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Early reviews confirm the iPhone 6 Plus has the same 1GB RAM as the 4.7-inch model (Updated)

Early reviews confirm that the iPhone 6 Plus has the same 1GB RAM as the iPhone 6. It had been suggested by some that the 5.5-inch model might have a higher spec, with 2GB RAM.

They reveal that both models of the iPhone 6 have identical specs bar the display, battery and optical stabilisation in the camera of the larger model (the 4.7-inch model having only electronic stabilisation) … 

It’s not a surprising finding: Apple tends to be conservative with RAM, and it makes obvious production sense to have as many components in possible in common between the two models. It will, though, disappoint those who like to have multiple Safari tabs open and to switch back and forth between them without the pages refreshing.

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Comments

  1. Q - 10 years ago

    The Safari-Open-Tabs-Problem is really annoying for my with my iPhone 5. Every time I switch, a page refreshes.

  2. Well, there’s something Apple held back for a 6S/6S+.

  3. Niklas Krebs - 10 years ago

    It’s really amusing how Apple talks in EVERY iPhone keynote about the enormous performance in games and stuff, but isn’t able to cache 3 tabs properly.

    • aeronperyton - 10 years ago

      If three websites won’t fit into 1GB of system memory, then those websites need to be recoded by people who are not absolute idiots.

      • thejuanald - 10 years ago

        Or the iPhone needs to allocate resources more appropriately. That’s the correct answer.

      • You clearly don’t know that webpage actual size and RAM usage of browser are not equal. Browser memory usage depends on lot of things. And even a 300KB web page will and can make browser use more than 10-20MB of RAM.

  4. Looks to me that on 5S with iOS 8 GM I can be switching between 5 tabs without refreshes. That’s much better than before

  5. imacaddict - 10 years ago

    1GB of RAM is a joke so is 16GB of storage. If I could I would switch from Apple but the ecosystem is unrivaled. Lack of innovation is astounding. I wonder it Steve would be happy with the direction of Apple.

    • brolloh - 10 years ago

      Innovation? Simply making 1GB RAM 2 or 3GB isn’t innovation – if you want innovation like that then yeah, Samsung probably have just the phone for you. Every iPhone 6/6+ review so far can’t stop saying how good performance is because as usual, Apple’s innovation comes from the crafted relationship between software and hardware – not needless dick measuring on the specification sheet.

    • sporga1derpahkiin - 10 years ago

      What exactly is innovative about adding more RAM?
      Even though it is time to up it, there isn’t really a thing i could think of besides Safari where it made sense, and battery life would be worse with 6/6Plus batteries

    • Howie Isaacks - 10 years ago

      Get over yourself. Why don’t you just switch from Apple so you can have your phone stuffed with more RAM? Consider this… Maybe the other phone makers add more RAM because Android is a stinking pile of horse dung that doesn’t manage memory well. The have to add more RAM or else their phones will be slow as hell. iOS and OS X manage memory far better, so they don’t require as much RAM to operate.

    • aeronperyton - 10 years ago

      Innovation isn’t adding a second gig of memory, innovation is making 1GB of memory a workable solution.

      • bloodymerzkizzoid - 10 years ago

        You nailed it.

      • cdmoore74 - 10 years ago

        There is only so much juice can can squeeze from a orange.

      • iphone6splus - 10 years ago

        Innovation is making 1GB workable for iOS 15. iPhone 4S can’t handle iOS 8. iPad 1 had no chance with 256MB. iPhone 3G bricked by update. iPhone 4’s single core and 4x pixels with 3GS specs couldn’t handle iOS 7. iPad 3 with iPad 2 specs and 4x pixels and on and on.

    • hchazmania - 10 years ago

      “Innovation” comes in the form of how you interact with technology which is Apple’s primary goal, Samsung’s primary goal is to throw the latest processors in there phones before Apple so they can make a commercial saying “The Next Big Thing Is Here” without explaining what that exactly is.

    • peterlobl - 10 years ago

      “lack of innovation is astounding” – that’s funny

  6. Howie Isaacks - 10 years ago

    Meh. Big deal. I haven’t had performance issues due to not having enough memory for a long time. I quit the apps that I’m not using, so maybe that’s why. That being said… It’s the performance that matters to me, not the actual specs. Let the Android phone makers focus on the hardware specs because that’s the only thing that they can point to that is supposedly “better” than the iPhone.

    • patstar5 - 10 years ago

      Samsung is horrible, I had a galaxy s4 for a couple months and it always got hot, the screen looked off colored, and I hated the plastic. Also Touchwiz ruins android.

  7. patstar5 - 10 years ago

    My oneplus one has 3gb and ram, same screen size and ppi as 6+, 64gb of storage and is only $350.

    • amine Bajeddi - 10 years ago

      Happy for you, however, why do you all find the need to come to an Apple rumors website and write this ?? Why don’t you Tell us how many times your phone crashes, or how many times it needs to reboot, or mabye what do you need that 3gb for on a phone while 2gigs can do the job WHEN THE PHONE USE A GOOD OS? Only retards look at specs on a phone in 2014

      • latinoboyboy - 10 years ago

        I gotta say you should hold your horses there buddy! I’m an Apple enthusiast (anxiously waiting for his new 64gb iPhone 6 Plus in gold to be delivered) but I really like the OnePlus One. He told you the spec sheet of it having a Snapdragon 801 2.5gh quad-core processor, 3gb of Ram, 5.5″ 1080p screen, 13mp rear camera & 5mp front facing one, and also features NFC. The thing with this handset isn’t the specs, it’s the price to spec ratio. The device is $350 unsubsidized/contract free. It’s amazing to think how much other companies like Apple, Samsung, HTC, etc. charge for a cellphone with the same or less amount of specs.

