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John Brownlee wrote, in 2014, on Cult of Mac:

iOS is twice as memory-efficient as Android

[...]

As it turns out, an iPhone 6 with 1GB of RAM runs much faster than a similarly specced Android smartphone with 2GB of RAM. And it all has to do with the fundamental difference in the way iOS and Android handle apps.

[Explanation that Android apps use garbage-collected Java, while IOS does not, and that garbage-collected apps require 4-8 times as much RAM.]

This is why Android devices need to have twice as much RAM to run apps as your iPhone does.

Did the iPhone 6 run as fast as an Android phone with twice as much memory, in 2014, due to more efficient memory management?

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  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/85328/discussion-on-question-by-christian-was-ios-twice-as-memory-efficient-as-android). – Oddthinking Nov 05 '18 at 12:11
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    Can you offer a little more detail in the question? "run as fast as android" while doing what exactly? There is a lot of misinformation in that article that stems from a misunderstanding of terms and what the two operating systems do differently, so an idea of what the exact claim is will make it easier to give a precise answer, rather than devolving into listing hundreds of applications and processes with initial boot speeds, RAM usage, and access speeds (which will vary even on the same device based on what processes are running concurrently) – AAlig Nov 05 '18 at 18:20
  • @AAlig: The OP's opinion on these factors are not relevant. The question is what did the *claimant* mean (and perhaps what would most people understand by the claim). Have a look at the article for context and if definitions are needed, put them in your answer with a justification of why you chose them. – Oddthinking Nov 06 '18 at 00:04
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    Even reviewers of the most recent flagship phones have claimed the iPhone runs well with less memory than android. The original claim contains too much speculation about *why* this might be true (garbage collection might be totally irrelevant) and not enough solid evidence that it is true. And too many answers are assuming that it isn't true any more because the explanation for the iPhone 6 is unlikely to still apply. How about evidence rather than theoretical speculation? – matt_black Nov 06 '18 at 00:22
  • @Oddthinking I'm not asking for the OP's personal opinion, I am asking for the basis of the claim. The article is nearly incoherent from a Software engineers point of view due to the misuse and mismatching of terms and the (frankly nonsensical) explanation. All the article addresses is that android uses more memory, with a line about how that makes it faster, which does not follow. The article is talking about apples and suddenly says, "we have tastier oranges", then goes back to talking about apples. That makes the claim nearly impossible to debunk because of how vague it is. – AAlig Nov 06 '18 at 13:30
  • Let's take it to chat, at the above link. – Oddthinking Nov 06 '18 at 22:05

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