iPhone 4 to have twice the RAM of iPad

Apple in one of its WWDC developer sessions is now known to have confirmed that the iPhone 4 has 512MB of RAM. Staff at Session 147, on performance tuning for the iPhone, confirmed that the new phone has twice as much RAM as the iPad and iPhone 3GS despite coming just a few months after the iPad. The extra room could lead to some apps being optimized just for the extra memory.

The motivations to double the memory could be several and could have much to do with the iPhone 4 itself. Multitasking is considered a front-runner. It's possible with iOS 4 on the lower memory of the iPad and iPhone 3GS, but the extra memory would assist with more active apps or more demanding tasks for the apps in progress.

Other factors could include the need for more memory to handle 720p movie recording, particularly for iMovie, as well as scaling to handle future Apple-made apps that could use the extra space. If Apple has to downclock the A4 to use it in the smaller spaces of the iPhone, it could further use RAM as a way of shoring up performance.

The memory count puts Apple's device on par with most high-end Android phones in terms of RAM, although some like the Evo 4G have 1GB. Extra space on Google's platform is often used to address its memory management, as it consumes more RAM than iOS does in some circumstances. [via Mac Rumors]

By Electronista Staff