Peripherals unified memory in Android 6.0

I currently had an s4 with 16gb internal and a 32gb microSD. I was thinking to get an s6 but refuse to buy a phone that doesn't support microSD. Now the s7 is here with 32gb internal and support for 128gb microSD cards.

My current phone was too full to update apps despite not having many installed. I installed Link2SD, made a second 6gb partition on my microSD and transferred some apps over. This nearly doubled my capacity to install games which is great because it seems that with each update apps are increasing in size. Now I'm wondering how the unified memory in Android 6.0 works. I heard that it is only supported in a couple devices. Will it work likeLink2SD where you make a partition on your microSD or will it work like JBOD? I've heard many concerns about it. One that performance is much slower. It's easy to find a microSD with 80MB/s read but on some devices the speed is limited by the usb2 interface. Has anyone tried this feature and can expand on how it works and performs as well as its weaknesses and limitations?

 

My sisters using it on her Moto G 3rd gen. I had to give her my UHS1 card (cheap Kingston one) as her card wasn't quick enough, but even so it's still telling her the card isn't quick enough, I've got to find a better card and see if that helps.

It basically formats the entire card into some odd file system and adds that to the phones internal storage. You can't take the card out and read it on a PC apparently, you can only read it through the phone.

I know she said that Facebook would barely work when it was running from the SD card, presumably games are a no go with her current card.
I'll ask her tonight and see how it's been going.

 

IIRC using the SD card as adoptable storage doesn't add the card's capacity to the internal storage, it uses the SD card instead of the internal storage... which is one of the reasons the card needs reformatting and can't be read outside of the device...

Also some devices/oems have the feature turned off, samsung/the S7 being one of them iirc...

 

I found this Motorola explanation useful.

 

Hmm, I moved games and apps to my microSD card in my s4 and they run fine. I made an ext4 partition and use symbolic links like you would when moving folders from your SSD to save space. My microSD card is rated at 48MB/s reads. For my next phone i was looking at 80MB/s cards. I don't know the speed of the internal memory.

If it doesn't work this way, than I will keep using Link2SD on my next phone as well with a 32GB partition for linking and the remainder for external storage: photos, music, ect.. Having 2 partitions is good for flashing as well.

 

Be aware that S7 might not be a good choice if you want to use this feature :
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016...-wont-support-android-6-0s-adoptable-storage/

Damn, missed RedFlames posting that info already. Sorry

 

well, if devices with this feature don't do a better job of implementation than Link2SD it doesn't matter.