The secret of the hidden power of your smartphone

What if you buy a phone with 4GB RAM and its RAM automatically becomes 8GB? You must have also heard such promises in the world of smartphones. This is possible thanks to Virtual RAM technology. Today almost all the major smartphone companies like Samsung, Vivo, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Realme and others are adding this feature to their phones. It is known by different names, such as virtual RAM, extended RAM, dynamic RAM, or RAM Plus. They all do the same thing: improve your phone’s performance.

The recently launched Samsung Galaxy M05 (₹6,499) has 4GB standard RAM, which can be expanded up to 8GB with the help of RAM Plus feature. Similarly, in phones like Tecno Pop 9 (₹6,499) and Tecno Pova 6 Neo 5G, the RAM can be expanded up to double through virtual RAM. But what is this virtual RAM? How does it work? And what effect does it have on your phone? Let us understand this in detail.

What is Virtual RAM?

Virtual RAM is RAM that is not physically present in the phone, but works when needed. When your phone’s physical RAM (e.g. 4GB, 6GB) is full, Virtual RAM takes a portion of the internal storage and uses it as temporary RAM.

• What is the function of RAM?
  RAM handles all the apps and background processes running on your phone. This ensures that your phone works fast and apps open without any lag.
• Role of Virtual RAM:
  When you do multitasking or play heavy games, your phone needs more RAM. Virtual RAM fulfills this need. It stores low-priority data using internal storage, so that real RAM can be used for tasks that are running immediately.

How does virtual RAM work?

Virtual RAM creates a temporary memory space using your phone’s internal storage.

Three main types of memory:

1. RAM: To handle active tasks.
2. Internal storage: To store apps, files, and media.
3. zRAM: Serves as a compressed portion within RAM.

• Use of ‘paging’ process:
  ‘Pages’ are created by dividing RAM into smaller parts. When physical RAM runs out, a ‘swap partition’ is created on the internal storage. This partition handles background tasks, freeing up real RAM for active tasks.

Understand with easy example:

Think of Virtual RAM as an extra workstation in a busy restaurant kitchen. When there is too much work in the kitchen (physical RAM), virtual RAM lightens the workload by creating a temporary station.

Benefits of Virtual RAM

1. Better Multitasking:
   Virtual RAM lets you keep more apps in the background and access them faster.
2. Smooth Performance:
   Prevents the phone from freezing during heavy games and large apps.
3. Boon for budget phones:
   This technology provides good performance even in budget and mid-range phones without large RAM.

Disadvantages of Virtual RAM

1. Slow Performance:
   Internal storage is not as fast as physical RAM. It may take some time to access data from virtual RAM.
2. Effect on storage life:
   Constantly writing and deleting data can reduce the lifespan of internal storage.
3. Limited use for high-end devices:
   Its benefit is limited in devices that already have enough RAM.

Can virtual RAM replace real RAM?

No. Virtual RAM cannot provide the full performance of real RAM. This is only a temporary solution, especially if the phone’s physical RAM becomes full.

future of virtual ram

As technology is advancing, the Virtual RAM feature is making its way into high-end and flagship devices as well. This technology provides a smoother and better experience to smartphone users, especially those who use multitasking and heavy apps.