12GB of RAM vs. 16GB of RAM? Anyone feeling the difference?

[thegame161]

Those who bought the 512GB 16GB of ram any differences? I’m guessing not.

 

[Mooncatt]

I think for now it's just for bragging rights. 12GB is still a bit overkill today as it is.

 

[Mike Dee]

When you have more than enough RAM already you won't see a difference as far as lag. The only difference you'll see is how many apps more RAM can keep running in the background.

 

[BergerKing]

Heck, 6 gigs is still getting the job done nicely.

 

[the_boon]

Heck, 6 gigs is still getting the job done nicely.

Exactly. Manufacturers that stuff overkill amounts of RAM in their phones just screams "we didn't know what to bother upgrading and didn't want to spend R&D in other more useful things, so we put 12GB/16GB to say we did something".

 

[Mike Dee]

Heck, 6 gigs is still getting the job done nicely.

Well 4 gigs works too, but I don't want to go backwards.

 

[Mike Dee]

Exactly. Manufacturers that stuff overkill amounts of RAM in their phones just screams "we didn't know what to bother upgrading and didn't want to spend R&D in other more useful things, so we put 12GB/16GB to say we did something".

It's actually a delicate balance and a lot depends on how you use your device. More RAM uses more battery because it always on whether it's full or not so if you're a minimilist user too much RAM is a waste in money and battery efficiency. If you have too little RAM and are a heavy user your RAM keeps swapping out apps and reloading so it's also not battery efficiency, however your out of pocket for the device is less. I'm of the opinion that 6 to 8 is a good number but we can't buy devices in every configuration. Many of us buy a 512GB device because we like lots of storage and also get stuck buying more RAM.

 

[Casualballer]

Heck, 6 gigs is still getting the job done nicely.

Darn straight!

 

[BergerKing]

Well 4 gigs works too, but I don't want to go backwards.

Unfortunately, my second phone has roughly the same specs as my old S4, meaning 16 ROM and 2 RAM on Android 9, no less. I keep minimal apps on it just to keep functional, and use my Note 9 for everything else. Trying to use the J2 Core the way is use the Note 9 is impossible.

 

[mustang7757]

On stock andriod phones you don't need that much ram only keep things in memory longer, Samsung phones do with all the apps that run in the background ,dex etc ...keeps them running smoothly combined with latest chips .

 

[Mike Dee]

On stock andriod phones you don't need that much ram only keep things in memory longer, Samsung phones do with all the apps that run in the background ,dex etc ...keeps them running smoothly combined with latest chips .

It was you who talked me into Samsung. I knew you were rotten to the core

 

[mustang7757]

It was you who talked me into Samsung. I knew you were rotten to the core

Lol..not saying anything bad

 

[the_boon]

On stock andriod phones you don't need that much ram only keep things in memory longer, Samsung phones do with all the apps that run in the background ,dex etc ...keeps them running smoothly combined with latest chips .

If you disable all the Samsung apps that you don't need, it should help converse more RAM.

 

[mustang7757]

If you disable all the Samsung apps that you don't need, it should help converse more RAM.

It definitely does , but most dont dive into that , especially system apps that only can with say PDP

 

[I_didnt_do_it]

Righr now 16 GB of RAM is nothing more than a price grab, just a reason for the manufacturer to charge a higher price. There isn't much practicality for more than 12 GB of RAM right now.

 

[cknobman]

Yes they do.

But it is an easy marketing term for the uninformed and ignorant.

It allows manufacturers to increase the profits on a phone by charging extra.

Not everyone is tech savy so they just go off numbers without a real understanding of the meaning behind them.

Heck my 2 year old Note "only" has 6gb ram and there is usually 3gb of free ram.
How often has all 6gb been used? NOT ONCE

 

[Morty2264]

I always buy the lower-RAM models. I don't store/run a ton of things on my phone to make it lag or stutter but really, I don't notice a difference.

 

[Mike Dee]

Yes they do.

But it is an easy marketing term for the uninformed and ignorant.

It allows manufacturers to increase the profits on a phone by charging extra.

Not everyone is tech savy so they just go off numbers without a real understanding of the meaning behind them.

Heck my 2 year old Note "only" has 6gb ram and there is usually 3gb of free ram.
How often has all 6gb been used? NOT ONCE

Tech savvy consumers buy devices with large amounts of RAM, not just the ignorant and uninformed.

Android is designed to never use all of its RAM regardless of size which explains why you have RAM left over. The bottom line is less RAM equals more app swapping and reloading.

On a fresh reboot my 16GB device uses 5.3 GB with 1.8 GB reserved and 8.9 GB available. After loading a few apps it uses 7.8 GB with 1.8 GB reserved and 6.4 GB available. As the day goes on I'm sure my numbers will go up.

Note that I didn't purposely buy the 16 GB model for the amount of RAM. I bought it for the 512 GB of storage because the other choice was 128 GB with 12 GB of RAM. The storage is what brings up most of the cost difference from the base model and we don't get to choose the exact configuration we want.

 

[Nostromo79]

There's something intangible at play with the 16 v. 12 gigs. This perception of mine is why I'll reach for the S20 Ultra instead of the Note 10 Plus when I've got multitasking to do.

 

[cknobman]

Tech savvy consumers buy devices with large amounts of RAM, not just the ignorant and uninformed.

Android is designed to never use all of its RAM regardless of size which explains why you have RAM left over. The bottom line is less RAM equals more app swapping and reloading.

I guess my question then would be is Android pre loading all these apps for you so they are already in memory before you request to open them?
Because on my Note 9 outside of services it is not preloading RAM with apps. The apps still have the initial load into RAM.

So unless I am actively using enough apps to fill up existing RAM forcing it to close some I dont ever see the benefit of more RAM.

I'm not saying more RAM is completely useless. It has its use cases but I just dont see the average use case needing it or benefitting from it.
I see it as an extra drain on your battery and your wallet.