Excessive RAM in Budget Smartphones: Performance Enhancer or a Marketing Gimmick?

In the competitive smartphone market, manufacturers often equip budget devices with 6GB-8GB of RAM, implying that more memory leads to better performance. However, it’s essential to analyze whether this abundance of RAM in low-end smartphones genuinely enhances user experience or serves primarily as a marketing gimmick.

Performance Implications in Budget Devices

While increasing RAM can enhance multitasking capabilities, its effectiveness in budget smartphones is often constrained by other components. Budget smartphones mostly arrive with entry-level processors that may not fully leverage additional RAM. For example, Tecno Spark 30 is equipped with 8GB of RAM and a MediaTek Helio G91 processor, however, you may not notice a significant performance difference if compared with a phone with a similar chipset and 4GB RAM. This is because the low-end chipset struggles to keep up with demanding tasks and may not fully utilize the RAM. Simultaneously, the iPhone 13 arrived with just 4 GB of RAM, so do you think a budget phone with 6 GB or 8GB RAM can match in terms of performance or other attributes?

• Diminishing Returns

There is another phenomenon called diminishing returns that entails that beyond a certain threshold, increasing RAM yields minimal benefits, especially if other hardware components cannot keep pace. It indicates that additional RAM contributes little to overall performance after meeting the requirements for typical tasks.

Potential Drawbacks

Moreover, equipping budget smartphones with excessive RAM can lead to unintended consequences. These include:

• Increased power consumption as more RAM requires additional power, which can lead to reduced battery life. 
• Additional RAM increases production costs, potentially resulting in higher prices for consumers or compromises in other essential features like camera quality or build materials.

For instance, the iPhone 15 offers a balance between performance and cost, providing sufficient RAM without unnecessary excess, thereby maintaining battery efficiency and overall device quality.

Our Take: 

Manufacturers usually advertise higher RAM to attract consumers, creating the perception of superior performance. However, without a balanced hardware and software ecosystem, the extra RAM may not deliver the expected value, making it more of a marketing gimmick than a functional upgrade. Contrarily, rather than offering large amounts of RAM, companies can use efficient operating systems that can manage resources effectively, reducing the necessity for excessive RAM.

Moreover, from a consumer point of view, they should evaluate smartphones based on a holistic view of specifications and real-world performance rather than focusing solely on RAM capacity. A well-balanced device with sufficient RAM, an efficient processor, and optimized software often provides a better user experience than one with disproportionately high RAM.

Also read:

Samsung Launches Industry’s First 24Gb GDDR7 DRAM, Redefining High-Speed Memory for AI: Next-Gen Graphics