Are you happy about the amount of RAM on the Galaxy S4?

[RayMabry]

Do you close apps? I keep some open but if I know I am not going to mess with the phone I close all open apps.

Sent from my Sprint S3 using AC forums.

Usually. I may leave Firefox open if I have pages I was reading open. But for the most part, I close them habitually. The funny thing is though that recently I had many apps open and my phone wasn't lagging or anything. I actually even had a great deal of free memory at that point.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Eric72]

I personally would think that 2GB of RAM is good enough, but I don't not like that the system is already running 1.22GB out of 1.82GB on S4. In S3 and Note II, there are a lot more free RAM that S4. The response on S4 3G Version (One that I am using) is very sluggish. I regret that I traded my Note II and Sony Experia Z for this........ The only positive things are pictures quality and better looking screen......

 

[americasteam]

Available ram has nothing to do with the hiccups this device has. It's all software optimization. Run TSF Shell and this is the smoothest phone on the planet. No stutters when opening and closing apps. You can also override the transition animations to slide or ICS in Nova launcher and it's extrememly smooth.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Eric72]

What is the available RAM used for?

 

[Aquila]

What is the available RAM used for?

Is that a trick question? Available RAM isn't used for anything, if you mean the portion not currently being used It's just wasted. I think I may be misunderstanding what you are asking.

 

[Eric72]

NothingIsTrue,
My question is directed to Americasteam because he is informing me that "available ram" has nothing to do with the hiccups of S4. I am sorry for the confusion. Maybe lag is considered as hiccups. I believed when a program lagged, usually compatibility of Softwares, Hardware, and lack of free RAM. Uninstall the programs that didn't work, and kept those function with S4.

I used Samsung's S2, Note, S3, S3 LTE(2GB RAM), Note2, and now S4. I love Samsung's improvements on their mobile phone each time because I have to switch languages(Asia) when answering emails and messages. Note 2 was the best suited for my purposes and enjoyed the most.

When the S4 arrives, I immediately reserved one and I decided to use S4 3G version(4+4) because according to many review that it is better suited for gaming. I don't root my mobile phone, I played an old simulation game from Kairosoft "Grand Prix Story". I started having lag in the game(standalone), this never happens to me with S3 LTE and Note 2.

So I checked the RAM Manager to see what is going on. According to the RAM, S4 used 1.5GB/1.8GB. I just press the clear memory button to free up the memory. I was shocked to see that it used up 1.2GB of RAM when clear memory, so I disabled all the new functions from S4(now 1.12GB/1.82GB). If I remembered correctly, S3LTE(Asia) used around 680MB/1.82GB and Note2 is around 850MB/1.82GB when clear memory.

I restarted the game, there slight improved but lag happens every now and then which I can live with. "Grand Prix Story" is a game that simulated managing a racing team. I don't think this game took up a lot of result because I played on older phones without any problems.

I turned off many new options except wifi and bluetooth, I will clear memory at RAM Manager whenever I finished using an app. This annoys me because the Samsung's wigets or Jellybean are eating up my free/available RAM and I cannot stop them from doing(I don't know will rooting help). I updated the firmware twice(as usual new phone will have glitches), I thought this will solve the problem because after updated the firmware at the beginning the total RAM used is around 800MB/1.82GB. I thought that solved the problem but a hour later the system go back and used 1.18GB/1.82GB.

Right Now, I felt that the S4 is like the Older Sony Xperia Series with 1GB RAM but with better camera and screen quality. The lower spec phone, Sony's widget and Android used about 680MB/1GB. Xperia Z improved a lot (2GB RAM) but somehow it is not as user friendly as Samsung's Android phone. Sony still has a long road ahead.

Maybe Americasteam is correct, it is the software optimization between the new widgets from Samsung. S3 LTE and Note 2 are the best Samsung Phone, everything smooth and fast. S4 looks good but the performance is not up to my expectation.

Samsung is behaving like old Hong Kong Land Developers, the big difference between the constucted area vs. the actual usable area.....(Constructed Area 550SQ. FT./Actual Usable area 350SQ. FT.) We paid for the constructed area until recently the regulation changed to actual usable area. S4 has 2GB of RAM/16GB Storage in specification/ Actual Usable 690MB/ 8.92GB. It is funny to me....

Typically, 2GB RAM is more than enough if the system left with 1GB usable RAM remaining. S4 with all these new functions, 2GB just not enough.

 

[decepticlone]

2GB is not enough, but that is what Google pushes and what Samsung does to cut costs. The only reason the phone doesn't use all the RAM is because app developers are limited to what they can use. They know devices only have 2GB of RAM, so they optimize their apps to utilize the least amount. If a manufacturer created a 6GB model, app developers could go hog wild and you'd have even better apps. If you had 6GB RAM, all apps could stay open and be instantaneous. You could have a Far Cry like game on your mobile device because you aren't limited to the size of textures and size of the app's footprint.

In short, as long as consumers keep deluding themselves into thinking a 16GB phone is more than they need, they will also fool themselves into believing 2GB of RAM is overkill. Sad for those who understand technology and would like it to advance faster.

 

[TheyStoleMyName]

Well why does anyone need a 1080p screen... Because they want it. I used a lot if apps on all my phoned and never got anywhere near the 2gb limit.

Sent from my HTC One using Android Central Forums

 

[Mario_T]

Hi all!
I have one Galaxy S4 i9505, and i have a lot of free ram 900MB/1.78GB, even above 1GB memory usage, if i clear memory i get only 900MB of used ram.

 

[Nel Houssary]

Am totally surprised of those ppl who says 2GB is plenty enough in a phone it differs 4m a user 2 another n it limit u with downloading apps as much as u need i was iphone user n channeled to android n i must say a RAM in a phone sucks ESP when limited with 1 or 2GB 4 u cant download as many apps as anyone needs unlike iphone that allows u 2 load as many apps as u want without feeling any kind of burden 2 clear crap RAM of any sort.This RAM thing sucks n am totally annoyed for i cant have as many apps as i like like i used 2 have in iphone i feel tied up with RAM space n totally annoyed n disappointed n very unpractical ...

 

[Joe_Perone]

Am totally surprised of those ppl who says 2GB is plenty enough in a phone it differs 4m a user 2 another n it limit u with downloading apps as much as u need i was iphone user n channeled to android n i must say a RAM in a phone sucks ESP when limited with 1 or 2GB 4 u cant download as many apps as anyone needs unlike iphone that allows u 2 load as many apps as u want without feeling any kind of burden 2 clear crap RAM of any sort.This RAM thing sucks n am totally annoyed for i cant have as many apps as i like like i used 2 have in iphone i feel tied up with RAM space n totally annoyed n disappointed n very unpractical ...

I feel like you're confusing RAM and Storage.

RAM has nothing to do with downloading apps, it's about the processor running the apps. Downloading apps is storage, and the S4 has either 16 or 32 GB variants (which is 7 or 15 GB of storage respectively), and this is what is taken up when you download apps. To remain relevantly on topic, I think 2 GB is more than enough; free ram is wasted ram.