Why Android has up to 18GB of RAM while iOS has only 6GB of RAM

In the phone industry, we basically have two main factions, the Android camp and the iOS camp. These are the two main operating systems in the phone world today. While Android is owned by Google, Apple owns iOS. One key difference between these two operating systems is that Android is used by many manufacturers, while iOS is entirely for Apple’s iPhone.

This explains why the number of Android users is almost three times that of iOS. However, in terms of the successes that iOS has achieved, this operating system is at the top. One big difference between Android and iOS phones is the amount of RAM. In general, Android devices have a much larger amount of RAM than iOS devices. The question is why?

Recently, ZTE Axon 30 Ultra Space Edition has been officially launched. This premium Android smartphone has 18GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage. This also indicates that the RAM of Android phones is currently heading towards 20GB. In fact, with the new memory expansion technology, some Android flagships already support 20GB of RAM.

Simply put, the highest amount of RAM on an Android phone is 18GB. In contrast, the largest amount of RAM on the iPhone is only 6GB. Thus, Android RAM is 3 times that of iOS. So why is the RAM of Android phones getting bigger and bigger? From 8GB to 12GB and then 18GB, but Apple phones are half as much or less than Android. Is Apple lagging behind or is Tim Cook “stingy”? In fact, the real reason is not simply cost savings.

What is RAM and ROM?

Before comparing the difference between the memory management mechanism of iOS and Android systems, we need to understand the meaning of some technical terms. RAM (Random Access Memory) is also known as running memory. The size of RAM directly determines how many programs you can open in the background of your phone. On the other hand, ROM (Read-Only Memory) is called internal memory. ROM determines how many programs you can install on your phone and how many photos and songs you can store.

If you open many applications while using the phone, and when the phone memory is not enough, the phone automatically closes some applications. It does this to free up space to meet the needs of new applications. This is often referred to as “killing the background”.

When your phone has a habit of “killing the background”, it will definitely affect the performance and battery of your phone. This is because reopening the application will take some time and you will feel the device is not “smooth”. Therefore, when you play with many applications, the more storage space, the smoother the phone.

Here are the top 3 reasons why iOS is comfortable with a “small” amount of RAM. In addition, you can also see how to distinguish RAM and VRAM here.

1. iOS’s TOMBSTONE mechanism can optimize multiple memory

In everyday use, the types and numbers of programs we run are similar. Why does Android need more storage space than Apple? Because Android uses “real background”. Apps that run in the foreground and hang in the background take up the same amount of memory. This causes the system to use more memory. Apple’s background is a virtual background, and when an app is in the background, its activities are paused.

When the user interrupts a task, the system records the current application state up to the time of the interruption. The program will then freeze. When a task needs to be restored, the program resumes from the state immediately before it was interrupted. Therefore, iOS’ TOMBSTONE mechanism saves more memory than Android when the app is in the background.

When the same number of background apps are running, iOS requires much less memory than Android. Android usually requires more memory space to ensure smooth phone usage.

2. Apple’s Sandbox Mechanic requires less RAM than Android

In addition to iOS’s TOMBSTONE mechanism, Apple’s strict censorship and sandbox mechanisms also make it unnecessary to have a lot of RAM. Because the Android system does not have a strict review system, it is extremely open, and the market is uneven. This leads to loads of messy apps. These apps also engage in “deceptive behavior”, random start-ups, and claim access to unnecessary permissions. On Android, you can open one app and 50 other apps will start running in the background with it. This immediately reduces storage space.

However, with Apple it is different. All apps in the App Store need to go through Apple’s official review process, and they need user consent to get permissions. After you actively exit the application, the system will completely shut down the application and all processes.

In addition, iOS applies a sandbox mechanism and each application is placed in an independent sandbox and cannot interfere with each other’s access rights. Therefore, under strict control, iOS software has much smaller RAM requirements than Android.

3. Apple has a push feature that reduces RAM requirements

Apple’s push feature also reduces memory usage to a certain extent. iOS system notification messages are pushed uniformly to you through Apple servers. This allows you to receive notification messages without opening the app. Of course, this will most likely reduce the storage space the system uses at the time.

Due to the large number of mobile phone manufacturers using the Android system and the open source nature of the Android system, there is currently no unified push notification feature. If you need this push feature, your messages can only be delivered to you through a third-party application or service platform.