Compare the New iPhone Models

It’s because the OS needs far less ram than their competitors to function, and RAM uses electricity and costs money so it makes perfect sense to pack less of it - but they also know showing a lower number than their competitors would be interpreted as a failing by those that don’t understand this.

> It’s because the OS needs far less ram than their competitors to function

iOS doesn't magically need less RAM. It just aggressively kills background apps to stay within memory limits, then makes you wait while it reloads them from scratch (burning battery with CPU cycles and NVMe reads instead).

> RAM uses electricity and costs money so it makes perfect sense to pack less of it

No, it's bullshit. Apple kept RAM low to save money, not battery. They could easily pack 16gb with negligible effect on battery life.

I spent the better part of a decade using exclusively Androids. I rooted, installed custom ROMs and kernels that aimed to improve battery life. Aggressively checked for apps keeping my CPU in a wakelock, restricting the bad apps. And I never had good battery life.

Eventually I bought an iPhone, and even the 12 mini with its "tiny" battery, and putting in zero effort to extend battery life, it had significantly better endurance than any Android I ever owned. And its performance didn't get choppy after the first few months of use like every Android I owned.

The iPhone is almost 20 years old and you'd figure at some point everyone would realize stats and figures and hypothetical napkin math to prove "Android rules iPhone drools" doesn't make everyone's experience using them non-existent.

They don't reload them from scratch, for the most part. They force the app developers to design the app to serialize to disk at any point, and then rehydrate when needed. It actually makes developing for iOS much more of a pain in the ass, but it's great for users.