Galaxy s4 is using 50%memoery for what?

I don't know if the S4 is similar to the HTC One in this regard (I bet it is)...but with the One the phone has 500MB of RAM set aside just for the OS to make sure it operates smoothly...the other 1.5GB is available to run apps.  So my phone generally shows using around 500MB of that 1.5GB after a reboot...which gives the impression that about half of the advertised 2GB of RAM is available...make sense?

That being said...free RAM is wasted RAM.  So my advice would be not to use any task killers at all unless you have an app that is misbehaving and keeping your phone awake and/or draining your battery, in which case I would look into replacing the app instead of repeatedly killing it.

Android is actually pretty good at this point on memory management...let it do its thing...and your phone will operate more smoothly.

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@Closingracer wrote:
It just feels this phone takes much more memory then my gs2 skyrocket or gs3 and Facebook takes a lot more memory on my gs4 hen ga3 or skyrocket

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These newer phones do use more memory...but they also have twice the memory of the two phones you mentioned.  Trust me...android won't let your phone run out of RAM.

You also have to take into consideration that it takes more RAM and processing power to show you all these apps in 1080p as opposed to the lower resolutions of last gens devices.

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@Closingracer wrote:
The galaxy s3 has 2gb of ram like the gs4 and uses considerably less memory. These apps process is all background and it actually "on" to process on screen

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Your correct on the S3 having 2GB of RAM....but I don't know what else to tell ya bro.  Having about 1/2 of the advertised RAM available on these phones at any given time is about right...at least from everything i've seen and read about.

You could probably root the phone and come up with a few more MBs by uninstalling bloat and/or loading a custom ROM...but thats about the best advice I can give you.  I can tell you tho...and head over to XDA and do some searching of your own if you like...but task killers are considered a "No-No" these days unless your using them to control rouge apps.

BA

The OS takes a good chunk of memory (RAM), this goes for any smartphone, or most any computer system for that matter.

Yes, there might be some bloat or background processes using a small bit of memory, but probably nothing too significant.

It also has to be kept in mind that having free memory does not actually benefit you in any way.  Android doesn't work the same way as Windows does, and yet people seem to be obsessed with the amount of free memory.  In fact, Android arguably runs better when more memory is being utilized, and killing processes may actually hurt performance.

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@redpoint73 wrote:

The OS takes a good chunk of memory (RAM), this goes for any smartphone, or most any computer system for that matter.

 

Yes, there might be some bloat or background processes using a small bit of memory, but probably nothing too significant.

 

It also has to be kept in mind that having free memory does not actually benefit you in any way.  Android doesn't work the same way as Windows does, and yet people seem to be obsessed with the amount of free memory.  In fact, Android arguably runs better when more memory is being utilized, and killing processes may actually hurt performance.

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Ya but with all that running in the background will eat up battery life wouldnt it? which is where it matter for me

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@Closingracer wrote:

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@redpoint73 wrote:

The OS takes a good chunk of memory (RAM), this goes for any smartphone, or most any computer system for that matter.

 

Yes, there might be some bloat or background processes using a small bit of memory, but probably nothing too significant.

 

It also has to be kept in mind that having free memory does not actually benefit you in any way.  Android doesn't work the same way as Windows does, and yet people seem to be obsessed with the amount of free memory.  In fact, Android arguably runs better when more memory is being utilized, and killing processes may actually hurt performance.

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Ya but with all that running in the background will eat up battery life wouldnt it? which is where it matter for me

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Just because an app is using RAM...does not mean it is "running in the background".  Think of the RAM as the on-deck circle...but its not actually being utilized until you bring the app up to use it.  The RAM just lets you bring that app up more quickly...and reduces the load time.

Unless an app is keeping your phone from sleeping...or using the CPU in some way....its not hurting your battery life.  There are lots of apps in the playstore that will let you monitor your CPU usage...and you can get a good idea from that what apps if any are taxing your phone.

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@badams1 wrote:

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@Closingracer wrote:

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@redpoint73 wrote:

The OS takes a good chunk of memory (RAM), this goes for any smartphone, or most any computer system for that matter.

 

Yes, there might be some bloat or background processes using a small bit of memory, but probably nothing too significant.

 

It also has to be kept in mind that having free memory does not actually benefit you in any way.  Android doesn't work the same way as Windows does, and yet people seem to be obsessed with the amount of free memory.  In fact, Android arguably runs better when more memory is being utilized, and killing processes may actually hurt performance.

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Ya but with all that running in the background will eat up battery life wouldnt it? which is where it matter for me

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Just because an app is using RAM...does not mean it is "running in the background".  Think of the RAM as the on-deck circle...but its not actually being utilized until you bring the app up to use it.  The RAM just lets you bring that app up more quickly...and reduces the load time.

 

Unless an app is keeping your phone from sleeping...or using the CPU in some way....its not hurting your battery life.  There are lots of apps in the playstore that will let you monitor your CPU usage...and you can get a good idea from that what apps if any are taxing your phone.

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Oh i just thought it would use battery life since it was running in the background but thanks for clearing it up... On a side note why does it say i am posting this on a Samsung galaxy nexus when i have a s4?