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Help Is 4GB enough?

ArmageddonX

Android Expert
May 12, 2011
1,559
846
Arizona, USA
I was browsing some other phones today and found that most newer Smartphones tend to have more than 4gb Internal Memory. (Is Internal Memory what they call "ROM"?)

I know you can use the 8gb SD that's included to keep movies, pictures, and music on. I also know that it supports up to 32gb SD Cards too but you can't put some items on the SD Card, right?

So is 4gb Internal Memory enough for a modern Smartphone?
How many GB out of that 4gb is reserved for Applications?

My last question is, does anyone know if the Evo3D's 1gb of RAM is DDR2 memory? I can't find any confirmation on the issue either way.

Thank you.
 
yea internal memory is where your ROM is stored. I think the evo 3d will come with a 1gb internal memory. The original evo came with 512mb so 1gb will be double that. Should be more than enough space to store your apps. Most of your apps will be stored on your memory card anyways. Now as your memory card. that will depend on how much music, photo's and video's you want to carry on your phone.
 
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AHHH thank you, thank you! Very helpful information thus far. Sorry, I know these are stupid questions probably. :( I've been a webOS owner unfortunately for the past 18 months and they code and do things differently. It's hard to understand a new OS until you get it in your hands. So a lot of these simple questions are big question marks in my mind.

DDR2 is just a faster way to process and access the RAM. For instance, 512mb of DDR2 might actually run your electronic device faster than 1gb of non-DDR memory. DDR3 runs fairly hot so I doubt they would put DDR3 into a Smartphone until the technology advances.

I build my own computers when the time comes to upgrade them; So things like the type of memory devices run intrigues me. I know of another Smartphone that runs DDR2; So my next logical thought was to try to find out what type the Evo3D runs.
 
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AHHH thank you, thank you! Very helpful information thus far. Sorry, I know these are stupid questions probably. :(

DDR2 is just a faster way to process and access the RAM. For instance, 512mb of DDR2 might actually run your electronic device faster than 1gb of non-DDR memory.

Yeah - DDR2 is twice as fast as DDR. Has to be, it has higher latency. No such thing as a free lunch. ;)

Outlaw.71 said it best - no one is going to make that one perfect phone with every chip and parameter free of compromise. It would price them right out of the market.

Betcha dollars to doughnuts all of the handset manufacturers the world over have young R&D guys pulling their hair out over how if they'd only changed this... or that...

Truth is, we get what the supply chain can support within the price points dictated by marketing, then R&D backfills to meet targets. In my opinion. ;)

And don't sweat the questions! :)
 
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The Samsung Galaxy S used DDR2 but it's not as simple stacking and comparing as you may think - these aren't PCs.

Note this article:

The obsessions of an electronics freak: Mystery (probably) solved; how Samsung pulls off its GPU magic.

Also note that the newer Snapdragons have some form of eDRAM - a capacitive RAM embedded in the SoC.

I saw your comparison in the Android Lounge on the SGS2 and 3vo w.r.t. memory - not sure you're going to go down the path you want and draw meaningful conclusions, so just be sure to research this carefully.

DDR2 <> LPDDR2

I can say that any buzzwords they can throw out on cellphones, they will throw out on cellphones. ;)
 
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As I noted in a different thread, the HTC Sensation also has 4gb of rom, but only 1gb is user accessible for app storage. This is apparently due to the increased size of the new version of sense. While I don't foresee us getting any kind of confirmation on this until someone has the evo 3d in hand, I think it's something to keep an eye on.
 
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As I mentioned before - that's plenty of memory if an Android smartphone, as not all smartphone operating systems lay out app memory requirements the same way.

Mr. Ed, super-helpful Evo poster in our forums, remarked he had some 400 apps on his Evo, and the Evo only has 1 GB (and yes, that's the rom).

As for ram - not sure.

I don't know if that would hold true for non-rooted phones. I have less than 100 now because of lack of internal storage for apps. Apps-to-sd didn't help enough for some of my apps that couldn't be transferred to SD. And it also didn't help when Sprint added new bloatware to the last update. And there are some apps, that when you transfer to SD, can't make use of the widgets...then, when you try transferring it back to the phone, the widgets are still unavailable, so you have to re-install in order to get the widgets.

All that said, I do believe that 4GB of internal storage should be enough, provided that Sprint doesn't take up 3/4 of that (like the EVO) w/ bloatware add-ons.
 
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If there is an entire gb dedicated to app storage it should be more than enough. The evo 4g only ended up with around 500mb (complete guess) after bloatware and os storage. Even though I'll probly never need more than 1gb, I refuse to think reasonably when it comes to my irrational need for better specs. Of course I may be jumping the gun and the memory allotment may be different than than sensation..
 
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As I noted in a different thread, the HTC Sensation also has 4gb of rom, but only 1gb is user accessible for app storage. This is apparently due to the increased size of the new version of sense. While I don't foresee us getting any kind of confirmation on this until someone has the evo 3d in hand, I think it's something to keep an eye on.

Well how big was that system dump for the Evo 3D? That should give us an idea how much space will be used up.
 
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Source, please?
"Industry first 1gb Industry first dual channel 1gig DDRRAM"

EVO 3D Full Disclosure | The Bitbag

The list has some other interesting items on it that I have been looking into. It was written by a person who was at CTIA I think.

Is this a parody post? 10MP camera? Night-Vision? :eek: I'm having a hard time believing a few of these.
 
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"Industry first 1gb Industry first dual channel 1gig DDRRAM"

EVO 3D Full Disclosure | The Bitbag

The list has some other interesting items on it that I have been looking into. It was written by a person who was at CTIA I think.

Is this a parody post? 10MP camera? Night-Vision? :eek: I'm having a hard time believing a few of these.

Yeah - that's taken from a post in this forum by someone (BlueScreen aka BSOD) whose credibility is not looking tip-top to most of us.

So - bottom line - none of these makers are going to tell the whole truth, their tricks for mobile devices are largely proprietary.

See also -

eDRAM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Expect that, imo.
 
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