OnePlus 3 RAM issues are necessary, company says

The OnePlus 3 was released with some fanfare by the manufacturer responsible for crafting it, and OnePlus has been eager to get the new device in the hands of all who want one (which explains the early door arrivals we’ve been reading about). The OnePlus 3 has overcome some obstacles from last year, with the company introducing near field communication (NFC), an AMOLED display to replace the old IPS LCD screen, and a metal unibody design to replace the removal, customizable back cover (and giving customizable cases instead). With all of these changes addressed in the OnePlus 3, one could assume that, with a $399 price tag, all would be perfect, right?

Well, there is one little flaw we addressed about the OnePlus 3 — and OnePlus has finally addressed it publicly. The company said in a statement today that the RAM management issues perceived in the new device are tied to battery usage and the company’s aggressive management is designed to give users the best battery life they can have. On Twitter, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei tweeted that

@LucaDuci we have a different strategy for RAM management that benefits battery. We think this is the best user experience.

Apparently, then, aggressively killing off apps in the background with RAM drops lead to better battery life, or so Carl Pei says. Some have responded to Pei, asking him about the significance of 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM in the first place if one cannot fully utilize that 6GB of RAM — even with hardcore gaming.

OnePlus may have done this for the purpose of increasing battery performance and making the battery as stellar as it can be, but the company could’ve gone down and easier route and released a larger battery (higher than the 3,000mAh battery in the OnePlus 3) that would’ve helped with the RAM processing. To give a much smaller battery than is needed, then turn around and aggressively kill the RAM is to jump through too many hurdles with nothing to show for it when a straightforward larger battery capacity implementation would have worked just as well.

Carl Pei says that OnePlus will release a kernel and tree that will fix the issue, and that modders can modify their software on the OnePlus 3 in order to fix the issue, but it still begs the question as to why the RAM management problem arose in the first place.

We’re sure a future update can fix the issue, but OnePlus can expect confrontations like these in the future. After all, if you want your device to get so much attention, you have to address customers when they have issues with it. This is the hallmark of producing a “flagship killer.”

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