In this year 2017, the first Android smartphones will arrive with up to 8 GB of RAM. But is that much memory necessary in a smartphone? Why don't other systems need as much?

Just a few weeks ago, the data showed that the most used operating system in the world is the Google system, Android. This is thanks to all the devices that have been launched for sale and that incorporate Android, from mobile phones and tablets, to refrigerators, watches, etc. These devices use Android due to great advantages of this operating system in front of others. But there is a problem that continues to resist, and that does not depend directly on the system but on the application developers for this environment. And are the problems that occur with RAM.

Every year we see how applications bring more utilities, are heavier and require increasingly powerful hardware. Companies such as Qualcomm or Mediatek, incorporate great improvements in their Socs so that they are more powerful than previous generations. Due to the greater weight of the applications, the versions of smartphones with 8 GB of internal storage have been eliminated, and even the 16 GB versions, leaving 32 GB as a recommended minimum. Like is logic, RAM has also been increasing. But, in this last year there has been a superior growth, going from 2-3 GB to 6 GB. And already in 2017 there is talk of reaching the figure of 8 GB, recommended on a desktop or laptop computer.

Random Access Memory (random access memory) - hence the acronym RAM - is used to access applications or programs more quickly. The operating system brings the entire program or part of it from internal storage or secondary memory, and saves it in RAM, so as not to have to access secondary memory again, which is a rather slow process. Thus, the more RAM the device has, the more applications it can keep saved and the faster the response speed will be.

Why doesn't iOS need so much RAM?

Rumors indicate that the next iPhone will only have 3 GB of RAM. Being a premium range, it has the same amount of RAM as a mid-range Android, why?

This question has two answers. The first is that on iOS there is no multitasking as on Android. Recently opened apps load faster because they are cached, but you can't run two apps at the same time, which in Android yes. And the second is that, just like in laptops and desktops, Apple's operating system is designed exclusively for iPhones, and all apps are optimized for these devices.

On Android, developers have to deal with various versions of Android and different hardware. That is why many applications have excessive resource consumption, as is the case with the official Facebook application. Which is a devourer of RAM and battery, which makes terminals with 2 or 3 GB of RAM see their performance and fluidity reduced. So, control the applications that you have installed, because they can be the cause of your terminal crashing or not running smoothly.

What will happen in the future?

This problem has been dragging Android since its inception, and it seems that the easiest solution is the one that smartphone manufacturers are doing. Continue increasing the RAM memory of our terminals, which reveals Android and its optimization. How far will they go?

We have already reached the level of laptops and desktops, in terms of RAM. Perhaps in a year or two, the performance of our smartphones can compete against these. And as Samsung already tries to do with its Samsung DeX, Let us only use our smartphones, as the only devices in our day to day.