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The sound of my alarm clock jarred me out of sleep and I jumped off the bed. I looked at the time and it was 7:30am. Damn! I woke up late. I had scheduled a 9:00am meeting for this morning and from the look of things, I would be late, except a miracle happens.

As I rushed to the bathroom, a call came in from Nkechi, my colleague. “I’m on my way, madam”, she said. “Are you on your way as well or at the office already?”

I murmured under the sound of the brush on my teeth, but she couldn’t hear me clearly. I spat out and told her I was still at home because I overslept. She shouted, “What! You fixed the damn meeting! And you’re usually the early bird. What will happen now?”

“I will be there on time; trust me, Nkechi”. I was being crazy, of course, and she knew. “I wonder where such confidence is coming from. But you do have your ways of getting things done. Hopefully, that magic will work this time”.

With the advancement of technology in this age, navigation apps are becoming necessities for everyone, and especially for tourists and travelers. You necessarily don’t need to ask for directions in a new city if you have a navigation app on your phone. The use of unsure human minds can be frustrating and gives room for errors.

Not only do navigation apps provide better accuracy in locating addresses and places, they also now help you find the fastest route to your destination. I was banking on this important feature that morning.

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I got dressed and was in the car at 8:05am, took out my phone, clicked on my navigation app and punched in the location of the office. Next, I looked for the fastest routes and got one that gave me a fighting chance of being at the office on time. And then, I was on my way. As I drove, I prayed for a miracle. Lagos traffic is a living, breathing demon, and could still switch up on me and mess this up.

Thankfully, it didn’t, and I was driving into the office premises a few minutes before 9am. I sighed with so much relief when I entered the office, got to the board room, and met my GM and a few of my colleagues seated. Nkechi was nowhere to be seen, but she came in moments later, walked up to me and whispered in my ear, “You are a witch!”

I liked that. Technological advancement is often like witchcraft in its results. Conducting a video call like we do today would have been labelled witchcraft a few hundred years ago. How else would a person in the dark ages have described being able to see and talk to someone remotely?

The benefits of navigation apps cannot be over emphasized, they create convenience e.g. searching for places to hang out, the apps gives you options to choose from, locations and details, so that you are able to your make choice on the go. We no longer have to drive far and wide to dine or hang out. They also create room for connectivity, as a traveler you can share your route with family and friends or those expecting you at your destination.

On the Play store and Apple store, there are different types of Navigation apps that we can install on our devices based on our lifestyle and preference.

Navigation apps for Android include: Google Maps, Maps.Me, HERE WeGo, Map Factor and so much more

Navigation apps for iPhone include: Drive Safe & Save, Waze Navigation, MapFactor Navigator, Apple Maps, and Google Maps.

Of these apps, several of them offer offline navigation. They include Google Maps, Maps.ME, and HERE We go.

Author:Omonzua Akhabue

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What is Extended RAM in mobile phones? The concept of extended RAM has been around for laptops for a while, but finally it is now available on mobile phones, specifically Android devices. Extended RAM or expandable RAM or virtual RAM , as it is also called, is a system that allows a terminal, in this case, a mobile phone, to allocate some of its internal storage for use as extra RAM.

So, if a phone has 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB storage, Extended RAM can allocate an extra 6 GB from the 128 GB for use as extended ram, bringing the total RAM of the device to 12 GB. This is a layman’s explanation. Extended RAM isn’t really RAM; it is virtual – extra memory allocated to help launch apps and keep them running smoothly. It is a software partition of a phones storage memory to improve the opening and running of apps.

Extended RAM in mobile provides a performance boost to the built-in RAM - 2

What is Extended RAM in mobile phones? How is it different from normal RAM?

  • Benefits of Virtual or Extended RAM in mobile phones
  • Disadvantages of Virtual or Extended RAM in mobile phones
  • How to use Extended RAM in Android Phones
  • Smartphone Brands with Extended RAM for Android Smartphones
  • Examples of Phones with Virtual RAM Does Xiaomi have Virtual RAM? Does MIUI 12.5 have extended RAM? Do TECNO phones have Virtual RAM? Do Samsung phones have Virtual RAM?

