Android 13 has officially been launched and Google is raising the minimum requirements for Android phones. Though based on the recent releases of entry-level phones, there seems to be a scarcity of phones that are just the bare minimum.
According to Google’s latest blog post, the minimum needed to run Android Go, the low-end version of Android is now 2GB for Android 13. Esper’s Mishaal Rahman and Google Product Expert Jason Bayton also released tweets indicating that the minimum storage requirement has been bumped up to 16GB, but there has been no official statement from Google.
|
Year |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
Release |
Android 8 |
Android 9 |
Android 10 |
Android 11 |
Android 12 |
Android 13 |
|
Min RAM |
512MB |
512MB |
512MB |
1GB |
1GB |
2GB |
Those that do not meet the minimum specifications basically will not be able to update to Android 13 or will not even have the option. To be eligible for Play Store licensing, the newer Android phones will need to meet these requirements.
Android Go is a lite version of the Android that has the RAM-intensive features switched off. The requirements set are mostly to keep the OEMs in the developing world in line where there are some phones still being sold with 1GB of RAM. The intensity of the newer applications and games is another story to talk about.
