Why Android Phones Require More RAM Than Apple’s iPhones
Why Android Needs More RAM Than iPhone — and How iOS Efficiency Makes All the Difference
You’ve probably noticed that many Android phones launch bragging about how much RAM they have.
They even use it in their marketing, often comparing themselves to the iPhone, which typically offers half as much RAM.
But if you think that simply having more RAM makes a device faster, you’re wrong.
The iPhone 13 Pro has 6 GB of RAM, while the Pixel 6 Pro and Galaxy S22 Ultra come with 12 GB. Yet, Apple’s device matches or even outperforms them.
So why is that?
The truth is, Android needs more RAM to do what an iPhone can — and in this article, you’ll find out why.
Disclaimer
Before we dive in, let’s be clear: this isn’t about picking sides in the Android vs. iOS debate.
In fact, a lot of what you’ll read here comes from Android Police, a site that knows Android inside and out. Hardly a pro-iPhone source.
An Ongoing Discussion
This isn’t a new question.
We first brought it up back in 2014, when a study showed that iPhones could handle everyday tasks faster than Android phones — even those with twice as much RAM.
Since then, Android brands have used RAM as a selling point. But that study told a different story.
Understanding RAM
Smartphones use a type of memory called SDRAM, which temporarily stores information while the device is powered on.
That’s where your open apps run in real time.
If you open more apps than the RAM can handle, the system starts closing the ones you’re not using as much.
Logically, it makes sense to think that more RAM equals better multitasking. And generally, that’s true.
But when it comes to iOS and Android, it’s not that simple.
Why Android Needs More RAM
To understand why, you need to know one thing: iOS and Android are fundamentally different.
Android, especially early on, borrowed a lot from iOS. But under the hood, they couldn’t be more different.
Android uses a completely different programming language than iOS does.
And the philosophy behind the two systems is different too.
iOS is built for Apple hardware only. Android is designed to run on as many devices as possible, from countless brands.
And that’s both Android’s strength — and its Achilles’ heel.
Google’s engineers have to make sure Android works the same way on chips from Samsung, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and others.
Their solution? A common programming language that each device then has to translate into its own native code at runtime.
That extra translation step uses more resources.
iOS doesn’t have that problem — it’s custom-built for Apple’s chips, with no extra layers in between.
And the results are obvious:
An app that looks and performs identically on Android and iOS will typically require more available RAM on a Pixel 6 than on an iPhone 13.
That’s why Android phones need more RAM — just to match iPhone performance.
How RAM is Managed
Android Police also points out how differently Android and iOS manage memory.
Android uses a process called garbage collection, which periodically frees up memory by clearing out unused data.
iOS, meanwhile, uses Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), which constantly tracks and removes objects no longer needed — without waiting.
Because garbage collection only runs from time to time, unused junk can build up and bog down the system, making Android phones use more RAM.
ARC avoids that problem entirely by cleaning as it goes.
Simply put, iOS is far more efficient at managing memory than Android.
And that also changes how apps are built.
Because Android devices vary so much, developers often don’t bother optimizing apps for each one. It would take forever.
Instead, they design apps assuming a much higher RAM ceiling — meaning many apps waste more RAM than necessary.
More RAM Means More Battery Drain
Of course, a phone’s performance isn’t only about RAM.
But if you’ve ever wondered why flagship Android phones need so much more RAM than iPhones, now you know.
Could Apple add more RAM to make the iPhone even faster? Absolutely. But it would also drain more battery — something iPhone users value highly.
And as long as Apple stays ahead in efficiency, it can afford to be conservative with RAM — and keep battery life strong.