Does My 24GB RAM Phone Actually Use It?

Understanding How Android Manages Memory

Modern smartphones come equipped with significant amounts of RAM, often ranging from 12 GB to 24 GB. This is a far cry from the days when such memory capacities were exclusive to high-end PCs. But does this level of RAM truly benefit most users? To answer that, it's essential to understand how Android manages memory and what happens when your phone starts running low.

Android follows a unique philosophy: free memory is wasted memory. The operating system aims to utilize all available RAM by caching recently used apps and data instead of leaving it idle. As a result, even if you're not actively using all the apps, your phone’s RAM might appear full. This design choice is intended to maximize responsiveness and ensure quick access to frequently used applications.

The Role of RAM and zRAM in Android

Android uses two types of memory management: physical RAM and zRAM. Physical RAM serves as the primary memory for active processes, while zRAM acts as a compressed swap space within the available RAM. When the physical RAM becomes full, Android compresses less-used memory pages into zRAM, effectively freeing up space. For example, 128 KB of data can be compressed to 64 KB, allowing more room for other processes.

This approach helps prevent app closures and avoids excessive writes to storage, which can wear out the internal storage over time. However, zRAM has its limits. Most manufacturers set a fixed maximum size for zRAM, typically only a few gigabytes. If the combined capacity of RAM and zRAM is insufficient, Android activates its Low Memory Killer (LMK) system. The LMK assigns scores to processes based on their importance and begins terminating background or cached apps when memory pressure becomes too high.

What Happens When Your Phone Runs Low on RAM?

When your phone experiences RAM shortages, Android employs various memory management strategies. One of these is the use of zRAM, which adds a performance cost due to the need for decompression. This can lead to noticeable lag when switching between apps, especially in resource-heavy tasks like gaming. Frame rate drops or hitching are common in such scenarios.

If zRAM becomes overwhelmed, Android will start killing apps to free up space. This is why returning to an older app might result in it reloading rather than resuming where you left off. In extreme cases, some tasks may fail to start, though Android generally prioritizes keeping foreground apps running to avoid crashes.

Do You Really Need All That RAM?

Despite the impressive numbers, most users don't require the full capacity of a flagship phone’s RAM. For everyday tasks like messaging, browsing, and social media, 8 GB of RAM is usually sufficient. Unless you're a heavy multitasker or a dedicated gamer, going beyond 12 GB of RAM won’t significantly improve performance.

Testing by reputable sources like Android Authority has shown that 12 GB of RAM can handle over a dozen games, including demanding titles like Genshin Impact, without closing any apps. Even on high-RAM phones, much of the memory is occupied by cached processes and disk buffers, which the system can quickly release when needed.

However, there are exceptions. Users who run advanced features like Samsung DeX, engage in split-screen multitasking, or use video editing apps may find that more RAM is beneficial. Additionally, on-device AI models, such as those found in Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices, require more RAM to function efficiently.

Virtual RAM: A Temporary Fix, Not a Solution

Some manufacturers offer features like Virtual RAM or RAM Plus, which attempt to extend memory by converting part of the storage into additional swap space. While this could theoretically prevent app closures, it comes with drawbacks. Storage is significantly slower than actual RAM, leading to sluggish performance during app switching. It can also cause glitches or crashes, and frequent writes to storage can shorten its lifespan.

In many cases, these virtual RAM features are more of a marketing gimmick than a genuine improvement. Devices that advertise "12 GB" of RAM by combining 6 GB of physical RAM with 6 GB of virtual RAM do not perform as well as true 12 GB models.

Why Phones Have More RAM Than Laptops

The difference in RAM usage between smartphones and laptops stems from varying design philosophies. Desktop operating systems like Windows and macOS rely heavily on disk swap space, leveraging fast SSDs to offload memory contents when needed. These systems also use high-performance DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, which is optimized for speed and intensive workloads.

On the other hand, Android was designed to minimize reliance on storage swaps due to the slower and less durable nature of mobile flash memory. Phones also lack cooling systems, so they depend on low-power RAM to conserve battery life. To achieve smooth multitasking, Android benefits from having more physical RAM to avoid reaching the point where apps get terminated.

The Future of RAM in Smartphones

As smartphones become primary computing devices, user expectations have grown. People now expect instant switching between apps, seamless background tasks, and support for complex applications. Features like AI-based image processing, live captioning, and AR games demand more memory, pushing manufacturers to equip phones with higher RAM capacities.

Additionally, the rise of on-device AI models, such as Google's Gemini Nano and Samsung's Galaxy AI, further increases the need for more RAM. These models load neural networks into memory for faster processing, making more RAM essential for optimal performance.

Finally, the competitive smartphone market plays a role in driving RAM sizes higher. Marketing efforts often highlight larger RAM numbers as a selling point, even if the practical benefits are minimal for most users. Brands like Asus and Xiaomi have embraced this trend, offering gaming phones with 18 GB or 20 GB of RAM to claim the title of the most powerful device.

Conclusion

While having more RAM on a phone than a laptop might seem excessive, it's justified by Android's memory model, growing multitasking demands, and the rise of AI features. For most users, 12 GB of RAM strikes a balance between performance and practicality. Beyond that, the benefits diminish unless you're pushing your device to its limits. Virtual RAM should be viewed as a temporary fix rather than a substitute for real memory. Ultimately, bigger RAM numbers help in marketing, but they aren’t always necessary for the average user.