What is virtual RAM and how Samsung is planning to make phones faster with RAM Plus feature – Times of India

Samsung is among major smartphone brands to adopt virtual RAM for smartphones through a feature called RAM Plus. Now, the concept of virtual RAM is quite popular in PCs but for smartphones it works a bit differently. With other major brands like Oppo, Xiaomi, Realme and OnePlus also considering virtual RAMs in smartphones, we can expect to see this feature in more smartphones launching in 2022.
Samsung recently rolled out a new software update for Galaxy A52s 5G that comes with RAM Plus feature or simply facilitating virtual RAM. With this, the users of Galaxy A52s 5G will get 4GB of virtual RAM. The device comes with 6GB RAM and 8GB RAM variants. Now, with the extra 4GB of virtual RAM, you may think that the device will offer 10GB or 12GB of RAM. But that’s not how virtual RAM in mobiles work.
What is virtual RAM
Virtual RAM is a tech that uses software to make a tiny fraction of the storage memory to support RAM or memory. For starters, the 6GB RAM memory module is way faster than the 128GB storage module. The RAM or memory of the device helps in getting work done but it’s volatile. On the other hand, the purpose of storage is to keep data stored.
So, if a brand is offering 4GB of virtual memory, this doesn’t mean your phone’s actual RAM, which decides how fast apps operate on your phone, has been increased. In fact, with virtual RAM, you cannot expect any major performance improvement at all. On paper, it may sound like you are getting 6GB RAM + 4GB of virtual RAM, which is supposed to make your phone way faster than others. But in reality the purpose of virtual RAM is different. Just to make things clear, a phone with 8GB RAM will be more efficient and fast than a device with 6GB RAM + 4GB of virtual RAM.
What’s the use of virtual RAM in phones
The primary purpose of having virtual RAM is to make memory management better. With apps and games increasing in size, having virtual RAM will help your phone to keep more apps open on the RAM. This means when you switch from one to another or when you are multitasking, you will be able to continue from where you left it for a longer period of time. Usually, apps tend to restart even when you keep them open in the background for a longer period of time. This is due to the volatile nature of the RAM module. With virtual RAM, you can expect to switch back to typing on Google Docs after playing a game right from the sentence where you left it. Virtual RAM will simply improve multitasking but it will not help apps open faster or games to load quicker.