      • Dario Kan (@weissblut82) - 10 years ago

        For whatever reason it doesn’t allow me to reply to Latinoboy. So I’ll reply here.
        Apple spends SO MUCH money into R&D. They are always pushing forward. They craft their own chipsets, camera specs, sensors. They develop their own OSes, so they can work in perfect integration with each other.

        Can you say the same with Samsung? HTC? Are they spending the same amount of money into R&D? Into OS evolution? Into custom-made parts? Honestly, I don’t think so.

        When you buy technology (not only IT, but whatever technology, be it a car or a rocket or a phone) you buy everything that’s behind it. If you were buying only the parts, then your argument would have a point, but in this way, is basically comparing raw ingredients and a chef’s recipe.

      • @Dario Read before you go after people. The One+ One does exactly that. They work with the Cyanogen Mod team to accomplish everything you just listed, at a fraction of the cost.

        I think all @Latinboy was saying is Apple needs to start stepping up their game in terms of offerings.

        iOS8 is simply a “catchup” update, trying to match the features Android has had for years. That was the hardest part of switching to Apple phones, was losing tons of basic functionality. These new phones and iOS8 are simply Android from 3 years ago with better hardware. Even the Verge admits Apple is only playing catchup at this point to try to get back some of the new smartphone customers they lost to Android.

      • patstar5 - 10 years ago

        http://cdn.bgr.com/2014/09/iphone-6-nexus-4.jpg?w=624&h=424
        I’m sorry but I had to show this

      • Daniel L. Lau - 10 years ago

        If you want to post an anti-apple, pro-android comment, please include what version of android OS your running. I just updated all my iOS devices and haven’t had a single issue with my installed apps yet. So I’m happy to be running iOS 8.0 in less than ten hours after its release.

      • patstar5 - 10 years ago

        My phone is running Android 4.4.4, last time I checked, that was the latest official release.

      • Daniel L. Lau - 10 years ago

        Android 4.4.4 was released in June. Samsung just got their update this week. What’s up with that?

    • latinoboyboy - 10 years ago

      I actually won the raffle and got an invite, but I read it a day later and missed the chance to buy it. :(

      • patstar5 - 10 years ago

        If i get sharable invites i will give you one. Unless you moved on already… New moto x does look nice, probably would of went with it if i didn’t get an invite.

      • latinoboyboy - 10 years ago

        @patstar5 thanks for the invite again!

  8. Lee (@leemahi) - 10 years ago

    I love The App Store, so I would never give up the iPad, but between the uncustomizable homescreen, the refreshing of apps and web tabs, the fact I can’t say Hey Siri without it being plugged in, or that Google Now is better than Siri, or I can’t get a smartwatch right now or I’d have to wait for a square one that counts your steps (I’m already fit), I’m going for Moto X and a 360 this year. For sure. Not to mention plastic lines that need to be hid with a case.

    • patstar5 - 10 years ago

      Well you could get an android tablet and an iPad, though I really don’t see use of android tablet if you have a big android phone. Only advantages would be battery life and bigger size. Having 3 tablets with iOS, android, and windows. The windows 8.1 is the only one that gets used, but in terms of tablet apps, ipad is still king

  9. eldonchew - 10 years ago

    They fixed the Safari refreshing problem in iOS 8.

  10. standardpull - 10 years ago

    It can cache pages fine. It’s just that pages these days do a lot of background processing. They are very dynamic, often due to advertising related code. This necessitates a refresh if they haven’t been getting the CPU cycles they need to, say, send some packets back to the Google ad tracker or load a new animated image where you can punch a monkey.

  11. Matt Byers - 10 years ago

    I don’t think the safari issue is totally a ram thing..my ipad 1st -3rd gen all could do it but after iOS7 or some other OS upgrade they started refreshing the tabs all the time. More ram may make it easier but it seems like it is somewhat of a design choice. Maybe that should just be an option on safari.

  12. Bruno Fernandes (@Linkb8) - 10 years ago

    Memory has been for a long while, the biggest root issue affecting multitasking performance in iOS. In some cases it’s just not possible to multitask certain apps because of it.

  13. Drew (@gettysburg11s) - 10 years ago

    I am not sure this is something iPhone users worry about. The fact is, as long as our iPhone’s continue to work smoothly and without problems, who cares? This is a huge deal for Android users though. Android is not as efficient, and can use as much memory as you can throw at it.

  14. al0963 - 10 years ago

    Even with 1gb of ram, it blows everybody out, the benchmarks prove it on the IPhone 5s, it is good to have more memory for extra power!

  15. Incase apple is using memory compression techniques in iOS8 like used in OSX Mavericks & iOS 7 in order to compensate for inadequate memory, it’s going overhead CPU and thereby deplete battery sooner in my opinion.

  16. Seunghyun Hyun - 10 years ago

    I really don’t understand why apple didn’t upgrade ram… Or aren’t they annoying for S.O.T.P. ?

  17. Alexeander Vlasov - 10 years ago

    guys im new and cant get.. is that bad that they both have 1 gb ram? i’ve been using an iphone 5s and i found it super faster

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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