Redmi 12 owners who flipped on “Memory extension” and felt like you just installed 8GB more RAM via vibes alone-how’s your eMMC holding up? I turned mine to the max because apparently I enjoy living on the edge of swap thrash, and now my phone occasionally pauses to reconsider its life choices mid-app switch. Either it’s thinking or it’s writing a memoir to NAND.
Serious question: is this feature actually helping on the Redmi 12 (4G, Helio G88, eMMC 5.1) or are we just speedrunning our flash storage’s retirement? And do Redmi 12 5G folks (UFS 2.x) see fewer “my storage just went on a coffee break” moments with memory extension enabled?
What I’m trying to figure out:
- Is MIUI’s memory extension using a swapfile on storage in addition to zRAM, and how aggressive is it?
- Any measurable I/O degradation after a week or two with memory extension on max? Random write IOPS tanking, stutters increasing, etc.
- Does MIUI tweak swappiness or other VM parameters when this is enabled?
- Long-term wear concerns on eMMC 5.1 vs UFS 2.2 for the 5G variant-any health stats or failure anecdotes?
- Does RAM expansion materially help with heavy apps (Instagram + Maps + YouTube + WhatsApp + Chrome tabs) or is it placebo with side effects?
If you’ve got data, please flex it:
- Before/after AndroBench or CPDT, especially random write and latency.
- adb shell cat /proc/swaps and /proc/meminfo to confirm zRAM vs swapfile usage.
- adb shell cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness to see tuning.
- dumpsys jobscheduler | grep -i fstrim to confirm TRIM scheduling.
- FPS or jank metrics while app switching at 90 Hz (bonus points if you can catch the “thinking pauses” on video).
Mitigations you’ve tried that actually worked:
- Keeping memory extension at +2GB instead of max, any difference?
- Disabling autostart/bloat and limiting background processes to 3-4 instead.
- Weekly reboot vs “let it marinate” for a month.
- On 5G/UFS models: any observable advantage that makes the toggle a no-brainer?
Please include:
- Model and storage/RAM variant (4/128, 8/256, etc.), 4G vs 5G, MIUI version.
- Whether your device is using eMMC 5.1 or UFS (if known).
- How you actually use the phone (doomscrolling + maps + camera, light use, gaming).
I’d love to keep the Redmi 12 useful longer than a carton of milk without turning the NAND into confetti. If the consensus is “leave it off unless you enjoy lag cosplay,” I’ll accept my fate-and uninstall Facebook.