Is 6GB of RAM or Higher on a Smartphone a Gimmick or Justifiable?

The recently launched Asus ZenFone AR has a whopping 8GB of RAM.

By Prajith
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Before we begin to explain if 6GB of RAM or higher will ever be useful on a smartphone, let us ask you a question. How do you decide if you should purchase a certain phone?

 
Is 6GB of RAM or Higher on a Smartphone a Gimmick or Justifiable?

Every individual may have a different response to this question since each person has a different requirement or priority. But, if given a chance, we are pretty much sure that no one would want to buy an underpowered device which brings us to the question, how does one decide if a phone is powerful or not?

Well, mostly people check out for the chipset and how much RAM does the phone pack, right? Now, one thing is sure, RAM matters! But 'how much’ is the question so, let’s find out. Before we do so, let’s get to know RAM a little bit.

Also Read:

Why Asus ZenFone AR Is A Phone That Matters!Why Asus ZenFone AR Is A Phone That Matters!

RAM: What is it?

RAM: What is it?

RAM is an acronym for Random Access Memory. As the name itself suggests, you can access data stored on your smartphone’s memory randomly. Whenever you open an application on your phone, the respective data of the app gets loaded into the RAM which is then shifted to the cache memory. For example, let’s consider the music app on your smartphone. It’s quite obvious that you’d customize the app according to your preferences. Now all the customized data will be pushed to cache memory so that whenever you open the app, nothing’s changed.

One advantage of cache memory is the fact that it’s faster than the RAM. In fact, in general, RAM on your smartphone is way faster than the additional storage (8GB to 128GB SD cards) you use to hoard data.    

More RAM means smoother multitasking?
 

More RAM means smoother multitasking?

More RAM does mean smoother multitasking as long as a smartphone has a powerful chipset. A good Chipset, when combined with sufficient amount of RAM can do wonders as far as the speed is concerned. However, just stacking up large amounts of RAM doesn’t make for a smoother experience. What it does is that it allows one to load more apps at a time which will help especially while using the split-screen mode which comes with the Android 7.0 Nougat.

So having 6GB of RAM (or higher) justifiable?

So having 6GB of RAM (or higher) justifiable?

To be honest, the answer, for most of the part, is no. The reason behind this is quite simple. No matter how many apps you open at a time, after one point, the RAM management gets very aggressive. For example, consider the OnePlus 3, we tried to utilize the most of the memory by loading many apps. But, soon did we consume 4GB, we could notice that the apps which were loaded earlier were released from memory. What this means is that those apps will reload once again — just like when you opened it for the first time. Smartphone vendors, generally do this to avoid excessive battery consumption. 

Having said that, with smartphone makers showing more interest towards phones with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality capabilities which comparatively need more resources to run smoothly. So, high amounts of RAM actually starts making sense now. 

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