How-much-RAM-does-a-Cellphone-need.txt 8/25/2017 How much RAM does a phone need? - Trusted Reviews http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/how-much-ram-does-a-phone-need Since Android Lollipop can make use of 4GB of RAM, those who claim that 4GB RAM phones are pointless aren't quite correct. This amount of RAM may not be necessary, but it’s not going to hurt. Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/how-much-ram-does-a-phone-need#Q0gqlDwAc2BGOBAr.99 Android is a system that expands into the RAM available to it. This means that the more RAM you have, the more of a performance buffer you end up with – and the more apps a phone can "park" as background processes. You’ll often find that even when you’re not doing anything taxing, an Android phone will generally be using at least 60 per cent of its total RAM. And the key thing to remember: it's data that can be accessed very, very quickly. Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/how-much-ram-does-a-phone-need#Q0gqlDwAc2BGOBAr.99 What is LPDDR4? As well as phones with more RAM, we’re starting to see phones use a new, faster type of RAM. Most phones have DDR3, but a select few have DDR4, or LPDDR4, which offers greater power efficiency. Predictably, DDR4 provides a leap forward in performance terms. The Samsung Galaxy S6, which features DDR4, writes to its RAM at a searingly fast speed of up to 8,479MB/sec according to our tests. As already mentioned, the Motorola Moto G managed "just" 1,885MB/sec, so there are huge performance differences between the two phones. If rumours are anything to go by, Apple will start using DDR4 in the iPhone 6S, which is expected to arrive in September 2015. Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/how-much-ram-does-a-phone-need#Q0gqlDwAc2BGOBAr.99 Managing Your App's Memory | Android Developers https://developer.android.com/training/articles/memory.html How to fix Android's 'insufficient storage available' error message http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/google-android/how-fix-androids-insufficient-storage-available-error-message-summary-cache-3623467/ Mobile Device Storage: How Much Do You (Really) Need? http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/managing-mobile-storage-space/ http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/clean-ios-devices-space-phonecleaner/ 2. Game Apps & Videos Apps have also grown in size since its birth. These days high-ranked games can go from between 40MB to over the 1GB mark per game. Nicer graphics, faster response time, more complicated gameplay, storylines etc, contribute to the hallmark of popular games played by a global audience, and a lot of these games rake in millions every year. But I digress. Here are some of the more addictive games you would probably find on the random iPad. Angry Birds Star Wars 2 – 44.3MB Plants vs. Zombies 2 – 44.7MB Minion Rush – 45.5MB Candy Crush Saga – 45.6MB Temple Run 2 – 46.8MB Fruit Ninja HD – 49.3MB Asphalt 8: Airborne – 884 MB FIFA14 – 1.17 GB Infinity Blade 3 – 1.4GB A savvy parent’s tablet might also include some video content like cartoons for the kids to watch and probably an abundance of learning apps. Videos can take up a lot of space (around 300MB), but a few videos can easily provide hours of entertainment, so long as they don’t bore of it quickly. 3. Music Music can help kill time while commuting on public transport, studying, jogging or even swimming. If you’re one who cannot go a day without music, there are bound to be music files on your mobile device – and the need for ample storage. However, when you crunch the numbers, based on a 4-min song being 5MB heavy, 1GB would give you roughly 200 songs (most of which you will skip through) aka 13 hours of continuous playback aka way more than your battery can survive through per charge. But If You Are A: Music Junkie Opt for online radio services like Pandora and Spotify instead. With these radio services, you don’t have to lug around your entire song collection on your device anymore, leaving space for other materials. If data connection is a problem where you are, Spotify’s premium service also lets you create personal playlists and download songs to play offline. If, however, you’re an audiophile that enjoys only top quality music, more than anything else, you might prefer FLAC files stored on your device, in which case 32GB should be more than enough. Verdict: 16GB or 32GB – Alternatively, you can always tune in to a regular radio station like how we did in the 90’s. 4. Documents & Reading Material People who enjoy reading are in luck as reading materials do not take up much storage. Unless it’s a comic or very visually laden, carrying around 1GB of free ebooks is equivalent to a library that fits in your tablet or smartphone. But If You Are: Always Taking Work Home There might be a need for higher capacity storage if the device needs to