Android 13 Go Edition Brings a New Look to Budget Phones, but Also Needs Twice as Much RAM (2024)

Google has launched Android 13 (Go edition), the version of Android designed for budget phones. It brings Material You to the platform for the first time, complete with its theme engine, along with Google Discover and a faster way of delivering software updates.

The spec requirements have also gone up—it'll now run on phones with a minimum of 2GB of RAM. Devices running Android 13 (Go edition) will become available in early 2023.

Android 13 (Go edition) Features

The main new features in Android 13 (Go edition) focus on three areas.

The biggest is the introduction of Material You for the first time. This brings a new look, new icons, and color themes to match your wallpaper. Some other essentials from Android 13 have been carried over, too, like notification permissions and the ability to change the language in specific apps.

Google Discover also makes its debut, making it easier to find articles tailored to your interests. As usual, that will be found to the left of the main home screen.

But perhaps the most important change is the introduction of support for Google Play system updates. This will allow Google to roll out features, bug fixes, and other improvements without needing a full OS update—something that requires storage and data, which are both often limited on low-end phones.

Monthly updates are already a thing for devices running the full version of Android, and will now help Go-powered phones to remain secure and up-to-date.

Inevitably, these changes come with a cost, as the spec requirements have gone up. Android 13 (Go edition) now requires a minimum of 2GB of RAM, up from 1GB, plus 16GB of storage, up from 8GB.

Android for Budget Phones

Go Edition was first introduced with Android 8 in 2017 to make tech more accessible to the millions of people around the world who go online for the first time each year. It's currently used on more than 250 million devices.

The OS is accompanied by a series of Go apps, stripped-down versions of the standard Google apps that appear on every phone. And anyone can actually benefit from these. If your phone is a bit slow or running short on memory, you can install and use the lightweight Android Go apps instead.