I spend my life testing phones, and one of the most boring parts of the job is having to configure every device I buy from scratch. I’ve noticed for a while that there is an option that is enabled by default; This option, which was previously an optional extra, is still valid today unless we want it. cacharrear We won’t even know it’s there: RAM memory expansion.

As the name suggests, it is a setting that allows us to “expand” our phone’s RAM memory by up to an extra 12 GB in some cases (if our phone has 12 GB, it is easy to go up to 24 GB). A perfect plan on paper. But all that glitters is not gold.

What is RAM expansion. Some manufacturers have been looking for a possible problem for a while due to the small internal storage that entry and mid-range offerings have. By allowing the storage memory to act as RAM, it was possible for a device with (for example) only 3GB of RAM to go up to 6GB.

It’s a plan that actually makes some sense on phones that have RAM issues and where more expensive modules can’t be included to keep prices adjusting. The theory is simple: Reserve some of the internal memory and use it as RAM.

How does RAM memory expansion work?. RAM (Random Access Memory) is responsible for temporarily storing information about the applications you run (in the foreground or background). It is basically a reserved space for applications to access data in the short term without having to go to internal memory.

To get RAM from internal memory you need to virtualize it. A few gigabytes are reserved for use as RAM memory, with current phones typically starting at 128GB.

What’s the problem. First of all, your phone’s internal memory is generally slower than RAM. The immediate translation is that if we allocate too much memory space for virtualization, it is not strange that we will have a worse performing mobile phone. I was able to verify this for myself on a few models: When I disabled virtual RAM, the phone felt much smoother than if it only used physical RAM.

Second, beyond experiences there is Google’s position. On their website for developers, they provide somewhat alarming information: using virtual RAM can corrupt internal memory.

“Storage includes all persistent data, such as the file system and object code for all applications, libraries, and the platform. Storage has much more capacity than the other two types of memory. In Android, storage is not used to manipulate space as in other Linux applications because “Frequent typing can wear out this memory and shorten the life of the storage media.”

Although manufacturers and the system allow this, Google warns that changing memories can cause premature wear and shorten the lifespan of internal storage. It makes sense because, like every component, it has a lifespan. In particular, internal memories have a certain reading and writing capacity; If we use virtual RAM, we shorten its cycle.

Image | Xataka

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