Samsung’s fabs have started churning out 4-gigabit LPDDR2 chips in 20nm.

The new process will enable Samsung to come up with smaller and slimmer chips. The chips are about one fifth thinner than their 30nm predecessors and they will also consume a bit less power.

What does this mean for the average consumers? At the moment not much, but the new chips should help make 2GB smartphones more or less mainstream. Most high-end smartphones today have 1GB of memory and the same goes for tablets.

The advent of more powerful processors and more demanding apps should put the extra memory to good use. Samsung and LG have already started experimenting with 2GB smartphones, but it is not clear whether they use the new chips or stick to previous-gen 30nm parts.