We’ve seen this a lot here at Windows Phone Central - passionate debates in comments whenever a post mentions a game that can’t run on Windows Phone devices with 512MB RAM. We also know that Nokia Lumia 520 with that low amount of RAM became the sleeper hit for Nokia last year, and has been the best-selling Windows Phone device across the board.
I spotted this thread on Windows Phone Central forums about the same, and wondered why these devices get all the rants despite their irrefutable success.
Of course, the usual argument is that a lot of apps and games don’t run well (or at all) on these devices, and there’s a noticeable lag in the Windows Phone experience.
However, I’ve found that apart from some games, almost all apps run on 512MB RAM devices. And I believe, that’s a compromise most people knew before buying the phone. The observations about laggy experience are also misplaced. If you keep a decent amount of internal memory free, it’s not that bad. Some suggest an occasional soft reset too. Some folks on the thread also note that the performance has improved with Windows Phone 8.1, and of course it’s only the preview.
Obviously, a low to mid-range smartphone won’t match the performance of a flagship device. The low specifications and certain compromises made brings the costs down, and makes these devices mass market.
What are your thoughts on this? Tell us in the comments, or have a look at that forums thread, and sound off your thoughts and observations there.
