A 6GB Smartphone?

The more RAM a system has, the more it can “think about” at the same time… or it can think about bigger and more complex stuff. In practical application, this means more apps, and more complicated apps can reside in memory at the same time. When things reside in memory (rather than storage) they load faster, look better, and can do all sorts of whiz-bang stuff.

Today’s smartphones usually sport between 1GB and 3GB RAM – with two being the “sweet spot” where performance meets value. Flagships, like Huawei’s Nexus 6P push the upper end of that limit – cramming three whopping gigs of RAM inside. Does it help, compared to phones with a “paltry” two gig? Sure it does.

It wasn’t that long ago when we asked if 3GB smartphones were “future-proofing”, or simply overkill. Now we have headlines like these.

We even have word that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 SoC could help usher in the era of 8GB RAM smartphones.

Do today’s apps need six (or eight) GB RAM to power them?

What that leaves us with is the same type of question we asked back in 2013: is a 6GB smartphone simply overkill, or is it strategically helping to “future-proof” for the apps and OSes of tomorrow? We certainly aren’t going to say that “3GB RAM ought to be enough for anyone” – but we’re curious to hear your thoughts!

A 6GB Smartphone?

The more RAM a system has, the more it can “think about” at the same time… or it can think about bigger and more complex stuff. In practical application, this means more apps, and more complicated apps can reside in memory at the same time. When things reside in memory (rather than storage) they load faster, look better, and can do all sorts of whiz-bang stuff.

Today’s smartphones usually sport between 1GB and 3GB RAM – with two being the “sweet spot” where performance meets value. Flagships, like Huawei’s Nexus 6P push the upper end of that limit – cramming three whopping gigs of RAM inside. Does it help, compared to phones with a “paltry” two gig? Sure it does.

It wasn’t that long ago when we asked if 3GB smartphones were “future-proofing”, or simply overkill. Now we have headlines like these.

We even have word that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 SoC could help usher in the era of 8GB RAM smartphones.

Do today’s apps need six (or eight) GB RAM to power them?

What that leaves us with is the same type of question we asked back in 2013: is a 6GB smartphone simply overkill, or is it strategically helping to “future-proof” for the apps and OSes of tomorrow? We certainly aren’t going to say that “3GB RAM ought to be enough for anyone” – but we’re curious to hear your thoughts!