Phone shopping? We explain 'RAM' and 'storage' and how much of each you need

What's the difference between RAM (Random Access Memory) and phone storage, and why does it matter when choosing a device?

Goldstuck explains...

RAM is the part of the phone that is used to store the operating system (OS) or your phone's short-term memory, and where apps and data currently in use are kept.

For example, if you're running WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Spotify at the same time, the RAM handles this because it can keep multiple apps running at once without slowing down the phone.

Phone storage is the long-term memory used to store data such as apps, photos, videos, and files.

If you think of it like your phone being a desk - RAM is your desk space where you work and the more RAM you have, the more documents and tasks you can juggle around on your desk without slowing down, while the storage is the filing cabinet you store things in to retrieve at any time.

Typically, a phone with eight gigabytes of RAM is fairly decent, while 256 gigabytes of storage is the minimum you want on a phone.

Today, with the size of videos we create on phones, you should be going for 512 gigabytes of storage, but in cases of gaming or serious multitasking, 12 gigabytes of RAM would be ideal because it means juggling multiple open apps and having lots of room for files, photos, videos and more.

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