How to Add More RAM to Your Android Device with a MicroSD Card
Why Does Your Phone Need More RAM?
Your Android device would most likely came with a 64GB (or more) amount of storage, but it's the RAM that really affects what you can and what you cannot do with it. Most high-end Android devices come out of the box with 2GB or more of RAM, but some cheaper devices might have only 1GB of RAM or in some cases, 512MB.
The importance of extra RAM cannot be overstated in this article.
While more storage space would give you more media and more app storage, additional RAM would help the processor to work more faster. This would aid in media creation and in playback as well as in running applications and games more efficiently.
For instance, some playback problems are usually wrongly blamed on a slow internet connection. but the truth is that they could be speeded up with extra RAM, rather than faster wireless devices.
How Does RAM Swapping Increase Phone RAM?
On a desktop computer or a laptop, you can dedicate a portion of your hard disk space to increase RAM. This is known as a swap file and it takes advantage of free space on your HDD or SSD when RAM fills up. Rather than to just discard the data, it is stored on your drive.
Windows 10 has an advanced swap file management which mean that you will probably never need to adjust the settings. If you did, however, you would be able to increase the portion of your HDD or SSD that is allocated for the swap file purposes.
The same can be done on Android to effectively increase its RAM.
While the underlying principle is the same, the execution of this on Android is very different. You will need dedicated software to make it work. You will also need to root your android device before this can work.
By default, certain files and permissions are blocked in your Android phone. By rooting the device, you would gain control of the entire operating system and the hardware. This enables you to access previously restricted files and hardware, ait is easier than it used to be, rooting can be a very difficult process. But if you want to increase your RAM on your Android phone or tablet, it is very important necessary to root the device first.
What You Need to Increase Android Phone or Tablet RAM
Using the swap file method of increasing RAM on Android has three main components:
- A high quality microSD card (class 4 or higher is the best).
- A rooted Android phone or tablet.
- An appliation for managing the ram swap file
While rooting an Android is very straightforward, it may not be enough. Some phones (for example, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4) limit the swap file size at the kernel level. This means that no amount of rooting and swap file management would increase the RAM on your Android.
Instead, you will need to buy a new phone.
To save time investigating whether you can manually increase Android RAM, use a checking app. A good example is the MemoryInfo & Swapfile Check.
Simply run the application and tap Start RAMExpander Test Here to begin checking. If increasing the swap file is possible, the appliation would indicate this with a message of "Congratulations", alongside with the maximum possible increase.
You would notice that this is a very useful utility that also lists out the various RAM and storage details.
Choose a Good Quality SD Card to Increase RAM
If your phone or your tablet's swap file can be tweaked, It is now time to consider your phone's microSD card. As noted above, this would needs to be a fast and resilient card.
Do not just buy any old and used microSD card. Instead, spend a little extra on some storage that is more resilient, which would result in better reliability. Check the rating on box when you are buying a new microSD card - Class 4 minimum is recommended, but Class 10 is the best.
It is also important to note that some phones would not allow external storage to be used for swap file. If your phone has wel enough internal storage, however, this can be used instead, but its lifespan can be reduced the same way.
