A lot of folks have complained about OEM’s who slam 1GB RAM on smartphones and sell for over N30,000. It is not clear why manufacturers still continue to do this, but this action has reached an unbearable point.
A guy who purchases a smartphone above N30,000 expects the phone to function properly. In most cases, this doesn’t happen. After prolong usage, traces of lag and low performance becomes noticeable.
The point is this; OEM’s that ramp up their smartphone with only 1GB RAM have memory clean up apps to ease things off. However, most users do not remember to make use of such app, which leads to problems in future. While iOS and Windows 10 Mobile can run effectively on 1GB RAM. Android is a sorry case, Android apps are big, bulky and not really optimized. Phone manufacturers do not make this any better with their custom ROM that’s bloated at best. You need to arm that baby with enough memory to be efficient. C’mon. In 2012, 1GB RAM was a big deal. In fact, flagships like the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 were equipped with 1GB RAM. Fast forward to 2016, you’d notice the gradual change. The upcoming Galaxy Note 6 is rumored to come with 8GB RAM, but it’s safer to peg it at 6GB of RAM since Snapdragon 820 SoC can only support 6GB RAM at this time. Although, Samsung has a technology that supports allocation of more RAM. In September 2015, Samsung unveiled its 12GB mobile DRAM chips, a new technology that will pave way for 6GB RAM phones. The 12GB LPDDR4 enables 3GB or 6GB mobile DRAM in a single package. For 3GB, it uses two chips while 6GB of RAM will make use of four chips.
Coming back to the software, Android apps make use of Java. Java utilizes a technology called garbage collection for its processes on Android smartphones. The garbage collection simply recycles the RAM when a user closes an app. Here is where the problem lies and why 1GB RAM smartphone needs to die once and for all – Garbage collection requires 2-4 times more RAM because it performs memory clean after application closed unlike iOS which uses objective C for applications. Going further, there is no proof to show that adding an extra gigabyte of RAM on a smartphone will make the phone exceed manufacturing cost. While we don’t have any market tool to show the price of RAM like what’s available on PC, phone manufacturers should be smart enough to know areas to cut down on production process in other to up the RAM size.
I didn’t expect to see any mid-range smartphone having 1GB RAM in 2016 but such phones have flooded the market and it’s a shame. Phone manufacturers targeting Nigeria need to brace up and up their game – it’s okay for smartphones under N30,000 to have 1GB RAM, but it’s a fraud if you design a phone with 1GB RAM and sell above N30,000.
What do you think?
