Is 1GB of RAM good enough these days?

[playhay]

When buying a budget android phone for basic use, will 1GB RAM be enough or will some lag happen when doing more complex tasks? Also the industry standard for budget phones seems to be Quad core 1.2Ghz, what kind of user experience would you get from that?
If the 'weight' of the OS effects speed then would a Motorola with a very standard android skin be quicker than a Sumsung running their Touchwiz?

 

[Almeuit]

You should be fine. If you're running a Samsung phone you usually will have more RAM.

 

[Rukbat]

TouchWiz is the launcher. Once you run an app, if Android needs the RAM being used by TW, it'll kill TW (and it'll take a trifle longer to get back to the home screen as TW reloads).

Is 1GB enough? If you're not planning on running more than a couple of apps at a time. If you do, the least recently used one get killed to make room for the new one. Then when you switch back to the killed one, the least recently used one gets killed and the old one you just reran gets reloaded. That can take moment or it could make the phone sluggish - it's a subjective thing. One man's "lagged to death" is another's "not very snappy, but fast enough".

1.2GHz Quad core? Probably fast enough for most apps. If you're trying to sift primes you want the fastest CPU made (You actually want a huge array of the fastest CPUs made if you want to get to the next 2 or 3 primes in one lifetime), if you're doing a crossword puzzle, an old slow phone is faster than you are.

 

[ahdeveloper]

minimum 2gb ram is engough due to high load application and multitasking

 

[atominvention]

I don't think its enough, although google claims lollipop utilize ram usage better than before, but my experience is that it actually takes more ram for the OS.
yea, and android 6.0 is coming... 1GB ram is never enough

 

[munrobasher]

I recommended a 1GB Cubot phone to my friend. It is NO WAY enough memory. Once the myriad of updates start installing, there is no room left for apps. First we took WhatsApp off, then Facebook and now it has no additional apps at all. Useless after six months...

Going for 3GB model next.

 

[David Alfredo]

1 GB of RAM will bottleneck the rest of hardware components in your device, I strongly advise against it except if you're going to use the smartphone as a "classic phone", this is, just to make and receive voice calls and SMS.

 

[hotpantsraygun]

If you're not going to use it that much and saaaaaay just use it as a regular phone with "extras" then you'll be fine with the 1gb ram

 

[KING OF DATA]

i have a samsung galaxy core itz one gb ram....and itz awfull after 6 months beleive me cauze its starting to get a kind of weird too doing things own and cant even install more than 3 apps in the phone....now i have a j5...itz stunning itz 6.0.1 marshmallow i like it ...n the most intersting part is ihave been using it for one year no probs

 

[smvim]

When buying a budget android phone for basic use, will 1GB RAM be enough or will some lag happen when doing more complex tasks?
?

Just my opinion but no, 1GB is not enough for an Android device. That was an appropriate amount of RAM for Froyo (vers. 2.2.x) but look for something with at least 2GB. Any 1GB phones still being sold today are a huge disservice to consumers. A 1GB Android will be laggy in performance with frequent pauses doing multiple tasks, you're just going to get frustrated using it and build up an anxiety each time you use it. Make your quality of life better, not worse. Shop around for something better, there are plenty of viable options:
The Best Budget Android Phones | The Wirecutter

 

[tube517]

Just my opinion but no, 1GB is not enough for an Android device. That was an appropriate amount of RAM for Froyo (vers. 2.2.x) but look for something with at least 2GB. Any 1GB phones still being sold today are a huge disservice to consumers. A 1GB Android will be laggy in performance with frequent pauses doing multiple tasks, you're just going to get frustrated using it and build up an anxiety each time you use it. Make your quality of life better, not worse. Shop around for something better, there plenty of viable options:
The Best Budget Android Phones | The Wirecutter

Same goes with Tablets. I bought a 1GB RAM tablet in 2015 and I just got a 2GB RAM tablet in March this year. What a huge difference. Even though it's 2 years later and still a budget tablet, it is so much smoother.

 

[Golfdriver97]

2 would be better, but that is going to eventually be considered too little. It mainly depends on what you are going to do with the device. If you don't play games, then 2 will be fine for a little while.

The thing is, a lot of apps, not just games, are requiring more and more RAM. That is why 1 is obsolete, and 2 is approaching that.

 

[Apple Jam]

By the will of fate, I now have Fly with 512 MB of RAM. Recently there was Xperia P. They know how to call, send sms and go to the social network, open web pages. Of course, this is not enough, but to say that such phones are completely useless, then no.

 

[gamedroid334]

1 GB is basically enough for everyday use and not very demanding games, such as grand theft auto, but 512 megabytes is already too little

 

[LuxuryTouringZone]

LOL this thread is ancient! Maybe 1GB was ok at best in 2015, but certainly not for 2018! Androids do best with 4GB or more.

 

[Zaxx32]

At the risk of perpetuating an old thread...tho it is interesting to see how things change over time...I thought I'd chime in with my 2 cents.

Imo 1gb of ram will get u by if your phone is used as just a basic phone and not much else like lotsa internet based stuff like FB etc. This is probably the case for folks like me who use a PC a lot thus do most of their net 'stuff' on a desktop/laptop. This is prolly why I don't have a $500 cell phone despite having a $1200 desktop.

I have a cheap...really cheap...phone. A $30 tracfone. But it's the best uber cheap phone ever imo. $30 got me an Alcatel Raven phone with a Snapdragon 210 quadcore cpu, 2GB RAM(!) and 16GB of storage, plus a 32GB EVO sd card I scored for $12...equals a pretty 'doable' budget phone.

But without 2gb of ram, it wouldn't be tolerable for anything more than phone calls and email.

The 'extra' gb of memory is the only way a 210 quadcore is tolerable...for me anyhow.

 

[keifferr]

Not enough especially if you love playing games on your phone.

 

[anony_mouse]

Android and modern apps run pretty well in 2GB. I wouldn't recommend any less, though.

 

[mr glass]

Yes, it's enough you can use it. Even till now I have my HTC 526g plus with me. It's a 1gb ram device.