this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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50
Meager 8GB of RAM forces Pixel 9a to run “extra extra small” Gemini AI (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Google can't make a move in 2025 without veering into the realm of generative AI, and the release of the Pixel 9a is no exception. Curiously, the AI experience on this phone may not match what you've seen from the company's high-end smartphones. Google has confirmed to Ars that the phone's lower memory prevented it from implementing the full suite of Pixel AI features. You can still talk to Gemini by holding the power button or opening the Gemini app, but the on-device Gemini Nano model has seen a downgrade on the 9a.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The stagnant ram/storage situation weirds me out. Dont get me wrong 6/8GB ram and 128GB rom served, serves and will serve me well. But damn i bought a phone in 2019 for 300€ with the same specs and 6 years later i'm expected to pay almost double the price for the same. Doesnt make any sense to me from a consumer perspective. Yeah the SOC is faster, the cameras a bit better and the screen gets brighter. But there is no reason for me to upgrade unless support ends for my current phone or it just breaks.

The only compelling feature i see in the forseeable future is the whole desktopmode and virtualization thing. If done competently i would pay for that since i dabbled with the idea a lot in the last few years. It just was shit from the software stack standpoint. But then give me 12-16gb of ram and atleast 512gb of storage for lets say 600€ or less.

Oh yeah, this article was about gemini ai. Well i dont give a shit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I want proper use of swap/cache by default, not something I have to root to get.

Why is my browser reloading pages because I switched apps, on a 6gb phone?

I could prevent this on a 2gb phone in 2017 with root by configuring it properly.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You'd think these companies forcing all this ai bullshit would also ensure their hardware could actually run all the data harvesting crap without making their devices trash

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Oh man, have you seen the state of new -INSERT MODERN DEVICE HERE- lately? Apparently nobody got the memo.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

How many GB of RAM should I have on my phone to ensure Gemini never runs?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The client app is more lightweight than a web browser so getting it that low is just not practical

Also, in what universe is it easier to change a phone's RAM than to disable apps or get a custom ROM?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Totally get your vibe. I don't want AI BS, and it's a huge waste of my memory and battery. Keep it simple and stupid, please.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Probably around 3GB. I have some cheaper Motorolas with that, usable, but a lot of app reload. Also, stick to older, slower phones to avoid the AI on-device. Otherwise rooting, GrapheneOS, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Seriously, it’s trash. I heard they’re replacing the Google Assistant with it but it can’t even handle “play music” and “navigate home” when I’m driving.

I have no issues opening up GPT or DeepSeek if I need to ask AI a question about the weird thing on my peepee sack. It’s just a skin tag.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Makes me more likely to consider it, honestly. I don’t need much RAM on my phone, and I would be turning off/avoiding Gemini usage anyway

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

So this whole Gemini thing is a tactic to push people to upgrade their phones again right? They gave up on the whole "your phone is 6 months old and therefore won't be getting security updates anymore so you need to buy a new phone with identical specs otherwise hackers are going to break into your bank account and set your dog on fire" because regulators were starting to get twitchy, so now it's "your phone is brand new but you didn't spend enough money on it so you better buy a new phone or you won't be able to have a sentient assistant to help you do your job and manage your life and you'll be passed over for promotion by a 16 year old AI Native and never get a date and your family will be angry at you because Aunt Mildred doesn't like fish and you booked family dinner at the wrong restaurant "

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

And peoe want that sweet, sweet, "convenience".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

But also to subscribe to Gemini+++++/monthly.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (3 children)

You'd think they'd just spend the extra few bucks on ram instead of spending probably countless hours making this new tiny model.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Well, they probably want a leaner version for lower end phones anyway, along the lines of the Go versions of many of their apps. Luckily I won't have to worry about this shit running Graphene, with no intention of running an LLM, so 8GB would be fine if I had any need to move on from my Pixel 8 prematurely.

Hey, maybe it'll cause some fairly quick, large discounts. My Pixel 5 backup with a rather shattered screen could use a replacement.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Economies of scale can make the math seem really wild at the higher end.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, they definitely should focus on adding more RAM to their flagship phones, but smaller models are ideal for smartphones.

Smaller models are quicker to run and use up less battery. Besides, if they're using some AI models I would rather it be run locally than have my data uploaded to some server somewhere (big assumption that they wouldn't do that anyway, I know)... Or at the very least I can still run it even if the network goes down.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I understand that but they're making an entire model just for this one device?