Benefits of Virtual or Extended RAM in mobile phones

The function of RAM, whether on a laptop, a PC, or a smartphone, is to function as a temporary memory to run apps and to switch between apps. As such, the more RAM a device has, all other things being equal, the smoother your experience of using apps will be.

Being able to extend the built-in RAM of a device means it gets better performance, specifically for opening and switching between apps. If you love to multitask on your smartphone, Extended or virtual RAM improves the experience for you. Hardware RAM is an expensive component in smartphones. Being able to use some internal storage space for keeping apps open and running means helps keep the cost of improved performance at a minimum.

vivo virtual ram for Android - extended RAM for mobile phones - 3

Disadvantages of Virtual or Extended RAM in mobile phones

Extended or Virtual RAM is not as fast as proper built-in RAM, so while it does improve the performance of the device, it isn’t at the same optimum level as the built-in RAM. Not that most people will notice anyway. Actually, it isn’t RAM in the proper sense; rather, it is virtual memory that helps keep apps that have been opened running.

How to use Extended RAM in Android Phones

It is simple to use. Dive into your Android phone’s Settings and search for “Extended RAM”, “Virtual RAM”, or just “RAM”. Tap on it to open the menu. Where you see the button or toggle for the feature, enable it if it is not already enabled. Once enabled, it works in the background like regular RAM. You might need to restart your smartphone after enabling it, and then all you need is to simply continue using your smartphone as usual. That’s it.

Smartphone Brands with Extended RAM for Android Smartphones

The following Android smartphone brands all now provide expandable, extended, or virtual RAM for some of their models:

  • Vivo phones (called Extended RAM)
  • OPPO phones (called Memory Expansion Technology)
  • Xiaomi/Redmi/POCO phones (called Memory Expansion)
  • Samsung Galaxy phones (called RAM Plus)
  • TECNO phones (called Memory Fusion)
  • Realme phones (called Dynamic RAM Expansion)

Examples of Phones with Virtual RAM

Vivo was the first mainstream phone maker to produce smartphone with Extended or virtual RAM. It first appeared in the V21 and V21e models, and will also show up in the Vivo X60, Vivo X60 Pro, and Vivo X60 Pro+.

Vivo V21 and V21e have 8 GB RAM built in and 128 GB internal storage. Of the internal storage, 3 GB is allocated as virtual RAM, bringing the total RAM of each of these devices to 11 GB. Not bad at all; right? But Vivo is not the only brand making such phones.

OPPO is another smartphone brand that is embracing the technology. It is available in OPPO F19, as well as OPPO F19 Pro series, OPPO A74 5G, and OPPO A53s 5G [1]. The OPPO Find X2 is another, and offers the option to expand up to 3GB, 5GB, or 7GB of extended RAM. TECNO has an increasing number of smartphones with Extended RAM. They include: Phantom X, TECNO Canon 18 Premier, and TECNO Spark 8C.

Does Xiaomi have Virtual RAM?

Xiaomi has implemented virtual RAM in some recent smartphones. It is called Memory Extension in MIUI.

Does MIUI 12.5 have extended RAM?

Extended or virtual RAM has been implemented in MIUI, including version 12.5, 13, and upwards.

Do TECNO phones have Virtual RAM?

Yes; newer TECNO smartphones have extended RAM, and it is called Memory Fusion. For example, it extends the memory in TECNO Camon 18 Premier from 8 GB built-in to 13 GB total.

The first Xiaomi smartphones to get extended RAM are the Redmi Note 10 Pro and Redmi Note 10 Pro 5G, each of which can add 2GB of RAM expansion. The company is planning to introduce it in more smartphones via MIUI 13.

Do Samsung phones have Virtual RAM?

Samsung has introduced the feature, which it calls RAM Plus, in some of its newer Android smartphone models, from Galaxy A52s, A72, and S21 upwards.

Extended, expandable, or virtual RAM in mobile phones is a cool innovation, and we look forward to seeing more mobile phones with the feature.

References

  1. OPPO: source .
Author:Mister Mobility

Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004