14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has already confirmed that Windows 10 Mobile will be offered as a free upgrade to all devices running Windows Phone 8.1, but it has added that phones with only 512 MB of RAM will get a rather limited experience because of their hardware capabilities.
The company, however, has never explained what these limitations will actually be, but thanks to leaked documents that have been published by WindowsMania (via WindowsPhoneApps.es), we can finally have a look at how Windows 10 Mobile would actually run on 512 MB devices.
First and foremost, GPS navigation apps will be deactivated when running in the background if there's not enough memory available to handle the process, and Microsoft says that these apps could be disabled more often because, with only 512 MB of RAM, running out of memory is very possible, especially when running other programs such as email clients or messengers.
If you're a fan of HDR photos, then you must know that a 512 MB phone running Windows 10 Mobile shoots lower quality pictures because of its limited hardware capabilities. 5-megapixel pictures and 3 frames instead of 8-megapixel and 5 frames will be used, Microsoft says.
97 percent of the apps will work
The good news is that 97 percent of the apps available in the Windows Phone Store will work OK on devices with 512 MB of RAM, Microsoft says, while others will either fail to launch or be really slow and thus become unusable.
Multitasking will be affected as well, with the company warning that “users will see the ‘resuming...’ screen more often while tombstoned applications are activated.”
And last but not least, browsing will also be impacted, so only two tabs of memory intensive websites will be available, more blank screens when scrolling quickly will be displayed because of the reduced tile cache size, while large websites will be slower and the browser could sometimes crash unexpectedly.
Needless to say, a 512 MB phone isn't quite the best option to get the full Windows 10 Mobile experience, so you might want to consider buying a new device before the new OS launches later this year.
Note that Microsoft is yet to confirm that the information included in this document is accurate, so don't take anything for granted for now.
