EOS most important feature - RAM

[EchoRedux]

I know you've seen it. People on here complain about it. Reviewers, users, lovers, haters, all seem to agree that Windows Phone needs 1080p screens and quad core processors. In short, some specs mean a heck of a lot more than others. Processors are rarely the bottleneck and my Focus S super amoled+ Screen with less than 220 ppi looks better than the screen on the Sammy GS 4. I feel like I'm in the minority when I make my demands, but here they are:

I demand more RAM
I demand faster read/write speeds from the storage
I demand a larger battery


More RAM brings more capabilities to the phone. More processing power (dual core to quad core) doesn't. If the rumors are true and the EOS/1020 comes with 2 GB of RAM, I'd say that is easily the biggest step forward for Windows Phone. Far bigger deal than a 41mp camera, a quad core processor, or a full HD screen. Honestly, I don't know anything "Droid Does" that couldn't be done on a Windows Phone with 2 gigs of RAM.

tl;dr version: RAM matters more than processing speed and screen resolution at this point.

 

[nube_android]

I think most people don't care about RAM. Only the writers do and techies like me. Personally I think live tiles an awesome ux and a high end camera will be more than enough to sell people.

 

[nube_android]

2GB of ram and a quad core CPU will likely come in the HTC One WP 8.1 version

 

[EchoRedux]

I think that's a problem though. People care too much about things that aren't needed at this time like quad core. An underpowered processor still runs processes, too little RAM and you can't run the process at all.

 

[z33dev33l]

Ram is sadly important... Nova almost melts my 920

 

[FinancialP]

Ram isn't the issue. Although I agree more would be better.

Badly coded apps and games are the issue.

However everyone can't be coding bad apps and games that require 1gb of ram. Complex situation.

 

[nube_android]

I still don't understand why an iPhone 4S with 512MB of ram can run most every game on the app store and Microsoft and nokias Lumia phones with 512MB of ram cannot.

 

[tissotti]

I still don't understand why an iPhone 4S with 512MB of ram can run most every game on the app store and Microsoft and nokias Lumia phones with 512MB of ram cannot.

Like said above, devs not optimazing the software. Same as console vs PC's, even as you can get better results on PC.
Not a developer so I don't know if much of the blame could be directed to WP tools or similar. WP is still better at this than Android, probably because MS seems to have limited WP8 to 2 SoC's so far.

 

[SnailUK]

I still don't understand why an iPhone 4S with 512MB of ram can run most every game on the app store and Microsoft and nokias Lumia phones with 512MB of ram cannot.

Its simple. iPhones were on sale for years with 512mb ram. Developers were used to writing apps for 512mb, and there are tens of millions of 512mb devices out there.

WP8 came along, and most developers just do lazy ports to WP8, because of the much smaller market. Its no different to early Android, which was forever suffering a similar fate.

That's why 2GB of ram scares me. Great for the top devices, but lazy developers will just start targetting the higher spec units, and all the existing phones will start to suffer

 

[vlad0]

The most important thing is that it can handle 41Mpix camera with a SoC that doesn't support it.. that is where the real engineering magic happens.

 

[MAERSK]

The most important thing is that it can handle 41Mpix camera with a SoC that doesn't support it.. that is where the real engineering magic happens.

So you're betting on it not being the S800? If this were true then it truly is magical or really clever

 

[EchoRedux]

Remember, the iPhone uses PowerVR chipsets as it's GPU. Just about every same generation Adreno is underpowered in comparison. I'm sure this is why RAM limitations play a bigger factor in Windows Phones than in iOS, even though iPhone 5 has more RAM than it's predecessors.

 

[TechAbstract]

Remember, the iPhone uses PowerVR chipsets as it's GPU. Just about every same generation Adreno is underpowered in comparison. I'm sure this is why RAM limitations play a bigger factor in Windows Phones than in iOS, even though iPhone 5 has more RAM than it's predecessors.

That can't be right. The iPhone 4 has a weak PowerVR SGX 535 GPU compares to Adreno 305/225 on WP8. Only iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 have powerful GPUs.

 

[a5cent]

I feel like I'm in the minority when I make my demands, but here they are:

I demand more RAM
I demand faster read/write speeds from the storage
I demand a larger battery

The only demand I'm not instantly on board with is the one for more RAM. Not because it's a bad idea, but because that alone isn't enough. As it is now, you can add as much RAM to a WP device as you want, without it making the slightest difference. Why? Because WP puts caps on how much RAM apps have at their disposal. These are described here. Basically, if you want that extra RAM to actually have an affect, then you need to change a lot of other OS level functions along with it.

Additionally, it would be far more beneficial to raise the low-end from 512 MB to 1 GB, than it would be to raise the high-end from 1 GB to 2 GB. Why? Because all apps specifically written for WP are targeted to run well on 512 MB devices. There is practically no benefit to be had from running such apps on devices with more RAM. Raising the low-end however, that changes what WP developers actually target, which is much more likely to make a noticeable difference.

Just to be clear. I'm definitely not saying more RAM is a bad idea. I'm just trying to add some background knowledge and show that there is more to it than just calling for more RAM. Basically, I'd want to know more about everything affected before putting my vote behind it.

Finally, if forced to choose, I'd much rather get lower latency RAM and higher bandwidth RAM, before getting more RAM. Particularly because the RAM in our smartphones also serves as shared video memory, for which it is painfully slow.

Completely agree with your other two points, so I'll join your minority group. :wink:

That's why 2GB of ram scares me. Great for the top devices, but lazy developers will just start targeting the higher spec units, and all the existing phones will start to suffer

IMHO we really need to differentiate between ports on the one hand, and apps that are built from the ground up for WP, on the other.

Games that are ported from Android or iOS aren't targeted at any specific hardware configuration. They are just converted as quickly as possible and whatever amount of RAM they end up using defines the minimal requirements. If developers are required to put in a lot of work to reduce the memory footprint, then it's usually not worth the cost, in which case those ports end up running only on 1 GB devices.

That is completely different from software built specifically for WP. The 1GHz / 512 MB models represent the vast majority of all WP devices on the market. Because developers want access to the largest possible user base, practically all WP apps are specifically targeted at these lower-end devices. So, at least for apps that were specifically written for WP, you need not fear the lazy-developer/2GB scenario you described.

 

[vlad0]

So you're betting on it not being the S800? If this were true then it truly is magical or really clever

No, that would be too easy I am betting on a custom made GPU inside the camera module, just like what they have on the Symbian device.

 

[Bizarro_Prime]

2GB of ram and a quad core CPU will likely come in the HTC One WP 8.1 version

Or maybe the HTC 8.One ? (see what I did there)

 

[Pavel Gotze]

Is there any real application, excluding games, where person can care if there is 1 GB or 2 GB of RAM in his device?

 

[a5cent]

Is there any real application, excluding games, where person can care if there is 1 GB or 2 GB of RAM in his device?

Allegedly, the Lumia EOS will come with 2 GB of memory. Considering that a single image from this device's camera could be up to 100 MB large (obviously before applying jpeg compression), handling such images sounds like it might be a sensible application for that much RAM.

 

[vlad0]

Allegedly, the Lumia EOS will come with 2 GB of memory. Considering that a single image from this device's camera could be up to 100 MB large (obviously before applying jpeg compression), that would seem like a sensible application for that extra GB of RAM.

No need.. the Symbian version does it on really slow 512 RAM

 

[z33dev33l]

No need.. the Symbian version does it on really slow 512 RAM

Didn't that one have a secondary processor strictly for the camera though? I may be wrong.