Virtual RAM: How to use virtual RAM on Android mobile phone from Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, and more | 91mobiles.com

Virtual RAM is one of the latest features Android phone manufacturers have come up with. RAM being an integral part of any device, its capacity may fall short when heavy or high processing tasks are concerned. This is where Virtual RAM comes into play which boosts the RAM and adds more resources for such tasks and ultimately improves the performance of a phone. Brands such as Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Samsung etc. all have brought the virtual RAM feature into their custom UI skins. That said, in this article, we’ll guide you through how you can create Virtual RAM for your Android phone in a few simple steps.

What is Virtual RAM in Android mobile phone?

Virtual RAM is a technique in which a small portion of the internal storage (ROM) is set aside and added to the RAM of the device, thus effectively increasing the number of tasks and processes that can be run in the background. With virtual RAM enabled, the device may perform faster and more efficiently as it no longer would require to aggressively kill apps in the memory because of the added RAM, once it starts filling up. Furthermore, apps will remain in the same state from where you left off providing a better user experience.

How to use virtual RAM on Android mobile phone

Many OEMs have been rolling out the virtual RAM feature with their own twist through software updates. Below you can find step-by-step procedures to create virtual RAM on Android smartphones from different brands.

Xiaomi, Redmi, and Poco

Xiaomi has recently announced the virtual memory extension feature for its phones running MIUI 12.5 and above. Here’s how you can expand the RAM on your Xiaomi phone:

• Open the Settings app on your Xiaomi phone 
• Scroll all the way down to ‘Additional Settings’ and select it
• Now, you’ll be presented with ‘Memory extension’ option
• Simply turn it on and you’ll have additional RAM on your phone

Realme

Realme’s take on virtual RAM is known as Dynamic RAM Expansion (DRE) which was first introduced on many phones running on Realme UI 2.0 on top of Android 11. Here’s how you can gain additional RAM on Realme phones:

• Open the Settings app on your Realme phone
• Scroll down to the ‘About phone’ section and select it
• Next, locate the RAM info section and tap on it
• On the next screen, toggle ON the switch
• From here you can expand the RAM upto 3GB by sliding to the desired option
• Now for the changes to take place you’re required to restart your device

OnePlus

The steps to enable virtual RAM, which OnePlus calls ‘RAM expansion’ is similar to that of Realme and Oppo phones. Here’s how to do it.

• Head over to the settings app on your OnePlus phone
• Scroll down to the ‘About phone’ section and select it
• Now select the RAM section within About phone
• From here toggle on the feature
• You can boost the RAM by 2GB, 3GB and 5GB as well by sliding to the desired option
• Next, reboot your phone for the changes to take place so that you can enjoy the added RAM!

Samsung

Samsung has been baking in its own version of virtual RAM in OneUI 4, known as RAM Plus. Rolled out first to the Galaxy A52s last year, RAM Plus has been present on almost all Samsung phones launched recently. Here’s how to enable it on your Galaxy smartphone.

• Open up the settings app on your Samsung phone
• Scroll down to ‘Battery and device care’ and select it
• Now select ‘Memory’ option on the next screen
• Here the last option will be ‘RAM Plus’ so just select it
• From here you can allot the desired storage to be converted into virtual RAM with options varying from 2GB, 4GB, 6GB and 8GB
• Once you select an option, it’ll prompt you to restart the device in order for the changes to take place
• Simply hit ‘Restart now’ and you’re good to go

Oppo

Selected phones from Oppo running ColorOS 11 and above can convert a portion of the internal storage of their phones into RAM for additional performance and efficiency. Here’s how you can go about it.

• Head over and open the Settings app on your Oppo phone
• Go to the ‘About phone’ section at the bottom of settings and select it
• Now tap on ‘RAM’
• On the next screen, turn on the RAM expansion feature
• You can also decide the amount of storage to be designated for the additional RAM by sliding the meter between 2GB, 3GB and 5GB
• Once done, restart your device for the changes to take place

Vivo/iQOO

Vivo and iQoo phones running FuntouchOS come with an option that allows users to boost their RAM for enhanced performance. The steps to enable the option are as follows.

• Go to the settings app
• Scroll down to ‘RAM and storage space’ option and select it
• Now tap on the first option itself named ‘RAM’
• Here you’ll find the option to extend the RAM on your option. Simply enable it
• Once enabled, you might notice a better and smoother user experience on the phone

FAQs

Is virtual RAM in a phone as good as actual RAM?

Virtual RAM on an Android phone may not perform as good as the actual hardware RAM present on a device. This is because the actual RAM has much superior memory transfer speeds as opposed to virtual RAM, which simply uses slower internal storage to expand the RAM. In simple terms, with virtual RAM enabled on an Android smartphone, the performance won’t be significantly better even more so for day-to-day tasks. However, different manufacturers may optimise virtual RAM differently and one may start noticing varied results when comparing two phones side by side.

What is the use case of Virtual RAM?

Some of the most common use cases of Virtual RAM are as follows.

• Gaming – Virtual RAM may not directly boost the gaming performance of the device as the majority of the processing power is handled by the chipset. However, extending the RAM will allow you to keep more apps running in the background which might not reload once you open them after long gaming sessions.

• Multitasking – If you often switch between multiple apps, enabling Virtual RAM may allow you to keep more apps in the memory, at least the static ones such as dialler, clock and calculator.

• Faster Camera processing – With extra added RAM in the system, a phone may quickly process clicked pictures as it can utilise more resources than before.