Huawei Executive Feels 6GBs+ of RAM in Phones is a Waste, What Do You Think?

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As smartphones have become more and more powerful over time, one question we keep asking ourselves is “how much RAM is enough?”

When smartphones with 1GB of RAM were first released, people at the time often said that they didn’t need all of that RAM. When smartphones with 2GBs of RAM were released, many people said the same thing. We’re now at the point where smartphones with 6GBs of RAM is a reality in many flagship devices with the looming possibility of seeing 8GBs of RAM in the near future. But have we finally reached the point where we can say enough is enough?

At least one Huawei executive believes as such, stating that both anything over 4GBs of RAM is simply a waste at this point in time. The executive expressed their personal thoughts on their Weibo account, so don’t take this to be official company policy or anything, but they did give us a detailed look at the company’s current tests regarding the issue. Huawei’s internal testing shows that 4GBs of RAM paired with the Kirin 960 performs better over time than 6GBs of RAM paired with the same SoC. They didn’t go into any particular details about what performance metrics they used, but the key takeaway the executive learned is that OS optimizations, and not adding more RAM, yields greater benefits.

This might come off as a surprise given that until not too long ago, EMUI has been known for aggressive RAM management and killing of background apps, with the default software often terminating non-whitelisted apps upon turning the screen off. EMUI 5.0+ has certainly improved upon this, though, but only after complaints from users and reviewers. Still, despite Huawei’s history with memory management on their devices, does the executive have a valid point?

An old adage often brought up in these arguments is that “unused RAM is wasted RAM.” What this means is that if you have free RAM not being used by a process, to cache a process, or something else to aid the kernel, then this RAM is being wasted. Users can reap the benefits of additional RAM, too, as you will see applications and games reload far less often as these applications are kept in memory.

On the other hand, just having more RAM shouldn’t make or break a smartphone. People will see a smartphone or tablet with more RAM and just think it is better than one with less RAM. This is generally a flawed thought process since there are a huge number of factors that go into memory management. We’ve seen phones with 6GBs of RAM (intentionally) underperform, and phones with as little as 3GBs of RAM offer enough for day-to-day usage. Obviously, software plays a huge part in this, and how much RAM is enough for a user is totally dependent on each individual.

RAM is a big selling point in certain smartphone markets (particularly in developing economies) just like a high Megapixel count moves products off the shelves, so it’s clear why manufacturers are opting to pack more and more RAM into their devices. As our smartphones start including as much RAM as the average laptop, are we soon reaching a point where the benefits of adding more RAM will be unnoticeable? There may be some truth to what this executive is saying, but we’re interested in hearing your thoughts on this issue.

Do you agree with the Huawei executive’s comment? Is >4GBs of RAM a waste or is it actually useful in the long run? What amount of RAM hits the sweet-spot in your opinion?

Tell us below, we want to know your thoughts!