between apps without having to start from scratch each time. Even if an app isn’t actively doing anything in the background, RAM is used to create a saved state that the phone can zap back into as if you’d never left.

We take all this for granted, but have RAM to thank.

How much RAM do you need?

This is the crux of why having more RAM is better. It lets a phone store more of these app snapshots without encroaching on the RAM a phone needs to make its OS run effectively.

Android and iOS do not run like Windows, though. With a desktop operating system it’s still possible to open far too many apps, to the point that the computer collapses into a juddering heap. I do this all the time, ending up annoyed at my laptop before realising it’s only running poorly because I have 70 browser instances open and 100 3MB images loaded on Photoshop. It’s my fault.

You can’t really misuse mobile operating systems in the same way because memory management happens automatically, and is more aggressive. Where with Windows you’d have to start closing apps when you stretch your RAM, iOS and Android simply offload app data from system RAM like a digital PA. Some apps may then still retain some of their ‘state’ data on the solid state storage, but at this point the app will have to reload fully when you return.

This is why a phone with barely enough RAM to keep its system running properly is going to be crap at multi-tasking. Leave at app, return 30 seconds later and you’ll have to wait just as long as you did when you first booted it up.

Related: iPhone 6S vs Samsung Galaxy S7

Low RAM Alert

Very limited RAM is often the cause of rudimentary performance problems in cheap Android phones too. A lot of phones with 1GB RAM make a real mess of Android 5.1 and Android 6.0, their memory management unable to keep up with demand.

Some manufacturers completely rewrite Android’s memory management, but Google’s own work has ruined a few phones too. When the Motorola Moto G was upgraded from Android 4.4 to Android 5.0, its performance went through the floor for a while, for example.

Ever since Android 5.0 landed, we’ve been strongly recommending looking for a phone with 2GB RAM or more if you can afford it.

Google’s official minimum spec for a 64-bit phone (that’s pretty much every phone these days) is 832MB RAM, which shows you quite how tight memory will be on any phone with 1GB or even 1.5GB of the stuff. For a bit of wider context, as I write this Facebook is using 480MB RAM on my phone.

RAM management on phones is a constant process but it’s no wonder some phones struggle when apps like this are such ‘selfish’ RAM hogs.

What does 6GB RAM get you?

If 2GB is the lower limit of RAM you’ll want in an Android phone, what’s the upper useful limit? While RAM itself isn’t going to use loads more power just by sitting there, any phone has to balance the benefits of keeping apps in active memory with the battery benefit of closing them down completely after a while, stopping any extra background processes.

The OnePlus 3 is the best example of this clash of priorities in action. It has 6GB RAM, the most of any big-name phone at release. It has 2GB more than the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, even though that phone is almost twice the price.

But is it useful? To start with, it actually wasn’t.

WATCH: OnePlus 3 review

VI Video was already generated for this page.

In the OnePlus 3’s early days, it used pretty aggressive memory management, closing down parked apps fairly readily in order to conserve battery life. However, people noticed and OnePlus released an OTA update that relaxed its multi-tasking approach.

I’ve been using the phone to see whether it even gets close to using all 6GB of its RAM. Using an app like RAM Meter, you can keep an eye on the amount of RAM apps are using without rooting/hacking your phone. It’s a free Google Play download if you want to try it yourself.

Using the phone with one game parked in the background and a couple of social networks on the go, the OnePlus 3’s RAM usage hovers at around 3-3.3GB. It’s a healthy amount, and more than the vast majority of phones have. But it’s not 6GB.

Loading up a bunch more apps and games, I got the OnePlus 3 to use 4.3GB RAM. Victory: it’s more than rival top-end phones have.

However, the OnePlus 3 seems very keen to start ditching apps as soon as it gets over the 4GB mark. This may be down to the sheer number of apps I had open rather than the amount of RAM used, but it does seem the last 2GB of RAM ends up as ‘emergency spare’ memory most of the time.

It also helps to explain why a phone like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has 4GB RAM. Samsung thinks that amount is fine, and it actually makes a lot of the LPDDR4 you’ll see in top-end phones (including the OnePlus 3).

It’s important to remember that RAM isn’t like regular storage. As long as memory management is effective, we really want as much RAM as possible to be used. Otherwise it’s just sitting there, an idle worker.

Big users of a whole handful of social networks are likely too appreciate as much RAM as possible, though. Facebook, Snapchat and co are serious memory hogs, as I’ve already mentioned.

RAM future-proofing

I get the impression that, on some level, OnePlus decided to beat the competition with more RAM because it made for a great boasting point that would appeal to its relatively hardcore audience. But the extra may become more important.

Demand for RAM isn’t going to get any less. Apple has finally upped its standard RAM allowance for iPads and iPhones from 1GB to 2GB, and Android 7.0 is only going to continue to make the case for devices with all the more RAM.

The biggie is multi-window app multi-tasking in Android 7.0. That’s right, while some custom Android UIs have let you run apps side-by-side for years, it’s only getting an official outing with Android 7.0 N. Android is actually lagging behind iOS on this feature, if we ignore third-party software additions.

LPDDR4 and dual-channel RAM

By now you we know the extent to which the smartphone experience hinges on RAM. It’s crucial. However, we’ve not even touched on the advancements in phone RAM itself.

The most written-about change is from DDR3 to DDR4. These are speed classes, the same used to describe RAM for your desktop or laptop.

Phones started using DDR4 last year, if only the top models. That saw RAM copy speeds go from around 5000MB/s with DDR3 to 8-9000MB/s with DDR4. Comparing that to the speed of your phone’s storage, if you have a low-budget phone it might read at 40MB/s and write at 16MB/s. More expensive phones like the OnePlus 3 are radically faster (417MB/s read, 163MB/s write) but are still much slower than the fastest SSDs, let alone the slowest modern RAM.

This year we’ve seen an even more dramatic change, but one that has barely been talked about: dual-channel DDR4 RAM. This doubles the effective speed of the RAM by adding another ‘pipe’ to access the stored data.

Once again, the tech-savvy OnePlus 3 has this kind of RAM, and reports RAM copy speeds of around 16,000MB/s. It sounds amazing, and kinda is.

However, RAM is ultimately destined to stay something of an unglamorous middle-man in the world of phone hardware. Its job is to be fast enough not to slow a system down, while the GPUs and CPUs of the world swan in and claim all the glory. 95 per cent of the mobile phone RAM-related stories you’ll read are about how a phone mismanages its RAM, after all.