Is there a memory-efficient replacement of java.lang.String?

Question

After reading this old article measuring the memory consumption of several object types, I was amazed to see how much memory Strings use in Java:

Answer 1

Out of curiosity, is the few bytes saved really worth it?

Normally, I suggest ditching strings for performance reasons, in favor of StringBuffer (Remember, Strings are immutable).

Are you seriously exhausting your heap from string references?