iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Reportedly Come With 1GB of RAM

One of the features that usually get sidelined by Apple during the iPhone launch keynote is the amount of system memory or RAM on the smartphone, apart from the clock speed or number of cores of the SoC. We usually have to wait for the first hardware reviews of the smartphones before the details are revealed.

True to its tradition, the Cupertino based giant yet again did not reveal the amount of RAM on the newly announced iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - leading to speculations and rumours about the feature.

(Also see: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: Everything You Need to Know)

Now, a Korean site, first spotted by Phone Arena, has claimed that the bigger iPhone 6 Plus packs 1GB of RAM, the same as the iPhone 6. The site has posted a screenshot that purportedly shows handset's memory usage maxing close to the 1GB mark, likely to be from a system status app.

Previous reports citing benchmark results had indicated the iPhone 6 features 1GB of RAM, while Anandtech's Ryan Smith also reached a similar conclusion. Apple has already confirmed (at the launch) that both the new iPhone models are powered by the new A8 chip with 64-bit architecture alongside M8 motion coprocessor.

(Also see: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Review Round Up)

For those unaware, the iPhone 6 Plus comes a larger display (5.5-inch) and a higher resolution than the iPhone 6, apart from OIS (optical image stabilization) on the rear camera, and a larger battery.

However, for many tech enthusiasts the rumoured 1GB of RAM on the new iPhone devices might seem like the bare minimum Apple could use to be able to compete with high-end Android smartphones, such as the as Nexus 5 (2GB of RAM), Samsung Galaxy S5 (2GB of RAM), HTC One (M8) (2GB of RAM), Sony Xperia Z3 (3GB of RAM), and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (3GB of RAM).

While the difference seems rather stark, it's worth noting that Apple's hardware and software optimisations in the past have allowed iPhone devices to deliver industry-leading real-world performance with comparably meagre specifications. Notably, it is also hard to compare iOS device performance with Android devices, because of the paucity of common benchmarks.