A smartphone was just announced with more RAM than a standard laptop — here's why RAM matters on a smartphone

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December 11, 2018 8:51 PM

Without RAM (random access memory), your phone could have the fastest chip in the world and still feel slow.

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A phone called the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition was recently announced and it has 10GB of RAM, a number that, for many, is just another confusing number.

But once and for all, we're going to explain what RAM is and why it matters in a smartphone. This post is a great place to start.

First, the name. You don't really need to know that "RAM" stands for "random access memory." But what you do need to know is that RAM is a super-fast type of storage — faster than your phone's main storage where your apps, photos, videos, and music live — and it helps your smartphone work and feel fast.

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Heres how RAM works and what it does in your smartphone

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So, yes, more RAM is generally better, but its not

Indeed, more RAM means your phone can store more of the OS data and apps you often use for quick access. It gives off the impression that your phone is incredibly fast because the OS and apps you've previously used are ready to use straight away when you return to them.

But you might look at the iPhone XS's paltry 4GB and compare it to the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition's 10GB of RAM, and immediately think the iPhone XS is an inferior device. But it's not quite that simple.

Apple uses a relatively low 4GB of RAM on its iPhones because they've optimized the iOS operating system, components, and the way it handles app data to perform very well with only 4GB of RAM. The same goes for Google and its own Pixel 3 phones, which "only" have 4GB of RAM compared to other Android devices with 6GB or more.

With Android devices that aren't made by Google, you could say the optimization is generally less efficient. There are so many Android devices out there with difference specs and versions of Android that optimization is almost never going to be as good as it is with Apple and its iPhones. So a lot of Android devices will have 6GB or more of RAM in order to perform as well as an iPhone with 4GB of RAM.

With that said, the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition — which runs Android — has so much RAM that it could brute-force itself to better app multitasking than the iPhone XS, and any other phone for that matter.

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