Godzilla rumors: OPPO, OnePlus working on 24GB RAM phones

‘Overkill’, the title of a 1979 masterpiece album by rock legends ‘Motorhead’, is the word to use when describing OPPO and OnePlus’ rumored plans to make and sell 24GB RAM smartphones.

According to the renowned tech confidant on Weibo Digital Chat Station, a RAM kaiju (a japanese word for mythical monster, like Godzilla) may be coming in the unspecified future. Behind the project reportedly are the brands from Oga group – OPPO, OnePlus, Realme (via androidauthority). The provided rough Google translation mentions that flagship devices of the abovementioned brands could come equipped with 16GB of RAM, and 24GB for the top specs variations.

How much is too much?

In the present day and age, not many people can conceptualize the idea of having a 24GB RAM phone. Truth to be spoken, 24GB is still not a standard even for PC users! According to data provided by scientiamobile, most active phones (close to 35%) have 4GB of RAM – typical for mid-range Android phones and popular iPhone models like the iPhone 13. Next come in the 6GB RAM devices (21%), closely followed by phones with 3GB RAM (20%). Stats are from 2022, Q2.

Currently, brands offer their flagships somewhere in the 8GB to 16GB of RAM range, plus the occasional exception like the 18GB behemoth RedMagic 7 Pro. On the other hand, Apple’s flagships paint a very different picture when it comes to RAM - iPhone 14 Pro Max comes equipped with ‘only’ 6 gigs of RAM.

24GB RAM is a whole new level, actually. Apart from playing games on maxed out settings, hardcore multitasking and multi-tab browsing, most of the phone users today would never need anything above 12GB, let alone above 20GB RAM.

The main RAM takeaways

Smartphones are computers and like all computers, they need Random-access memory (RAM). While there are significant differences between RAM chips found in PCs and phones, there are several intersection points:

1. RAM acts as a storage for data for short periods of time
2. It's very fast to write and read data, placed in this particular form of memory
3. Once you shut down your device, the memory is erased

So next time you plan on mad multitasking and switching between graphics-heavy games, video editing apps and a 50-tab Chrome browser, have pity on your phone's performance. And keep an eye for the 24GB RAM monster if it ever comes to light.