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ROM

A

Amy726

Lurker
I'm looking to upgrade my phone (sticking with Android!). I'm trying to figure out if I should care about how much ROM a phone has. Does it affect performance? Does anything I download get stored into the ROM? Will I notice that a phone with, say, 32 GB of ROM performs any better/faster/differently than one with 16 GB?

I can't find any satisfying answers with an internet search, and didn't find any results searching this forum either. Thank you in advance! :)
 
If by ROM, you mean the onboard storage, you should care. Although, not necessarily for the reasons you describe.

For all practicality's sake, the ROM is your phone's built in hard drive. Its where it stores everything, from the Android OS files, apps, stupid pictures of your cat, etc. Basically, having more ROM just means you can have more stuff on your phone. It doesn't really affect anything performance-wise (unless of course you run out, but lets keep it simple).

NOW, on the other hand, if the phone has an SD card slot, you can store things there instead, if you get an SD card. If it doesn't have an SD card slot (which is the case with every Nexus device since the Nexus S and probably some other phones I can't think of), the phone's ROM is what your phone is stuck with for storage, permanently.
 
RAM (random access memory) is just temporary memory used to hold running apps/processes. RAM is volatile, meaning the information is lost when you power off the phone.
 
RAM = Random Access Memory. Used for system processes as Italo said.

ROM = Read Only Memory. Used for storing permanent files.

Flash Memory = All other storage, both internal and external (aka removable SD card). Internal memory is partitioned into sections for the system and for ordinary data storage like photos, documents, etc.

OP, what you are calling ROM is not, it is actually that part of the internal flash memory intended for ordinary data storage. It has no effect on device speed. IOW, a phone with 32GB is no faster than the same phone with 16GB but otherwise identical.

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0
 
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