Say an app has a download size of 3 GB, do you need 3 GB of memory or 3 GB of storage?
In: Technology
Imagine storage is your backpack, while memory is your hands.
Your hands are really great at taking things quickly, and using them quickly. Unfortunately, you can’t store a lot of stuff in your hands and – most importantly – it’s hard to hold stuff in your hands while you’re sleeping. Your backpack, meanwhile, is a *lot* slower. It takes time to put stuff into the backpack, and it takes time to pull stuff out. Sure, there’s things you can do to make it faster – but it’ll never be as fast as having it in your hands. That’s all fine, though – you can store a ton of stuff in the backpack, and you can even take it off and leave it somewhere while you’re sleeping.
In a phone (or computer), Memory is like your hands. It’s right there, and it’s *really* fast, but it doesn’t hold a lot of stuff, and you lose the stuff if you turn your phone off. Storage is like a backpack – yes, it’s quite a bit slower and anything you want to use typically goes into memory before getting used, but you can store a whole lot of stuff in it and that stuff stays even if the phone loses all its power.
Apps will always go into storage, for two simple reasons. First and foremost – nobody wants to lose all their apps if their phone dies. That would be insane! In fact, just about every piece of important data goes to storage, because memory is far worse at holding onto stuff. From the thousands of memes you’ve saved to the basic files used to run the phone, it all goes to storage. Secondly, memory is a lot more expensive than storage – so a modern iPhone will have 4 GB of memory but at least 64 GB of storage. On a PC (where part prices are publicly available), 500 GB of high-end storage will cost around as much as 32 GB of high-end memory.
Latest Answers