To make Android 11 work you'll need to have at least 2GB of RAM on your smartphone. Here's why
Android 11 won't be able to be installed on low cost smartphones, equipped with a poor hardware configuration and, above all, with little memory. This is what it seems from reading a configuration guide of Android 11 Go Edition, the version of Android dedicated to low-performance phones.
Google, in practice, would have raised the minimum amount of RAM required to install Android 11 standard, while making it mandatory for smartphone manufacturers to use Android Go on devices with less memory. Before, instead, the use of Android Go on low cost devices was recommended and not mandatory. Should this news be confirmed, then, the number of devices already in circulation that will be possible to update to Android 11 will be considerably reduced. For the new ones, however, the new limit should not be a big problem because even low cost devices (except for those extremely low cost, intended for particular markets such as India and Africa) will have enough memory to run Android in full version.
Android 11: which smartphones will be able to install it
The minimum amount of RAM memory that will be required to install Android 11 goes from 1 GB to more than 2 GB. Below this threshold you will have to install Android Go Edition, from this threshold the manufacturer will be able to choose whether to use normal Android or Android Go. And this, indirectly, also tells us that Android 11 will be a pretty heavy operating system since it won't settle for 2 GB of RAM. Previously, only devices with 1 GB of RAM or less were sold with Android Go.
Android Vs Android Go: what's different
Android Go Edition is a lightened version of Android, available since the days of Android 8 Oreo. It differs from standard Android both in some technical features and in the user interface. The operating system is optimized to minimize data usage and comes with a reduced version of Google Mobile Services and Google Play Services. The interface is also lighter and is focused on information about data consumption of the mobile connection and storage memory. There are a maximum of 4 recent apps shown, to reduce RAM consumption. Recent smartphones using Android Go instead of standard Android include the Samsung Galaxy A01 Core, the Samsung Galaxy J2 Core, the Nokia C2, 1.3 3 C1 and the LG K20.