be filled with business related apps, utilities and large PDF manuals that load faster outside of the cloud, but if you can charge it to the company, 128GB sounds like a good deal. (We kid. We have solutions if you happen to need more than 32GB.) Verdict: 16GB or 32GB Cloud, Cards & Cables All the above are common culprits of space hoggers in your mobile device so while 32GB will more than suffice, if you need more storage later on, you can always fall back on cloud storage apps, micro SD cards and OTG cables. Cloud Storage Our favorite cloud storage app for music, video, ebooks and doc files is Dropbox with its many desktop Dropbox tools and apps that support many file types. There are of course other alternatives, depending on your requirements e.g. the Google Drive app is handy for document editing. Micro SD Cards Certain Android and Windows devices provide the option of expanding your storage space with a micro SD card. This is a very inexpensive option to give you another 32GB (or sometimes 64GB if it’s supported) that will cost less than $20. On The Go USB Cables These OTG USB cables for Android devices allow users to transfer data in and out from the Android device to a USB flash drive, an external hard disk, or other storage form. This allows another form of storage expansion and to access files outside of the device’s internal storage. Apple also has an iPad camera connection kit for you to export pictures from your photo gallery. This gives you the option of housekeeping without a computer and freeing more space for more photos. Conclusion So there you have it, 16GB or at most 32GB, is more than enough for anyone to survive on due to the little amount of time we spend on mobile devices. Larger storage does give you room to hoard more files before a springclean is needed but if you aren’t a power user, you can spend the extra $100-$200 on other things. Come to think of it, tell us how you would optimize the usage of 64GB or 128GB of storage space on a smartphone or tablet in the comments area below. 5 Ways to Free Up Space on Your Android Device - How-To Geek http://www.howtogeek.com/112356/5-ways-to-free-up-space-on-android/ Storage Options | Android Developers https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html 'Insufficient Storage Available' is one of Android's greatest annoyances ... http://www.itworld.com/article/2833377/mobile/insufficient-storage-available-is-one-of-android-s-greatest-annoyances-here-s-how-to-fix-it.html Strategy #1: Clear out the cache on your apps Head to Settings, then choose Apps. Flick over to the "Downloaded" section, if necessary. Look for a little Menu button, maybe in the upper-right corner or at the bottom, and choose "Sort by size." There you have it: a reverse-order list of which apps are taking up the most space. Apps on your Android use up space in three ways: their core App, the Data the app generates, and cache, or temporary working files. You see this when you head into Settings on your device, head to Apps, and tap on any of them: Under Storage, you see the total amount of space used by the app on your device, then divisions of App (core program) and Data (the generated stuff). You only want to clear Data as a last resort. Clearing the Data on an app is basically starting from square one, as if you had just installed it, with nothing logged in or set up or saved. Underneath that is Cache. Cache, you can totally wipe out. The app might load a little more slowly next time it opens, but it will still work, and your login and data will be intact. Some apps can build up a really big cache over time—Chrome, Google+, Google Search, and quite a few music apps, in particular. Sometimes you only need to clear out a cache or two to make room for that vital app you're trying to squeeze onto your phone. There is a kind of clean-sweep method of wiping out the cache on all your apps at once. You'll have to clear enough space for it, of course, but if you can fit the 1.31 MB App Cache Cleaner on your Android, you'll free up much more space in return. It's an ad-supported product, with occasional pop-ups. But ignore whatever goofy game it wants you to install, look at the "Total" count in the upper-right corner, and then click the big green "Clean" button at the bottom. That's a bit more space, so try installing that app that wouldn't fly once more. Strategy #2: Move apps to SD card If your phone has a micro SD card plugged into it, and all is well with it, there are some apps you can move right onto that card. It won't happen by default, but you can push them over yourself. Open Settings->Apps, and sort by size, if that's not already in place. Start tapping through your big apps and looking for a "Move to SD card" button. If it is there, but grayed out, you're out of luck. If it is raised up and ready to be pressed, you're in luck. Note: Android's developer guidelines encourage makers of apps over 