6GB or 8GB RAM Fairphone 5 needed to run 24.04-1.x comfortably?
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The 6GB RAM version of Fairphone 5 is often better priced than the 8GB RAM version. Therefore, a question to those of you who have experience with Fairphone 6GB and 8GB RAM versions:
- Is the 6GB RAM with 128GB storage Fairphone 5 always enough to run noble 24.04-1.x comfortably?
- In which case would you really need 8GB RAM?
The typical use case would be:
- Ubuntu Touch native apps,
- waydroid banking apps with authentication that actually work,
- waydroid signal,
- waydroid whatsapp,
- waydroid organic maps,
Desktop mode via USB-C display port libertine containers running:
- LibreOffice Writer and Calc with scripting,
- gimp,
- inkscape,
- thunderbird or evolution email,
- firefox with addons,
- emacs,
- occasional compiling with gcc, make, cmake,
- python3 scripting,
- bash scripting,
- ollama with tinyllama if it is possible at all.
This question may possibly also apply to the Fairphone 4 6GB RAM version which still seems to be available in some places.
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@mango If you are going to be running desktop apps, then the more RAM the better. Waydroid would also benefit from more RAM.
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@mango To answer the question yes you can run 24.04 comfortably with the 6GB/128GB, I am currently doing this.
However, you expand on this and explain your usage I would lean towards the bigger device.Currently I have 43.8GB of free space storage and ~2.6GB memory free. However my usage is very different to what you are looking for.
I don't use Android apps at all, only native. I don't use Libertine much at all either. I do have lots of my own music and have a lot of offline maps downloaded which you may not.Hopefully this gives you perspective from someone daily using the device.
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6GB will be fine but obviously 8GB would be better if you want to open many apps simultaneously.
But since you mentioned using Waydroid extensively, then I would recommend the 8GB. I've used 6GB and 8GB variants of the FP4 and Waydroid can be slow on the 6GB variant when you have other heavy apps open like a browses or a webapps. Remember, you're running another OS which would use more memory.
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@mango
I have had my FP5 for a few months and I am trying to use it instead of my home PC. I mostly do this through snaps and clicks, so I have not used libritine.
I have FP5 8 GB and 250GB.From my experience:
- I dont think I have ever got close to using more than 4GB ram, though I only ever check in desktop mode. I bearly ever use waydroid because I find it slow to start up so that is not a concern for me. I dont think that the 6GB will feel any different from the 8GB unless you want to open some big spread sheets.
With regards to opening/leaving open many apps at once .... the fairphone battery will remind you that that is a bad idea. - I still have 136GB of 250GB on the phone. The system uses 35GB, Cloud syncing uses another 8 or so and then I have photographs and maps etc. If you want to use the phone as a desktop, the storage may be the best reason to bump the specs. MicroSD storage wont be as fast as the built in SSD and I think it is more complicated to use with some applications (but I havent tried myself).
- The issues with the OS and apps slow me down more than my RAM or storage. For example, snapping windows to parts of the screen with a mouse can be frustrating because of the app draw and overview keep getting triggered. This can be a noticable speed bump when working in desktop mode. RAM usage has yet to be an issue for me wrt responsiveness of the UI or doing tasks.
That said, UT is improving every day and you can update etc. but if your phone RAM cannot.
- I dont think I have ever got close to using more than 4GB ram, though I only ever check in desktop mode. I bearly ever use waydroid because I find it slow to start up so that is not a concern for me. I dont think that the 6GB will feel any different from the 8GB unless you want to open some big spread sheets.
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@mango
Thunderbird and firefox will probably eat your ram.
