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The iPhone 4S Appears to Have 512MB RAM

Monday October 10, 2011 7:58 am PDT by Arnold Kim
Last week, the Infinity Blade developer first suggested that the iPhone 4S still had 512MB of RAM, just like the iPhone 4:
"I'm still shocked that, with the iPhone 4S, I'm literally running around with a 1080p video camera in my pocket, with an eight megapixel camera, 64GB of hard drive space and an A5 chip with 512MB of memory. This is a really powerful computer, right?
The developer would be in a position to know as they had demoed their game on the new iPhone 4S during last week's keynote.

We had doubts about this claim, however, as we had previously heard that the new iPhone would carry 1GB of RAM. Note that we heard this alongside other information regarding Apple's Assistant feature that we accurately mocked up ahead of Siri's launch, so we were confident in the source.

But, now, AppVV also confirms that the iPhone 4S has 512MB of RAM. In a discussion thread an administrator reports that it has 512MB. This fact is repeated on their Weibo page as well in response to a question:
Re @ LogIn_Kim: RAM have said before, is still 512MB.
Though they don't detail how they came to the figure, we're inclined to believe AppVV as they are the ones who posted a hands-on video of the iPhone 4S this morning.

[ 337 comments ]


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MarlboroLite
104 months ago
Apple has always been stingy with RAM--whether it's in their computers or iStuff. And when they have offered extra RAM on their computers they gouge for it. I have no idea why they do this or why they have such an aversion to increasing the memory capacity of their devices when the costs clearly drop every year while the necessity of the boost goes up every year.
Rating: 62 Votes
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sportsfan
104 months ago
This

I don't care if it has 32mb of RAM, as long as it runs fine.


Who cares what the specs are if it works great?
Rating: 38 Votes
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NYR99
104 months ago
I don't care if it has 32mb of RAM, as long as it runs fine.
Rating: 31 Votes
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bigcat318
104 months ago
Prepare for comments about how the 4S will be slow and useless without 1GB of RAM. Or how [Insert Android Phone here] is better because it has 1GB of RAM.
Rating: 29 Votes
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imgonephishin
104 months ago

That's how love to what Apple does looks like.


Um, huh?
Rating: 28 Votes
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x13gamer
104 months ago
Don't buy it then, problem solved.
Rating: 27 Votes
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ECUpirate44
104 months ago
So Siri will run on jailbroken iPhone 4's? :D
Rating: 25 Votes
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gnasher729
104 months ago

Until Apple re-does their multitasking (let's be honest, it's pretty terrible) they really have no reason to add more RAM.


Let's be honest, "let's be honest" stands for "I don't really have any valid arguments, so I pretend that anyone disagreeing with me would have to be dishonest and win the argument that way". As someone making their living writing software, I find Apple's way of multitasking to be very well done for a device where saving power is important, and where the user can rarely use two apps at the same time. I would be moaning if that was how my Mac was multitasking, but for a phone or for the iPad it is an excellent choice.

Strange enough, you admit in the same sentence that if Apple re-did multitasking the way you think it should be done, there would suddenly be a good reason to add more RAM. So it seems that this "pretty terrible" multi-tasking is also very good to keep memory requirements down, by your own admission.
Rating: 24 Votes
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jonnyb
104 months ago

How much does the iPad 2 have? If it runs like the iPad 2, that's more than enough for me.


iPad 2 has 512MB
Rating: 22 Votes
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arn
104 months ago

How much does the iPad 2 have? If it runs like the iPad 2, that's more than enough for me.


iPad 2 has 512MB ram with A5.

this makes it more likely that Siri will run on an iPad 2 (A5/512MB) than a jailbroken iPhone 4 (A4/512MB)

arn
Rating: 19 Votes

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