12 GB of RAM....and no it's not a laptop or desktop......

[Golfdriver97]

I know this is an Android device, but the rumor mill has it that the S10+ will have 12 GB of RAM. True, that is the top tier device for that model, but still; 12 GB?

We are in general, approaching the realm of full desktop PCs here. And it's in a phone!

Now, I understand the argument that apps are taking more and more memory. That's a given. And some games can be quite heavy handed when it comes to RAM. Sure...PUBG, and some racing games, look and act beautifully, but that's not all RAM usage to make that happen.

I just find it hard to believe that we need that much in a device. I'm curious as to what you all think?

 

[HeyCori]

I think people are buying things they don't need. With the overwhelming majority of smartphone use being dedicated to social media apps, most people don't use the full capabilities of their device. I would argue they don't even get remotely close to using all that power at their fingertips. I think the usage is slightly skewed because tech blogs and forum users over hype how much the average person really use their device. And even the people that do game, I would guess they (currently) don't need 12 gigs. 12 gigs is for the extreme pro user that is basically running everything through their phone.

Also, what android phone are you referring to?

 

[Elky64]

The way I see it, these smartphone manufactures (Samsung here) are now "grasping" at straws in finding ways to make it appear these are massive technology improvements, and to help justify the stiff price tag(s).

Sure 12GB of RAM, 1TB of storage allows one to throw out a resounding grunt or two but at the end of the day, will it make much of a difference in most use case scenarios. I think not. And chances are real good, in 2-3 years, that these devices will more than likely be unsupported as Android is notoriously famous for. And what will we see in terms of battery technology as I strongly suspect it won't be anything too revolutionary... that right there (IMO) will make those extreme specs somewhat moot.

 

[Elky64]

We are in general, approaching the realm of full desktop PCs here. And it's in a phone!

In terms of specs we sure are. On the support front though it's not even close.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I would argue they don't even get remotely close to using all that power at their fingertips.

I'm inclined to agree that this falls into roughly 75% of smartphone users as a whole.

 

[Golfdriver97]

"grasping" at straws in finding ways to make it appear these are massive technology improvements, and to help justify the stiff price tag

I can agree with this. When we start talking phones that are $1,000+, and those same people most likely would not buy a laptop for that much money, the OEMs need to pull out all the stops when it comes to justification.

 

[tgp]

I would argue they don't even get remotely close to using all that power at their fingertips.

This is probably true in many cases. The company I worked for did some retail (PC's). We would often see people come in who would compare the specs of our machines to what they saw at Staples or Walmart.

"Walmart has a laptop with a 1 TB hard drive and 12 GB RAM for $349. Why does your laptop with a 500 GB hard drive and 8 GB RAM cost $699?"

From what our PC repair techs saw from customers' PCs, few used more than 100 or 150 GB of hard drive space. The difference between 500 GB and 1 TB had no real world value to the vast majority of customers.

 

[Ryujingt3]

For most people, they won't see the difference in the amount of RAM of their phone in the apps they use. It's just something that manufacturers can market and charge more for.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Samsung's all new flagship Galaxy S10 phones are coming with a king of its kind 12 GB of RAM, 6 cameras, 1 TB of storage, in-screen fingerprint scanner and many more.

Regards,
Adrian

I am aware of the specs. The point of my post was to start some conversation on what is the limit we should have in a phone, considering this device is giving my PC a run for it's money in terms of a spec sheet, in contrast to how many people actually use all of that power?

 

[ochhanz]

It also has to do with Android being quite demanding on hardware in some use cases (e.g. lots of bloatware / crap on the background, badly written apps or users that like to open tons of things tabs and apps etc).
The storage is for people that keep all their (family) video's on their phone or save images as raw photo's or such. The selfie cam lens overkill are there for the social media addiction. The good camera lenses are there to replace compact camera's (nice feature).
Obviously a midrange phone would be just as good for most of the target group, but phone marketing is quite effective apparently and of course planned planned obsolescence to give users the illusion that the hardware needs to be replaced every ~1-3 years.