Why don't we have any proper mid-range devices?

[pantsaregood]

Windows Phone 8 essentially shipped on two hardware combinations: 1.0 GHz Krait/512 MB RAM/Adreno 305 and 1.5 GHz Krait/1024 MB RAM/Adreno 225.

The only two exceptions to this are the Lumia 920T (1.5 GHz Krait/1024 MB RAM/Adreno 320) and the Lumia 1020 (1.5 GHz Krait/2048 MB RAM/Adreno 225).

The Lumia 625 saw a slight bump in clock speed over the Lumia 620, but I'm wondering why we didn't see any models with the following specs:

1.2 GHz Krait/768 MB RAM/Adreno 305

This seems like it would've made far more sense for a device that is intended to define the mid-range, such as the Lumia 720. The extra RAM would allow for faster multitasking on 512 MB device-capable apps (which sometimes take a few seconds to resume on 512 MB devices), and potentially allow for some apps that are currently exclusive to 1024 MB devices to be installed.

 

[alllies]

Do the OS support 768RAM? At what price range you will sell those devices? Aren't Lumia 820's not a proper mid-range device for you?

 

[Narse77]

768mb would not work due to how chip configurations work. ie you have slots on a board, you can solder a 512 chip or a 1024 chip, they do not make half bit chips like 768 from what I understand.

NOTE: I am trying to make this as simple as possible for those that do not know binary math.

 

[pantsaregood]

768 MB is completely possible. There are plenty of Android devices with 768 MB of RAM. Not to mention that the Samsung Omnia M took a similar approach to what I'm suggesting - it had 384 MB of RAM. The HTC HD7, HTC 7 Trophy, HTC 7 Mozart, and HTC 7 Pro all included 576 MB of RAM. The HTC 7 Surround apparently included 448 MB of RAM.

Also, the amount of RAM used isn't OS-dependent in the same way that the SoC is. Drivers don't have to be written for various amounts of RAM, the OS simply moves things to and from a page file when RAM is low.

Also, no: performance-wise, the Lumia 820 is completely identical to the Lumia 920. As far as performance is concerned, the two device tiers I listed above exist, and there's really nothing in between.

This isn't really a question of price point, either. I explicitly asked why devices at the price point of the Lumia 720 didn't feature specs like this. Of the six WP8 Lumia devices, the 720 seems to stand out the least.

 

[DBDev]

I don't think your mid-specs will be that much cheaper than the high-specs, because I don't really think that it is a that big difference in the prices of these components, but I'm not sure. I think the price more depends on the screen and build quality, but like I said, I'm not sure :smile:

 

[gsquared]

That would just end up being some bastardized device that very few would buy.

 

[xandros9]

The thing is that people go all goo-goo over the high end. I feel in my bones that the 820 isn't that popular, I was going to get it, but then AT&T EOL'ed it.

I feel its in a bit awkward position.