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iPhone 5s vs iPhone SE: As expected, 2GB RAM makes a big difference [Video]

iPhone SE vs iPhone 5s RAM

The iPhone SE is here, and we’ve given your our initial impressions as well as a look at some of the device’s top features. Now it’s time to talk more about the key differences that differentiate the iPhone 5s from the iPhone SE.

The one key difference that Apple likes to keep under the radar is the amount of RAM included in its mobile devices. It’s ironic, because this is arguably one of the biggest changes between the iPhone 5s and iPhone SE, and it makes a noticeable difference in day to day usage. Watch our video, and see for yourself.

No surprise, 2GB RAM makes a big difference

To perform this test, I used a scenario that all of us are likely to encounter — switching between tabs in the mobile Safari browser. As a device is deprived of precious RAM, one of the first things to go are the contents within Safari’s tabs. Safari tab content is held in memory until there isn’t enough memory to spare, causing the tab’s content to refresh.

With only 1GB of RAM, which is what’s inside of 2013’s iPhone 5s, it doesn’t take long before Safari tabs start to refresh on the RAM-starved device. Fortunately, Apple has been much more generous with RAM as of late, and it has blessed the iPhone SE with double the RAM at 2GB.

iPhone 5s vs iPhone SE

The addition of another gigabyte of RAM makes a noticeable difference on system performance in tangible ways. One of the most discernible differences happens when using Safari, which is something that most customers do on a regular basis. With the iPhone SE, you’ll notice that Safari tabs stay in memory for much longer, because the 2GB of RAM gives it leeway to do so. This results in less waiting and more efficient browsing, because you can easily revisit a tab without having to wait for it to refresh.

The video evidence

More importantly, having the extra RAM results in less frustration. You need not worry as often about losing important information contained within a Safari tab as it refreshes with no warning. That’s not to say that Safari tabs no longer refresh on the iPhone SE, because 2GB is still a finite amount of RAM. It’s just that the refreshing should happen a lot less often when compared to the iPhone 5s.

This, along with many of the top features that I highlighted in our top 15 iPhone SE features post, is one of the main reasons why you should consider upgrading your iPhone 5s to an iPhone SE. Also, be sure to read first impressions from Zac and Ben, as they provide some valuable insight into Apple’s latest iPhone.

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Comments

  1. This is the only test I ever see regarding RAM performance. What other tests are there? To me, being able to have 10 tabs vs 20 tabs open doesn’t matter in a real day to day world.

    • Jeff Benjamin - 8 years ago

      It’s the one that’s easiest to demonstrate. But RAM is going to have a bearing on app and general system performance as well. This test just makes it easy to quickly get the point across.

    • shareef777 - 8 years ago

      Except going from 1G to 2G isn’t going from 10 tabs to 20. It’s more like going 3 tabs (which isn’t very usable) to 10 (which is closer to what power users have opened).

      • Smigit - 8 years ago

        Bingo. I found filling out forms in older models to be a nightmare if you needed to copy and paste between tabs. There was a high chance the form I was filling out would end up being reloaded and there wasn’t a lot I could do about it.

        Certainly I didn’t find it to be a difference between 10 or 20 tabs by any measure, and the data loss was a real hassle.

      • jacosta45 - 8 years ago

        Exactly @Smigit.

      • shareef777 - 8 years ago

        Yep, I see it daily on my iPad Air. When I found out the iPad Pro (9.7″) only has 2G (which is good enough for 10 pages today, but not likely a year or two from now) I decided to pass until the next version.

  2. paulkrupa - 8 years ago

    Most if not all of this can be attributed to the faster processor. Further, Apple has optimized their processors to use 1 gb and take full advantage of the customized System on Chip (SOC) and graphics coprocessor. Not sure how you differentiate between these benefits and improvements due to ram increase. The device is another generation later on the processor.

  3. Ram is extremely important if you do actual multitasking

    • applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

      Absolutely!!!

    • samanthamd - 8 years ago

      An old computer salesman friend of mine was asked why he’d spec’d 2Gb or RAM (instead of 0.5Gb) for the new VAX (that dates it).
      His reply was ‘Nothing improves the performance of a virtual system than physical memory’.
      Still just as true today as it was then.

  4. who noticed iPhone SE slightly longer or is it just me?

  5. Mindaugas Savickas - 8 years ago

    Hey,

    What about ipad pro 4gb RAM vs ipad pro 9.7 2gb RAM with bigger RAM stress test between the apps? would love to see that one!

    Thanks!

  6. So basically Apple was focusing on increasing their profits instead of offering a better experience by adding another GB of RAM. What else is new? I am really looking closely Android alternatives, Apple is not behaving properly…

    • Andrew Messenger - 8 years ago

      …. what are you talking about? This is a comparison of a device from 3 years ago with a current model which DOES feature another GB of RAM.

      • Elmore Leonard - 8 years ago

        Every time I hear this “I’m going to Android…” I can’t help but feel its affordability. Once you’ve used iOS, why on earth would you use Android?!

      • I think he’s talking about 5s, What was the reason for Apple to not provide another GB of RAM back then when almost every flagship device featured at least 2 GB RAM like Nexus 4 or Galaxy S4. In fact 5S was launched almost a year later than Nexus 4. A few lame excuses were ‘it doesn’t need that much RAM’ , ‘it’s so fluid already compared to android’, ‘1GB for iOS=2GB for android’ etc. etc. when clearly an additional GB of RAM would’ve only helped 5S’ cause, which by that time’s market standards was easily doable. Instead apple chose to stick with 1GB ram and make some extra money (which could have been spent on additional GB of ram during manufacturing).

