There is a common misconception in the tech field about what the definition of memory is. Most people think it’s the amount of drive or disk space they have available for storage. For example, someone may tell you their cellphone has 64GB of memory when they mean to say 64GB of storage space. It may seem trivial, but in today’s post, we want to explain why the distinction of memory vs. storage is important.
Storage = Hard Drive, Memory = RAM
Disk space, hard drive space, and storage all refer to the amount of space that data can be stored on a device long term. For the remainder of this article, we will refer to this as storage. Devices store apps and personal information in this space until it is needed later. Memory, aka RAM, is short term storage. Devices will load information into memory when it is actively being worked on.
Why It’s Important?
You may be thinking, who cares they both hold information, but the distinction is important when describing or comparing devices. For example, the iPhone 8 has 64GB or 256GB of storage and 3GB of RAM. Some may describe their iPhone 8 as having 64GB of memory, which is not correct. It should be characterized as having 64GB of storage and 3GB of memory or RAM.
Some Android-based phones come with varying sizes of memory. For example, the Samsung S9 has 4GB of memory, and the S10 series comes with 6GB to 12GB of memory depending on the configuration.
In Terms of Computers…
The distinction between storage and memory is also important when describing computers. For example, say you have a Chromebook style laptop, that has 16GB of storage. If you were to describe your computer as having 16GB of memory, it would imply that you have a high-end machine. 16GB of memory is a lot for the average user. Chromebooks come with 2GB or 4GB of memory.
If you are trying to troubleshoot over the phone with a technician, the difference is huge. Your computer might be running slow, and you may need to add more memory, but if the tech doesn’t have the correct information, it could lead to a misdiagnosis.
It’s Confusing, We Know
The tech gods haven’t made remembering which term goes where easy, primarily if you don’t deal with them every day. Technically, both are storage, and both are measured in gigabytes (GB). Having two pieces of hardware with similar functions and similar names doesn’t make remembering them easy. The thing to remember is your storage is your hard drive or solid state drive used for long term storage. Your memory is your computer’s short term RAM.
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