Windows PC makers are still offering plenty of computers with 4GB of RAM (or less). But soon you may be able to buy a smartphone with as much as 8GB of RAM.
We heard rumors last year that LeEco would launch a phone with that much memory. It didn’t happen.
But last week Asus unveiled a smartphone that will ship with 8GB of RAM. And it’s likely that other device makers will follow suit.
SK Hynix has announced the launch of an 8GB LPDDR4X mobile DRAM solution for use in smartphones. The company says not only does it offer more memory than you get in any current smartphones, but it’s also 20 percent more power efficient than LPDDR4.
Do you really need that much RAM in a smartphone? Maybe.
Most existing smartphone apps are optimized to run on devices with far less memory. But the more RAM you have, the better your device will be able to handle multitasking. And as phones with more memory hit the streets, we may start to see some apps take advantage of the option.
The upcoming Asus Zenfone AR seems like a good candidate for a phone that will be able to run resource-intensive apps. Not only will it have 8GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, but the phone is also the first to support both Google’s Daydream virtual reality platform and Google’s Tango solution for creating and interacting with 3D maps of the environment around you.