It’s pretty standard for top-tier smartphones to come with 1GB of RAM these days — a lot of people were expecting the same of the iPhone 4S. There’s no indication that the phone suffers performance-wise.
iFixit deduced that the iPhone 4S only had 512MB of RAM based on markings on the A5 processor. Anandtech has done some digging of their own based on iFixit’s images and determined that the Samsung part number on the processor indicates that the phone indeed carries 512MB of RAM. Check out our previous post for a full rundown of what we learned from the iFixit teardown. [iFixit and Anandtech]
Lolwut
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 8:03 AMWith minimalistic UI im not suprised, until apple decided to have UI similar to android, i rather have better battery performance than having delorian processor, when oh dear apple you put bigger capacity battery?
TG
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 9:20 AMThe 4S has a (slightly) higher capacity batter; est +1hr talk time.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/13/teardown_of_apples_iphone_4s_reveals_larger_battery_new_baseband_chip.html
moggyx
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 8:13 AMIf it doesn’t need it, it doesn’t need it and considering the ipad chugs away on the same processor, this really should not be a suprise I suppose.
Should make the next quarter profit margins that little bit fatter though :)
chugs
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 8:21 AMthe more important question is what is the RAMs clock speed.
light487
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 8:33 AMOh reaaallly… not that it really needs 1GB but still.. does it really cost that much for a 1GB microchip over a 512MB microchip?
And for that matter does it really cost that much in regards to the differences in the storage in the phones and the tablets?? 16GB iPad 2 $499, 32GB $599, 64GB $699.. it’s just arbitrary pricing really. For example, Small/Regular/Large size cups at the cinemas..
If it were 16/32/48 it would make sense, somehow.. but it’s not..
Ross
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 8:42 AMiphone 4s “its malibu stacey with a new hat”. lol!. only cpu & camera upgrade (aka the new hat)
light487
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 9:01 AMTo be fair though, if you installed a new CPU and HD webcam on your home PC, you would definitely see a difference in performance.. but just as anyone who already owns an iPhone 4 “should” know.. it’s not worth upgrading to the 4S..
John
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 9:00 AMIt pains me to say it but I am an apple fanboy and I am disappointed that they didn’t upgrade the RAM.
typedmillepede
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 11:39 AMwhy? is your performance suffering or something? or do you just want the spec sheet?
BenDTU
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 9:20 AMThey posted on the Win8 blog that more ram used more battery somehow – I wonder if that’s the case here?
Johnny P
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 9:35 AMOf course more RAM = more battery usage. 512MB is 512000000 transistors/capacitors pairs in the chip that store info (Each capacitor holds a charge = binary 1 or no charge = binary 0)
1gb ram = 1000000000 transistor/capacitor pairs. Therefore is your running something with 1gb of RAM, your RAM power usage increases.
Incalculon_0_0
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 12:24 PMYou sound like a Harvey Norman salesman. The capacitance value converges at a recondite rate; meaning that the energy values are non-specific and determined at the point of use! Anyone with a basic understanding of memory cell architecture knows this.
Johnny P
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 9:20 AMThere is no need to upgrade the RAM. There were no lag issues in the iPhone 4 running iOS 4 and and earlier Gizmodo article showed that iOS 5 is leaner than iOS 4. Apple will save the big RAM upgrade for next year. The android UI needs 1gb of ram cos it runs true multitasking and is more intensive.
BenDTU
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:09 AMEvery time I hear someone say “TRUE MULTITASKING” I die a little inside.
Que
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 9:32 AMyeah Apple will put in the commercial, “we have added ‘WHOOPING’ 1 Gig ram into this BEAUTIFULLY designed new iPhone 5″
and the rest of the world already using Android on 2gig.
BenDTU
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:09 AMAnd, just like now, it’ll still run better on half the ram.
Penmonicus
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:22 AM+1s
Deshan
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:20 AM@que, at yet, apple does it so much better with less. :P
Ben
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 1:04 PMI agree with you Que, but you are offending the fanboys.
Joel
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:39 AMMy iPhone 4 with iOS 5 is seriously flawless. It runs extremely smooth, so much so that it’s actually one of my favourite features of iOS 5 lol
I can’t imagine the 4S needs the upgrade with iOS5 installed off the bat.
Johnny P
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:52 AMApple have done really well with iOS 5. I have it installed on my iPod Touch 4th Gen and its great. Im wondering what the user experience is on the iPhone 3GS
z3d
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:58 AM+1. I never had a problem with the speed of my 4 but it is definitely a lot faster/smoother on ios5 especially browser and camera startup. I also really like the lock screen/android style sun-shade notifications. it’s a great implementation of great android UI features.
BenDTU
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 12:07 PMAgreed. My 4 was always fast, but now it just feels even smoother. It’s fantastic.