N8 first update of 2011

So just got my first official update from Nokia for the N8. Every now and then, the “Social Apps” application gives me a “Social Apps has been successfully updated.” message upon launching but this is the first time I’m seeing an update listed in the “Software Update” tool. Took a few screenshots:

The whole update took about 10 minutes over a 12Mbps Wi-Fi connection. I’m guessing majority of the work was in the installation stage.

So what did I notice? After a reboot of the device, there’s a remarked memory usage improvement.

With the same setup as my last RAM benchmark, this time after loading all 3 home screens, there was 135-136MB available compared to 130-131MB.

Previously, launching the menu would take between 4-5MB and now it’s down to 1-3MB. Closing it out from the Task Manager (hold down the physical home/menu button) will release the occupied memory.

But most of all, the email client with Yahoo/Google/Hotmail accounts loaded would eat a healthy 10MB from the memory but now, it’s down to 3MB!!!

Thanks Nokia dev team and eagerly waiting for the upcoming BIG updates!

UPDATE: My phone is now running slower than ever and it constantly lags when attempting to access the [Task Manager]. I powercycled my N8-00 up a few more times throughout the day and after a complete boot-up, the first time, it was 135MB available. 129MB the 2nd time. 131MB the 3rd time. 131MB the 4th time. I launched the ScreenSnap tool, then closed it out. Now it’s at 128MB and the [Task Manager] is empty. Initial memory usage is the same as before the update but the application RAM usage has now gone up and memory leaks galore.

Memory Leak or Caching on the N8?

So initially I was going ape-shit over the memory leaks that I had identified in the previous post, but upon closer examination, it appears that those could simply be the case of caching to allow the various tools and apps we use on a daily basis to load faster.

For example, clicking on the home button to launch the menu takes away 4MB from the phones system memory. You exit the menu by clicking on “exit” but it’s not going to drop those 4MB it’s taken unless you close the menu from the task manager. Or in the case of the default photo viewing tool, you lose around 10MB running it. Even after you close it out completely, you are still short of that 10MB but the next time you launch the photo viewer, the memory footprint of the app is negligible.

Nokia’s gotta create a true task manager to give users more control over what gobbles up the memory and what doesn’t. At the end of the day, my memory usually sits around 85MB which isn’t too good imo.

Free Memory Bars for the N8

Found this simple widget tool for the S^3 called Free Memory Bars. Very basic and does the job which is excellent in my opinion. Ran a few tests with it and found some memory leaks from Nokia. Below are my findings with the RAM levels for each operation. Do note that I allocated plenty of time in between the listed operations to make up for potential reporting lag.

The screenshot was taken using the ScreenSnap tool I downloaded from the Ovi App Store just like the memory check widget.

IMMEDIATELY AFTER BOOT UP
141MB

AFTER HOMESCREEN 3 LOAD (2 RSS Feeds, Accuweather, Memory, Battery)
139MB

AFTER HOMESCREEN 2 LOAD (3 Emails, Social Network, Tasks)
134MB

AFTER HOMESCREEN 1 LOAD (Clock, Missed Events, 2 Shortcut rows)
133MB

AFTER WAITING FOR A FEW MORE MINUTES
130MB

OPENED MENU AND EXITED MENU (NOT FROM TASKMANAGER)
127MB

CLOSED MENU (TASK MANAGER)
131MB

OPENED MENU > APPLICATIONS > SCREEN SNAP > CAPTURE NOW
125MB

CLOSED MENU (TASK MANAGER)
128MB

SCREEN SNAP > CAPTURE NOW
127MB

AFTER SCREEN SNAP CAPTURE WAS OVER
128MB

CLOSED SCREEN SNAP
130MB

OPENED MENU AND EXITED MENU (NOT FROM TASKMANAGER)
128MB

CLOSED MENU (TASK MANAGER)
130MB

HELD THE HOME BUTTON, CLICKED ON EDIT HOMESCREEN
128MB

CLICKED DONE TO END THE EDIT HOMESCREEN MODE
129MB

OPEN MENU AND EXITED MENU (NOT FROM TASKMANAGER)
126MB

CLOSED MENU (TASK MANAGER)
129MB

OPEN MENU > PICTURES > ASSIGNED 2 PICTURES TO “SCREENSHOT” ALBUM AND EXITED
CLOSED MENU (TASK MANAGER)
123MB