Will 512 MB RAM be enough for non-flagship WP8 devices??

[Ash_Biz]

WP7.5 was based on the Win CE kernel... CE, Compact Edition, the name says it all... But WP8 is based on Win NT kernel... As we know, NT is the complete Windows kernel and it is quite massive and surely uses more resources than the Win CE kernel... So what I am thinking is: will 512 MB be enough to power NT-based WP8 devices?? The leaked specs for the Nokia Lumia 820 'Arrow' shows 335 MB RAM... I hope Nokia is not making a mistake!! They should have used at least 768 MB for the next to flagship phone...

 

[X0LARIUM]

What I thought earlier: WP doesnt need more cores as it is anyways faster than any Android in the market.

What I know now: That for other apps apart from the system apps, it lags just like any phone.

hence, no, it will need more cores and memory...

 

[speedfreak228]

Yes the new phones need at least 1Gb of ram. I won't buy one with 512mb. I don't lag when playing games

 

[anodynamic]

They have cut down the kernel. Before WP was launched, there was a demo where they ran an early ARM version of desktop Windows on a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone, and I think it used about 60% of the resources.

It's not the kernel itself that uses all the resources on a desktop machine, but all the system drivers and other stuff that make the environment work. A smartphone is a more limited environment, so the OS doesn't need to run the same amount of background tasks.

 

[AngryNil]

What I know now: That for other apps apart from the system apps, it lags just like any phone.

What you don't know is that memory has nothing to do with that.

Where memory will come into play is when Microsoft is sorting out multitasking scenarios such as tombstoning apps and creating the specifications for background agents. What I'm bothered about here is developers may end up catering for the lowest denominator, and that's a 512MB device which Microsoft is currently restricting heavily. If this is the case, we might not get to see flagships stretched to their full potential.

 

[SnailUK]

But, by the same measure, its the cheaper devices that will sell more, and Microsoft need to spend more time making them both as cheap (is low spec) as possible, but without app problems like the cheap current nokias.

Sent from my HD7 T9292 using Board Express

 

[Mukesh Patel]

Nokia is launching another L series lumia 620 in india. with 512 mb RAM 1 GH Snapdragon S4 processors. will that be good enough to perform multitasking and gaming although they mentioned it has graphic accelerator Adreno 305... Will performance get degrade after installing many apps..? usually new phones wont have any performance issue as they have very less apps sit inside. i am planning to buy WP8 phone and confused between 820 n 620, 620 suits well for my budget bt stills am more freaking about performance..
pls guide me

 

[tissotti]

Nokia is launching another L series lumia 620 in india. with 512 mb RAM 1 GH Snapdragon S4 processors. will that be good enough to perform multitasking and gaming although they mentioned it has graphic accelerator Adreno 305... Will performance get degrade after installing many apps..? usually new phones wont have any performance issue as they have very less apps sit inside. i am planning to buy WP8 phone and confused between 820 n 620, 620 suits well for my budget bt stills am more freaking about performance..
pls guide me

In general i have not heard about the performance decreasing in Windows Phone (or experienced it on my Lumia 800 and Lumia 920), even on the very low end Lumia 610. WP is certainly more like iOS there compared to Android.

Reviews i have watched have all said the performance is smooth on 620. Like i would honestly expect from a dual core 1Ghz and 512MB ram on WP. That said i would imagine some high end WP8 games will not be available for Lumia 620.

 

[a5cent]

A lot of misunderstandings in this thread:

1) On WP, the amount of RAM has NO influence on how efficiently apps are executed.

2) The amount of RAM has NO influence on how many apps you can install on the device.

3) WP performance doesn't noticeably degrade based on the number of installed apps. Even if it would, RAM wouldn't be important in this regard.

4) When you launch an app on WP8, it is guaranteed access to at least 150 MB of RAM. If that isn't available, tombstoned apps will be closed to free up space.

5) Apps requiring more than 150 MB can't be installed on devices with less than 1GB RAM. So, having only 512 MB of RAM (or less) will restrict your choice of apps, although this will affect only some games (of the "hardcore" variety).

AngryNil mentioned the other scenarios in which less RAM will have an affect.

I'm unaware (and highly doubtful) of a WP8 device coming out with less than 512 MB RAM. If such a device exists, I would avoid it. The supported number of Background Tasks and Multitasking will be too limited.

 

[Andre o Botelho]

A lot of misunderstandings in this thread:
1) On WP, the amount of RAM has NO influence on how efficiently apps are executed.

This is not totally true, suspending apps is fast, tombstoning and freeing memory is not that fast. So more ram results in more efficiente (fake)multitasking. What XONOPHOS pointed is true for switching apps, the OS begans to lag a lot with (MY)heavy usage.