Low Memory Concerns

[JTEastwood]

So I noticed after alot of use the phone gets a little laggy. Looking at available memory it was down to only 20-30 mb. After a reboot it starts at 225mb. So i installed a memory app to view available memory and after a reboot it has about 55% free. but after every time an app runs it drops and drops and drops down to about 10% before it levels off. As a new Android user is this normal? I hate to use the old bb battery pull comparison here but it seems like a lot of memory getting sucked up real quick. Im not using a task killer cuz to many threads said to let android run its business.

Just wondering if anyone else is having a similar problem...

 

[mclarryjr]

I would check my memory a few times a day when I first got the Droid because my old storm would freeze and need a battery pull. With the Incredible you can stop checking your memory every hour just trust that your phone will not lock up or need a battery pull.

 

[Cory Streater]

mcalarryjr - are you going to get one?

JTEastwood - lag isn't something very many people are reporting. Do you have any 3rd party apps installed?

 

[mclarryjr]

I did pick one up on the launch day and I'm very happy I did this is a great phone not that the Droid wasn't but Sense is amazing. My wife is enjoying the Droid and glad to get rid of her BB.

 

[JTEastwood]

- lag isn't something very many people are reporting. Do you have any 3rd party apps installed?

Not really. Just bouncing in and out of basic apps email, txt, market stuff that came on the phone, the free memory keeps dropping. It just seems weird that it would drop to only 10% free memory after a normal days use. And it does start lagging when it gets that low. Screen flips arent as smooth, delays in apps loading when normaly this phone flies. Just a small concern since this phone is still light years above my curve in speed.

 

[mclarryjr]

I would try a factory reset which you will lose all your downloaded apps and setting but you can download them again from the market and if that doesn't fix the memory I would be going back to Verizon. There is a chance you got a lemon because like Cory has said no one else is reporting this problem.

 

[Cory Streater]

I did pick one up on the launch day and I'm very happy I did this is a great phone not that the Droid wasn't but Sense is amazing. My wife is enjoying the Droid and glad to get rid of her BB.

Cool! For some reason I thought you still had the Droid.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Not really. Just bouncing in and out of basic apps email, txt, market stuff that came on the phone, the free memory keeps dropping. It just seems weird that it would drop to only 10% free memory after a normal days use. And it does start lagging when it gets that low. Screen flips arent as smooth, delays in apps loading when normaly this phone flies. Just a small concern since this phone is still light years above my curve in speed.

I've spent a good bit of time fooling around with Sense 2.1, here's what I've noticed -

Yes, once you drop below about 30-35 MB of free RAM the fluidity goes away. Sense seems to be able to use idle RAM as some sort of pre-buffer for scrolling and other animations.

Try as hard as you can, but you wont be able to get the RAM low enough to freeze up Sense. At around 25ish MB free it starts to kill off dead processes to free it back up.

You CAN however get it to lag really bad, but just for a few moments -- When your RAM has dropped low (under 30 MB), start up something CPU and RAM intensive in the background. For tests, I use Doggcatcher and have it update about 40 feeds and 10 podcasts. While it's running in the background, put the screen to sleep. When you wake the device, it runs like crap for about 10-15 seconds. Then it goes back to normal.

Very little (if any) difference in the way the OS "feels" once you get above 45-50 MB Free.

Sense scales REALLY well. Sense 2.1 on the N1 acts just like it does on the Hero. Of course it's faster on the N1 or the Incredible, but it slows based on the RAM at just about the same rate.

Also worth noting -- the phone itself doesn't really slow down (well on the Hero's 528 mhz processor it does lol). Sense just slows down. Apps open and close at just about the same speed. Whatever HTC did, Sense is the master of illusion, and when the ram gets low the illusion goes away


Now having said all this, even at it's slowest, I'd think the Incredible would be blazing fast compared to other devices. Tons of memory, a snapdragon CPU and an OS that knows how to use the gpu and buffer somehow really shines.

 

[mclarryjr]

gbhil that's what I wanted to say but just couldn't get it out, thanks for helping me out LOL.