I don’t get why Android phones have so much ram.

They often have more ram than my wife’s MacBook and the same or my as my desktop.

How much ram is needed if you’re not gaming or video editing?

In my case, it’s a very occasional picture or video recorded and then just social media apps and web. Do I need to get a phone with 12gb? Or is that just thrown in there for marketing?

  • catharso@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    111·
    10 months ago

    My Pixel 6a has 6GB.

    I’m very happy with it.

    I think 4GB is ok but on the lower end.

    8GB is plenty.

    • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      6·
      10 months ago

      I’ve got 6GB in my phone. It’s been plenty for me even though Android eats half of it. The most resource intensive thing I do is use Firefox with a few tabs open though.

      I can’t believe how bloated Android has gotten. My first Android tablet only had 256MB and it ran fine on that. Now my phone uses 3 times more memory than my desktop at boot.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        10 months ago

        I can’t believe how bloated Android has gotten. My first Android tablet only had 256MB and it ran fine on that.

        Retina resolution graphics need more memory.

        3 times more memory than my desktop at boot.

        Phones don’t have virtual memory and desktop PCs often have dedicated video RAM.

        • TheEntity@kbin.social
          3·
          10 months ago

          Just for the sake of correctness: phones almost definitely do have virtual memory, that’s how any modern memory allocation works. You probably meant swap files/partitions.

    • ramble81@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I had a 4GB phone and after an update, processes were constantly swapping or closing because I was bouncing off the limit. I later got a 6GB phone and I was able to get multiple updates and run more programs without any issues.