We have commented on so many negative aspects and concerns related to the iPhone 3GS that news to weigh the other side of the balance is missing. Fortunately, an observation made by John Casasanta, of tap tap tap, showed that the double impact of RAM present in the device is much greater than one might expect.
For the consumer, in fact, we now have a device with twice as much memory as before: from 3G to 3GS, we jumped from 128MB to 256MB. However, for developers the leap was much greater. Right after turning on, the 3GS offers 150MB of free memory for use. In the old 3G, there were only 40MB available after startup that could be scarce up to a mere 13MB, after entering and exiting some apps. That is, the amount of free RAM varied almost four to more than ten times between models.
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One of the noticeable advantages of having RAM left over is that Mobile Safari now keeps pages open even if you leave it, open another app and then go back to the browser.
Apple does not disclose these details on the technical specifications page of the iPhone, but we already know about all of them:
CPU (Central Processing Unit)
- First generation iPhone: ARM 11, 412MHz
- iPhone 3G: ARM 11, 412MHz
- iPhone 3GS: ARM Cortex, 600MHz
GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)
- First generation iPhone: PowerVR MBX Lite
- iPhone 3G: PowerVR MBX Lite
- iPhone 3GS: PowerVR SGX
RAM (Random Access Memory)
- First generation iPhone: 128MB
- iPhone 3G: 128MB
- iPhone 3GS: 256MB
Oh, and before you ask :-), the memory usage graphs at the beginning of this article were generated by the Memory Status program, which costs $ 1 in the App Store. It requires firmware 2.0 or higher for iPhones / iPods touch and weighs around 200KB.
(Via: Daring Fireball.)
3GS RAM after startup
3G RAM after startup