10 MB to support "Move to SD card," but as with all things open-ish, you know there are some big jerks out there. Sorry about the jerks. The only reason not to save space with a move to your SD card is if you imagine you will want to access and use an app while your phone is plugged in for data access to a computer, a car, a camera reader, or whatever else. Not plugged in for charging, mind you, but plugged in and using the "USB Storage mode." Don't want to hunt and peck through a huge list of apps to see who respects your space? There are many apps that can brute-force all your apps onto the SD space. AppMgr III is one of them. Clear the data on your launcher (if you're using an alternative): Do you rock Nova Launcher? Finding launcher bliss with ADW, or one of the new-fangled systems like EverythingMe or Aviate? Then you can go ahead and "Clear Data" on "Launcher," the app that counts as your phone's default homescreen/app manager. You might save quite a few MB by doing so. Clear the data on any apps that don't save files or require logging in: What kind of data is your Gallery photo app holding, at around 20 MB? Mostly thumbnails of photos for fast browsing, which it can rebuild. Look for apps of this type, with data that can be easily replaced. Strategy #4: Force your phone to allow SD installations Earlier on, I noted that developers who make large apps are supposed to allow installation to SD card, but not all do. You can go around a developer's wishes by becoming a pretend developer and tweaking a setting on your phone. The best write-up I've seen of this method comes from Techgage. Once you've enabled the install location, you can use that same AppMgr III or many other apps to move them all at once. http://techgage.com/article/moving_your_non-movable_android_apps_to_an_sd_card/ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.a0soft.gphone.app2sd Strategy #5: Kill a weird leftover folder that messes things up Remember my Yelp problem? I did, in fact, have lots of storage space available. But Yelp, during some likely failed update attempt, had convinced itself that I did not have such space. The solution, after much searching, was a folder deep in the "data" section of my phone's root storage. To get to that folder (data/app-data/com.yelp... and so on), you will need root access to your phone. To my knowledge, this requires one of two things: a "rooted" phone, one with access to the core internals of the thing that a "root file explorer" app can use, or deep terminal access to the phone through an SDK connection. There are many good reasons to root your Android phone, but this alone might not be worth it, especially for just one app. Strategy #6: Create a partition and move apps over yourself This is truly the nuclear option, but it's also the way to make sure you've got room. Carve up your phone's SD card into app space, swap space, and storage, and you can install any app you want outside the core system. What did I miss? How else can you free up internal space on a phone that needs it, or overcome a strange "Insufficient storage" bug? Tell me on Twitter, or leave a comment on this here page. I'd love to expand this list. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobile_infographics_tools.mydrive&hl=en 'Insufficient storage': How to fix that error in Android and iOS - InfoWorld http://www.infoworld.com/article/2913772/android/how-to-fix-insufficient-storage-issues-in-android-and-ios.html How to Free Up Storage Space on Your Android Phone or Tablet http://smartphones.reviewed.com/features/how-to-free-up-storage-on-your-android-device With Android apps inbound, Google preps a storage manager for Chrome OS http://www.pcworld.com/article/3088318/chromebooks/with-android-apps-inbound-google-preps-a-storage-manager-for-chrome-os.html Awards image: http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/awards/tr-editors-choice.png Editors choice image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/0000360cd/c675/Nexus-6P.jpg Nexus 6P More Photos Summary Our Score: User Score: Read 201 reviews Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/nexus-6p-review#L5GZBal2y6XtOCyV.99 If you haven't yet picked up a Nexus 6P, now's your chance thanks to a solid $80 discounts available at various retailers. Best Buy is offering the discount on all models, bringing the entry price down to just $420 for the 32GB model. Meanwhile, B&H Photo has the same deal, but is also throwing in a $50 gift card and a screen protector kit to boot. Finally, if you have your heart set on the 128GB model, your best bet is to head to Newegg's eBay store, where the company is offering the smartphone for $499 — or $150 off. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/mobile-phone/best-phone-camera-of-2016-3612824/#S7%20review Best phone camera 2016 - Test Centre - PC Advisor http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/mobile-phone/best-phone-camera-of-2016-3612824/ Huawei P9 camera review Key features: Rear: 12Mp dual camera, 1080p at 60fps Optical stabilisation: No Front: 8Mp, 1080p video Panorama: Yes Slo-mo: 720p 240fps Time-lapse: Yes The highlight of the Huawei P9 is undoubtedly its cameras – all three of them. The rear dual-camera arrangement is a tie-in with Leica, although the hardware is actually manufactured by Sunny Optical Technology in China with Leica’s say so. One of the rear cameras has a standard RGB sensor, while the other is monochrome. Images are taken with both cameras and combined to give better light sensitivity, but you can shoot high quality black-and-white photos using only the mono camera. The camera app has been influenced heavily by Leica and has plenty of options including a manual mode and the option to shoot in RAW and JPG at the same time. There’s also a clever depth-of-field mode which gives DSLR-style bokeh – a blurred background and sharp subject. You can even choose what you want in focus after taking a photo in this mode, and the results can be stunning. It’s certainly the most effective of all the ‘blurred background’ modes we’ve seen on a phone but it can still be fooled as it is software processing rather than being a true optical effect. You also get Huawei shooting modes such as light painting and also ‘beauty video’. The bad news is that we weren’t that impressed with the standard photos from the P9. There’s far too much processing going on: mainly increased contrast and saturation. Photos are super sharp though, and it could be that Huawei is applying too much sharpening for some tastes. We shot in the Standard mode, which is just one of three Leica modes designed to ‘meticulously reproduce the look of authentic Leica photographs’. In low light the dual cameras mean that it does a better job than many phones. However, the laser autofocus system did struggle on occasion and failed to produce sharp faces. HDR is a separate mode, so you’ll have to invoke it manually when you think a scene demands it. It also seems that so much effort went into photography that Huawei forgot about video. There’s no support for 4K, but at least you can opt to record 1080p at 60fps. At the front is an 8Mp selfie camera. It has a decent wide-angle lens, but we found that details were quite soft, potentially due to noise reduction, but more likely as a result of the beauty mode. The P9 has the best cameras of any Huawei phone, but it’s not quite on a par with the Galaxy S7 overall. If you like being creative with your photography, though, it is a compelling choice. Samsung Galaxy S7 camera review Key features: Rear: 12Mp, 4K, 1080p at 60fps Optical stabilisation: Yes Front: 5Mp, 1080p video Panorama: Yes, plus motion panorama Slo-mo: 720p 240fps Time-lapse: Yes Samsung has shied away from high pixel counts and gone for a 12Mp main camera rather than the 16Mp on the S6. It’s a bold but wise move and makes the S7 one of the best phones for photography that you can buy. It ticks almost every box, too, with optical stabilisation, 4K video and the option for 60fps in 1080p. It can shoot slo-mo, albeit not in 1080p, and will shrug off a downpour because the whole phone is water resistant. And despite having the same number of pixels as the iPhone 6S, photos were sharper and much more detailed. Colours are vibrant and exposures are generally spot on. And in low light, the larger pixels (1.4µm vs 1.22µm) really seemed to help: the S7 is capable of superbly detailed photos with virtually no noise. You don’t get a dual-tone flash – or a front flash – but few will miss these. 4K video is also highly detailed and thanks to an HDR option, doesn’t blow out the sky when other phones can’t avoid it. Audio is decent from the built-in mics as well. The OIS helps, but there’s a bit of video wobble if you’re moving it around too much. You can double-tap the home button to launch the camera, and there’s minimal focus lag which means you’re less likely to miss the moment: another reason why the S7 makes for such a good camera. Reviewing photos on the AMOLED screen is a treat, too. The app includes a manual mode where you can change the metering mode, ISO, shutter speed and exposure compensation. Plus you can choose to shoot in RAW mode and enable the tracking autofocus mode. Samsung has also copied Apple and added a Motion Photo mode which records a couple of seconds of video before and after you take a full resolution photo. Arguably more useful is the ability to take 9Mp photos while shooting 4K video. If you’re into selfies, the front 5Mp camera has a decent wide-angle lens and produces sharp, well-exposed self-portraits. This all-round goodness makes the S7 the best phone camera right now. It does a fantastic job in auto mode, but offers manual options for those that want them. And in addition to superb quality results, Samsung has nailed the user experience, too.