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If you are familiar with tinkering and tweaking with your PC, you likely already know what RAMDISK (also known as RAM drive) is. Or at least you have an idea. In which case, most of what this article says is not new to you. If you don’t, this article will inform you about Virtual RAM for Android phones, how it works, what benefits it adds, and which virtual RAM Android phones to look for.
- What is Virtual RAM for Android?
- How does Virtual RAM work?
- What are the Benefits of Virtual RAM for Android phones?
- Virtual RAM phone list: Which Android Phones have it?
- Virtual RAM for Android Phones goes mainstream
What is Virtual RAM for Android?
RAMDisk is a segment or portion of system memory on your PC or Android phone that is used as a temporary memory to improve the performance of running software and apps. In essence, it is a virtual storage, created by software, from your device’s hard drive. In Android phones, it is called Virtual RAM, or Extended RAM .
How does Virtual RAM work?
Your Android phone has two types of memories – RAM and storage. RAM is for running apps, while storage memory is self-explanatory: it is used for storing files. The thing is that RAM is a much faster type of memory (which explains in part why it is so expensive and comes in smaller chunks than storage memory).
Virtual RAM for Android phones is created by apportioning a part of your gadget’s built-in storage as a hard drive. The concept of Virtual RAM for Android phones is new because we now have large capacity storage on phones available. Some of that capacity is portioned into Virtual RAM for use during intense gaming or other high intensity activity like video and graphics editing.
What are the Benefits of Virtual RAM for Android phones?
The key benefit of having Virtual RAM is that it boosts the performance of the particular app or game you are using per time. As already mentioned above, RAM is much faster than storage memory. By using a part of your device’s storage as RAM, you experience slightly faster performance.
So, mobile phone gamers, as well as people who do video/graphics editing on their cell phones, can now enjoy a boost in performance while using those apps. Don’t expect anything fantastic. It isn’t a great boost, but seeing as cell phones have limited resources, any improvement in performance, no matter how small, is welcome. Virtual RAM provides such a small boost. Perhaps in the future, the technology will improve enough to provide more exciting performance improvements.
Virtual RAM phone list: Which Android Phones have it?
Xiaomi is the first cell phone manufacturer to introduce Virtual RAM for Android phones technology for smartphones. The first phone to be so equipped is Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra . This is a 2020 model with a 16GB LPDDR5 RAM chip and 512 GB built-in storage. The company has introduced a RAMDisk Trial Mode for users to experience the benefits of Virtual RAM on the phone.
For now, the Mi 10 Ultra is the only smartphone with Virtual RAM for Android phones. However, this is expected to catch on, as more and more cell phone manufacturers are producing gaming-centric smartphones. At the very worst, if no-one adopts the technology, we will see more Xiaomi phones with the feature in the near future.
Virtual RAM for Android Phones goes mainstream
2022 update : Android smartphone manufacturers have implemented the concept of Virtual RAM for Android phones across board, and it is also called Extended RAM . There are now scores of Virtual RAM Android phones available from other manufacturers, including Samsung, OnePlus, TECNO, Infinix, Realme, among others.
Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
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History shows us how paradigm shifts have happened in the mobile phone industry over the last few decades. Froma predominatly European affair in the early 2000s, the pendulum swung towards North America, as American phone brands pushed their European counterparts into the shadows of history.
But that didn’t last for long. Asia was lurking in the corners and in the last eight years, the industry has witnessed an aggressive push from China, Korea, India, and Indonesia especially. The result? American phone brands are dropping like flies. It is really a sight to see. Permit me to show you.
- A List Of American Phone Brands
- The American Phone Brands Left Standing in 2023
- Honorary Mention
A List Of American Phone Brands
Here is a concise list of notable American cell phone brands over the years:
- Palm
- HP
- Compaq
- Dell
- Motorola
- Apple iPhone
- Microsoft
- Google Pixel
- Essential
- BLU
- NUU Mobile
Palm was once one of the world’s most visible mobile phone brands. If you didn’t use a Palm, were you truly considered a mobile warrior? Palm went out of the game. We saw an attempt at a comeback, with the dimunitive Palm 2018 , but that didn’t catch on.
Microsoft was the driving force behind the Pocket PC revolution. Companies like HP, HTC, and others rose to fame in the world of mobile devices in this revolution. Microsoft kept trying to stay in the game with different iterations of its mobile operating system but failed. This American company even tried its hands at hardware manufacturing. That failed too and the rest is history.
Microsoft Mobile is out of the game. HP? When was the last time we saw an HP smartphone? HP went out with Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile. Compaq and Dell dropped out even much earlier.
Essential Inc., was founded by ex-Android chief, Andy Rubin. The company gave us a stunning phone that we loved and hated. But that was it. Essential is now out of the game as well.
What of Motorola Mobility, a pioneer in mobile phones and once the world’s largest cell phone company? It is now Chinese, operating as a subsidiary of Lenovo.
The American Phone Brands Left Standing in 2023
So, which American phone brands are left standing? Apple. Google. BLU. CAT. NUU Mobile.
Google Pixel has remained a small-time player among American phone brands, and if recent trends are anything to go by, it will lose more grounds.
BLU has remained a small-time player as well. Not many people, even in the United States, have heard of the brand.
CAT Mobile Phones is American in origin, though licensed out to the UK’s Bullitt Group who do the actual manufacturing, so perhaps it counts or not? Still, CAT is a small player as well.
NUU Mobile launched in 2012 but is still a relatively small player as well on the global scene. Also, NUU Mobile is American-Chinese, so…
Essentially, the last American phone brands standing tall and blazing in glory are Apple and Google. These two companies are America’s last standing pride in the smartphone world.
Honorary Mention
BlackBerry Mobile (formerly Research In Motion) was Canadian. As a North American brand, it has some American DNA and was greatly loved by Americans. BlackBerry devices were once the toast of the smartphone world, but the company began to lose ground too.
Like Microsoft, it has its own mobile operating system, kept trying to keep up with new developments but lost out, and eventually ditched their own system for Android. Even at that, it was mostly a losing fight.w
There are feelers that a new generation of 5G BlackBerry phones with QWERTY keyboard are on the way and will hit the market in 2021. So, BlackBerry may not be down and out yet. But it has lost so much ground over the years that it has been reduced to a small player as well.
2023 Update : BlackBerry has since stopped making smartphones, so they are down and out.
Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
