Ways To Keep RAM Usage Low On Samsung Galaxy S3

The Samsung Galaxy S3 was one of the most powerful smartphones ever released in 2012 with quad-core processor and 1GB RAM. But the fact is, if the specs had been lower than what Samsung gave it, the device could have been unusable.

Freezes and lags are just two of the most common performance problems encountered by the owners and the most common cause is RAM insufficiency. Unluckily, majority of users who are often bugged by performance problems are those who are using the stock Android firmware especially the ones fond of using special features of the phone.

This post will answer the following questions sent by our readers:

  • My GS3 says it’s low on memory. What do I do?
  • How can I improve my S3’s performance?
  • When I look at my device’s RAM usage, it says it only has about 100MB left out of 800+MB. How can I improve it?

There is a lot of things you can do to minimize the use of RAM. Basically, the more apps you use the higher the RAM that will be utilized in order for them to run properly. So, the rule of the thumb is keep apps and services usage at a minimum. Here’s what you can do:

Close Recent Apps

  1. From the Home screen, press and hold the Home button for about 2 seconds.
  2. The Recent Apps window pops up with a list of apps that were recently used. These apps are still running in the background, thus, consuming your device’s precious RAM.
  3. Swipe each one left or right to close them or stop their service.
  4. Go to the Home page and hold the Home key for about 2 seconds until the Recent Apps screen shows.
  5. Now tap on Task Manager.
  6. Tap RAM tab. (If the phone displays “Memory Full” message, the “used”/”total” numbers should be very close to each other.)
  7. Tap Clear Memory. (The phone will delete all data cached in its memory that are not currently being used.)
  8. If the “used” amount does not decrease after flushing the RAM, proceed to steps below.

Clear Memory

Close Third-Party Apps

By clearing the recently used apps, you have actually completed a part of this procedure. However, you should know there is a lot more of them running in the background but not listed in the “Recent Apps” window. Here’s how you find them:

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Menu key.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Application Manager.
  4. Tap Running tab. (Everything that you can see in this window are currently running.)
  5. Find third-party apps and tap on each one of them.
  6. Tap the Force Close button to stop each one.

Easy On The Widgets

You may be fond of using a lot of widgets on your Home screen because these little apps make your phone look better. However, they too, are eating your device’s RAM; the more widgets you use, the longer it takes for your Home screen to load or your device to respond. So, minimize the use of widgets especially the heavy ones.

Start looking for widgets that updates more frequently like the weather and those that abstract contents from the internet like RSS feeds and the like.

Don’t Use Live Wallpapers

Wallpapers, as simple as they are, also eat up RAM especially heavy and animated ones. If possible, try to use static wallpaper or never use it at all. Of course, it is an added feature but your device can perform better without it, but it’s your call.

Uninstall Unused Apps

You may have some apps or games that you don’t use, uninstall them to save some space and stop their services from running. Some apps have more than one service and you don’t exactly know which is which. You can only prevent these services from running when you uninstall the main application.

Having problems with your phone?

Tell us about them by emailing us at [email protected]. Make sure to include as much details as possible so that we could understand the problem well and find the best solutions for you. If you can share a screenshot or two, that would be better.

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