There are now a variety of Android phones with different amounts of RAM, so it’s important to choose the right one for your needs. If you don’t have enough RAM, your phone will start to slow down and may even become unusable. Conversely, if you buy a phone with too much RAM, you may be able to run multiple applications at the same time but your phone will also be more expensive and harder to use. ..
What RAM Does in Your Phone
Android smartphones have a CPU, RAM, and more permanent storage in the form of an onboard SSD. The operating system, open applications, and the data they’re working with are kept in RAM. ..
If you want to use apps that consume a lot of memory, such as video editors or complex mobile games, then your phone may not have enough memory to run without hitching and stuttering.
How Android Memory Management Works
Android allocates memory in a way that significantly influences how much RAM you need. This affects how many apps can run at the same time, and also affects the performance of your device. If you don’t have enough RAM, your device will be slower and less responsive.
Android apps use a process to request resources like RAM. If there is free memory, the app gets as much as it needs without affecting anything else. ..
Android swaps RAM pages to use compressed memory instead of traditional storage when there isn’t enough free RAM. This is a logical part of RAM that is only used when the device needs to decompress and load data into the regular portion of RAM. This is faster than loading app data from storage because it doesn’t have to go through traditional storage methods.
Android will kill older processes that are not currently in use, freeing up any memory they are using. Android apps are written in a way that they know they could be killed off like this as a normal part of RAM management. So, in theory, they should save their state to storage so you can pick up where you left off. However, this does come with a performance penalty. ..
The Benefits of More RAM
The more RAM you have, the more space you have in ZRAM space, the more active apps you can hold in memory, and the smoother switching between recent apps is likely to be.
Android uses RAM even when it’s not explicitly allocated to an app. For example, if you’re doing file transfers, they can be sped up by using your RAM as a cache. Android also uses a lot of RAM when it starts up, so if you have any open applications that haven’t been closed yet, they will still be running in the background even if your RAM is low.
Android devices come with 2GB of RAM by default, but if you’re using a RAM-hungry app (such as PUBG or Diablo) in the foreground, you may find that your device slows down. If you’re doing split-screen app work while listening to music in the background or downloading files, more RAM ensures things go off without a hitch. ..
RAM “Plus” Features
Some third-party solutions allow the use of system storage as RAM, which reserves a portion of your phone’s storage for overflow space when available memory runs out.
Phone SSDs are still not as fast as RAM, but they are still very fast in absolute terms. Moving your oldest or idle processes to a specially prepared storage region is still much faster than starting the app up after terminating the process. If it’s handled smartly, this approach to swapping memory can result in a smoother experience, especially on mid or low- end devices with minimal RAM.
The RAM Plus feature on the Samsung Galaxy Phones is a way to increase the amount of storage that can be used. This can be helpful if you have a lot of pictures, videos, or music that you don’t want to keep on your phone but you don’t want to lose space on your device. However, this feature has diminishing returns in comparison to other features on these phones.
If you don’t have a phone that offers the “swap” feature, you can use a third-party app such as SWAP. However, there is a greater risk of instability or other bugs with this method than using a manufacturer-approved feature. ..
How Much RAM Does Your Phone Need?
If you’re a casual user who just needs the most RAM for basic tasks, then a phone with at least 4GB of RAM is ideal. If you’re an experienced gamer or video editor, then you might want to consider a phone with 8GB or more of RAM. However, if you’re someone who spends a lot of time using multiple apps and services at the same time, or if you need to run multiple games on the same device at the same time, then it’s important to consider how much RAM your phone has. A phone with 8GB of RAM is good for casual users who only use one app per day and don’t need more than that. But for people who spend hours using multiple apps and services each day, it might be better to go with a phone with 16GB or more of RAM.
Android phones with less RAM also tend to have weaker CPUs and GPUs, so if you don’t need as much RAM as the amount on offer, you may still need the other components that go with it to run specific apps. ..
Android devices with less than 4GB of RAM are not recommended for use by any user. Modern versions of Android require around 1.5GB of storage just for the system, so having less RAM would make using the device more difficult. ..
4GB RAM is an excellent RAM size for users who only use their smartphones for a limited number of tasks. If you mainly use social media apps, WhatsApp, email, and light web browsing with only a few open tabs, you should be happy with 4GB of RAM. Playing higher-end games may result in laggy app switching or background apps freezing. You should also consider using lightweight browsers such as Opera rather than RAM-heavy browsers such as Chrome.
6GB RAM is a good amount for users who have multiple standard apps open or who like to have a moderate number of browser tabs open. This is also a good choice if you’re a frequent video or audio streaming user or have background applications running on your phone. This is an excellent choice for those who like to play advanced mobile games since you should have no performance issues with one such game alongside your standard apps. It’s a great entry-level segment for gamers.
8GB RAM is the best balance between cost and performance. Power users who want to use video editing applications or have many different apps and games to switch between should go for 8GB of RAM, since it’s perfect for heavy multitasking that results in high RAM usage.
12GB RAM is more than enough for nearly anyone, in fact, it’s overkill for a mobile phone. You’ll only find this in high-end devices like the Galaxy S21 Ultra or Galaxy Note. If you do everything on your smartphone and use Android desktop solutions such as Samsung Dex, then 12GB of RAM or more is a meaningful choice.
12GB is a great option for those looking to keep their system running smoothly and responsive. Additionally, if you want to futureproof your system, the 12GB and up range is a good option.