    • jorn - 8 years ago

      So, a device that performs better for less money is an example of a company “not behaving properly.” You live in a very odd world.

  7. Jimmy Hauser - 8 years ago

    I don’t get the whole tabs thing. Why would you keep all those tabs open? And if you do, why wouldn’t you want them to refresh? Websites are constantly changing their content anyway.

    • Jeff Benjamin - 8 years ago

      Hauser, it’s primarily for demo purposes. And say you were working on something, or reading something? It would be bad if it refreshed. But this doesn’t just happen when you have this many tabs open. It happens when you have much less open.

      • applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

        Also cellular data. Some web pages are very large like product reviews which can be 10-15 mb, refresh this page 6x and you’ve lost 100mb.

    • Smigit - 8 years ago

      I’d have tabs refresh when only a small handful were open on older devices. And no, I never want them to refresh without me triggering it. Pages may refresh often but likely not in the 30 secs sometimes it might take me to jump between two tabs. Additionally, if I’m filling out an online form in one tab by copying data from one to another, I absolutely don’t want that form to refresh on me and cause me to lose any data I’ve entered…something I frequently experienced prior to owning a 6s.

    • Henry Brewer (@hestroy) - 8 years ago

      :))))) Another expert…

  8. applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

    Correct me if I’m wrong but I think you did the test wrong. You started re-opneing the first tab you opened on both phones. But if the first tab refreshes you can’t go to the second one and hope it will still be in memory. As the first tab refreshed, that tab will be re-saved in the memory so the oldest tab it has in memory will be ‘purged/removed’ from the internal memory. Kinda difficult to explain like this but I hope you understand what I mean, I think the correct way to test was to open let’s say 10 tabs, start with the first tab and if it refreshes, you should close it, re-view all tabs and then re-start opening the first tab you openend.

    • Andrew Messenger - 8 years ago

      I think this just goes to show that if you have a certain number of tabs open, they’re almost ALWAYS going to refresh unless you’re just staying on the most recently loaded one.

    • Jeff Benjamin - 8 years ago

      I get your point, but that’s not necessarily always true. i.e. notice that on the SE, only ESPN refreshed, while others after it did not.

  9. applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

    A big advantage to having an iOS device with more ram which nobody ever thinks about is advertising.
    I have a couple of apps which show an ad when you open the app (when it boots and reaches the home screen of the app), the more ram you have, the longer apps stay in memory = less app re-boots = less ads.

  10. sardonick - 8 years ago

    If I view 50 web pages and don’t ever close them, I will see a millisecond improvement for the upgrade. Got it. Sorry kids, just a lame test.

    • Jeff Benjamin - 8 years ago

      You’re missing the point. This was a dramatization. You don’t _need_ to view 50 websites to feel the effect. I can happen with just one or two, depending on what else you have running. This point is, 1GB is not enough of RAM.

  11. cdm283813 - 8 years ago

    Maybe I shouldn’t respond but isn’t it obvious? And did we not see the same test back when the 6S first came out? 1GB phones/ tablets suck. End of comparison.

  12. Ryan Brodie (@brod_ie) - 8 years ago

    “Just want to kill any apps that are running”

    Please stop spreading this nonsense!

    • Jeff Benjamin - 8 years ago

      What are you talking about? I’m not saying that people should kill apps. But when you’re performing any sort of benchmark, that’s what you should do for sure. So how is this “spreading nonsense?”

      • applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

        Probably drunk.

      • Aj - 8 years ago

        Can’t produce this on the 6s +, so much manny tabs.. How does that come?

  13. Aj - 8 years ago

    Huh…. Can’t reproduce this on the 6s+. It cant have more then 6/7 tabs open… How does this come?

  14. cydianerd - 8 years ago

    This looks awesome to me. I have seen iPhone 5s running out of memory on some real tasks being performed on the phone.

  15. okeribok - 8 years ago

    Excellent demonstration! But now: how about 4gb vs 2gb; when does one see that difference? The whole internet is waiting for a battle of the pro’s!!

  16. sootfoot5 - 8 years ago

    I have a 5s. It is paid for. It works great. Maybe the next phone on the iOS chain works better, but nothing beats paid for. Nothing.

    • Jeff Benjamin - 8 years ago

      Hard to argue with that. But some of us like gadgets. It’s a hobby for a lot of us.

      • sootfoot5 - 8 years ago

        Oh I’d like to have a new one for sure. I’d also like to have an iPad instead of a Kindle. Never, I repeat, never buy a Kindle. They were great for a while until Amazon started restricting so many of the apps. But that’s another story. I think the thing is is that everybody has priorities of where their money goes. Mine just went into a summer cottage on Prince Edward Island. So you see, I’d rather have that instead of a new phone. For now I’m happy with my iPhone 5s. It is paid for. And it will do just fine taking pictures of the sunrises at PEI.

  17. executeresp - 8 years ago

    It’s one of the reasons sometimes I hate my iPhone 6. I am reading a website then I switch to WhatsApp, for instance, and I when I come back to Safari the website needs to be reloaded. It is so annoying…

    Moreover in the test you have zero apps running so Safari can manage a couple of tabs but in real life with many apps running at the same time it can’t even keep one tab open for a couple of minutes if you switch to another app.

Author

Avatar for Jeff Benjamin Jeff Benjamin

Jeff is the head of video content production for 9to5. He initially joined 9to5Mac in 2016, producing videos, walkthroughs, how-tos, written tutorials, and reviews. He takes pride in explaining things simply, clearly, and concisely. Jeff’s videos have been watched hundreds of millions of times by people seeking to learn more about today’s tech. Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube to catch Jeff’s latest videos.