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Samsung might fix Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge’s aggressive RAM management in future update

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Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge DSC09263

When it comes to Android devices, let’s be clear: RAM is meant to be used. What’s the point of having 3GB of DDR4 RAM if your phone keeps closing out apps the moment you leave them to do something else on the device? That’s the issue some people are reporting with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Whether it’s buggy Lollipop code, or just Samsung’s new and “improved” TouchWiz user interface, it’s obvious something is up. You’ll find numerous reports of around various forums online, with a popular thread on XDA talking about the issue here.

In case you need a little more proof, PhoneBuff recently put together a Galaxy S6 vs One M9 speed test video where he timed himself opening a variety of the same apps across both devices. While the Galaxy S6 was definitely quicker at opening these apps, it was during the “second lap” that the HTC One M9 came out ahead thanks to the phone keeping these previous apps open in the background. The Samsung Galaxy S6 had to reload each and every app it once had open only moments before, costing it the win in the end. Check out that video below.

It’s obvious something is up, but whether this was an intentional move by Samsung or yet another software bug, it appears they could be working on a fix. A Samsung rep seemingly acknowledged the bug on their UK Facebook page, telling one user that “micro-updates” to address issues relating to performance and stability are already scheduled to rollout and to keep an eye out.

A specific time frame wasn’t given, or even confirmation that the RAM problem is, in fact, being addressed (it was just a Samsung social media manager after all), so we’ll just have to wait and see. It’s possible some of these issues could be patched up in the Android 5.1 update one lucky Edge user received a few days ago, but there’s no way to know for sure.

Software and hardware bugs are a common occurrence amongst early adopters. We’ve seen more than a few comments from Android fans who typically like to wait a few months after a smartphone’s launch before diving in, giving hardware manufacturers all the time they need to address bugs and other unforeseen issues. We’ll let you know if we hear anything else.

[UberGizmo]

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

Samsung shows us how the beautiful Galaxy S6 Edge is made [VIDEO]

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34 Comments

  1. Thanks Chris for the report.

  2. I suspect it’s Lollipop since I’m seeing this behavior with Cyanogenmod CM12.x which wasn’t an issue with Kit Kat CM11.x or stock ROM.

    1. if its lollipop should see it on the M9 also

    2. LP was touted as being the best OS thus far from Android for battery and OS management. Now a potential RAM leak…. eek.

    3. I’m having the same issue with stock Moto X 2014. Has to be Lollipop…

      1. I have lollipop and have no such issue.

  3. Nah!! The Galaxy devices this year are so great!! The M9 is just a bad phone!! Such a disappointment!! HTC don’t know what’s right.

    Mmmmhmmm!!

    And yea I’m talkin’ my sheh!! LoL!!

  4. Teamed with Clean Master. Smdh.

    1. smack my d*ck hard? easy dude haha

  5. “might”? oh… ok… thanks

    But it’s funny that the “best phone ever” is having a pretty serious issue.

    Oh, and last, for all those here that have previously tried to harsh on me over the value of more RAM… yeah, ok.

    1. LOL. I keyed in on the same word. Might? “We might fix it, then again, maybe we wont”.

  6. best phone ever huh? yeeeeeeeeeeeah…

    1. Best phone ever doesn’t mean perfect. It never does.

      1. My Nexus 6 only suffers from subpar battery life….does it make it the best phone ever? well pre-s6. I played with this at BB. Its great phone. Its not for me since its under 5.5 inches, and just about every review i’ve read has the batter life being average at best. My Nexus 6 outlasts it, according to numbers I’ve read. That screen tho, it is amazing. I just dont see whats so special about it at all, its a good solid phone compared to their previous offerings. My Nexus is better in my opinion, love to see the flack i’ll get from that statement haha

      2. But it does mean that it’s better than any other phone so far, which seems to not be true.

      3. Ok Chris imma say this, I can see why you might be defending the s6, but let’s just say the m9 had a camera on par with the s6 or heck let’s just say the s6 camera wasn’t as good as it is lol, would you love the s6 as much as you do.

        1. Another comparison would be the LG G4 and S6. G4’s camera is amazing on paper (saw some sample photos and it was nice). f1.8 lens with an added z-axis. I don’t think other phones have that. If I had to pick, I would be torn

    2. Best iPhone clone but still too expensive. The Chinese clones cost less.

  7. Don’t forget that the TouchWiz devices can display multiple apps at once which can eliminate some of the switching back and forth. However, this does not excuse the results seen in the video.

  8. Touched the device today.. It was laggy … Is this the usual?

    1. It is on a touchwizz phone.

  9. I returned my S6 Edge because of this reason.

    1. You never had one

  10. It’s fascinating to see how many people get butt hurt over this device. I mean, people blasted (and still are) Samsung for touchwiz and the hardware appearance. Now there are software bugs (show me a device that didn’t have any in its first shipments) and the outrage is just beginning. I’m sure that those mishaps can be corrected with an update. To the rest of the haters, go with another device. But guess the hypocrisy will continue to abound with the other phones flaws as well. Smh.

  11. Doubtful it will be fixed. Google will say it is samsung’s fault, and Samsung will say it’s google’s fault. This is why it is stupid for oems to add their skin to android. They should focus on making great apps, and let google focus on the OS. This mess of code is a disaster for android and is one of the issues pushing millions of high value customers to the iPhone platform.

    1. I like having good camera software and features like multiwindow. Stock Android is not good. FYI, Android grew last quarter, iOS lost ground. Source: Gartner.

      1. Android phones are given away, not a surprise it wins market share. I could dump sand on the ground in best buy and call each grain a phone and then win market share as well.

        1. Really? Where? I had to pay 750 for my 64GB S6. I wish I would have known that somebody was giving them away.

          1. Over 50% of android marketshare is sub $150 devices. Also a large number use non-google android in China which benefits none of the western consumers.

          2. Source?

  12. Lollipop is turning out to be s hilariously bad OS release. Thankfully it is relegated to less than 5% of the android user base or there would be mass defection to apple. Let Samsung users be the beta testers for the rest of us.

    1. For me it’s those horribly ugly white notification boxes that kill Lollipop even over all the bugs and issues.

  13. I have Lollipop on my S5 it works great and I talked four S6 owners non of them has problem with their phones. all the bad news below here are trolling, Assple fanboys spreading bad news, the guy below saying return the s6 is an idiot too, He never has a S6 edge, Assple fanboys can’t afford one. period.

  14. Haven’t had any problems at all with my S6 edge.

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