How to expand the RAM of a smartphone without disassembling it

Modern phones often lack RAM – subsequently they can freeze more often, and budget models start to work slowly a year after purchase.

You can fix this problem – for this, manufacturers have provided a special function called “RAM Expansion”.

What is RAM expansion in a smartphone?
The phone’s RAM is an important parameter responsible for performance and speed. With a large amount of RAM, a smartphone can simultaneously run and process “heavy” applications, demanding mobile games, quickly switch between them, instantly respond to taps on the screen. The less RAM, the longer you have to wait until the smartphone launches a particular program. Simply put, the device will start to slow down, work slowly and often freeze.

As you know, the amount of RAM has a big impact on the final cost of smartphones. Therefore, the more RAM, the more the model will cost. Therefore, manufacturers have proposed a solution that allows not only to increase the performance of a smartphone, but also to save money. It consists in expanding the RAM due to the internal memory of the device.

If the extension feature is enabled, the phone reserves a fixed amount of its internal memory and converts it to RAM. Such memory is called “dynamic RAM” or “virtual memory”. Its difference lies in the lower speed of reading and writing data, so dynamic memory cannot be used to process heavy programs or mobile games. Its role is to support the main RAM – it takes over small programs while the built-in RAM is almost completely occupied with processing demanding programs.

Expanding the RAM on your smartphone allows you to multitask faster. If there is not enough RAM, the device starts unloading programs from memory, that is, closing them. If you activate the extension, the smartphone will better cope with the simultaneous processing of several programs, which is especially important for work when several browser tabs, documents, mail and, for example, Word are open on the phone.

The number of gigabytes that can be expanded and added to the main RAM depends on the amount of internal storage. For example, if the smartphone has 64 GB of memory, then you can add 1 GB of RAM. If the internal memory is 128 GB, a maximum of 2 GB of RAM is added. For 256 GB, a resolution of 3 GB is available. But there is an exception – models that expand the RAM by 5 and even 7 GB.

RAM expansion in smartphone settings
You can enable or disable the expandable storage feature in your phone’s settings. Now it is available on many devices, including brands:

• xiaomi/redmi,
• poco,
• honor,
• OnePlus and some others.

To increase the RAM on your smartphone, you need to find the “RAM expansion” or “Memory extension” function in the settings. More often it is placed separately or is located in the “Additional” section. In it, you need to move the slider to the active position. On some models, there is a choice of how many gigabytes to add. To do this, drag the slider to the selected value, such as 1 GB, 2 GB, or another.

It is important to remember that expanding the RAM will only work if there is enough free space in the internal memory. After activating the extension, the phone will need to be rebooted for the settings to take effect. Often, additional RAM is required when running several difficult programs at the same time or playing demanding mobile games.