The first time I remember paying attention to the storage that I would get with my phone was when I was trying to decide between getting the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ and the Huawei P30 Pro. The Samsung phone had UFS 3.0, and the Huawei only had UFS 2.1. I ended up going for the Samsung, and the faster storage was one of the major factors.
Ever since then, I’ve always allowed storage to play a notable part in the decision-making process for new phones, and with Micron introducing UFS 4.1 and UFS 3.1, the ceiling has been raised. In fact, phones have started shipping with UFS 4.1, including the recent Xiaomi 15 Ultra, and that should help make the storage experience much better.
Micron Unveils Its UFS 4.1 Storage Solutions for Smartphones; Options as High as 1TB
Improvements in the storage standard that your phone uses can improve a few aspects of the consumer experience. For one, you can get lower power consumption, which means your battery lasts longer and you charge less. More importantly, you can get faster read and write speeds, which means apps and games load quicker, files save and transfer faster, and things are just a little snappier across the board.
At MWC 2025, Micron, a world leader in storage solutions, has just unveiled its UFS 4.1 storage, which is built on its G9 process node. Unsurprisingly, with the new standard, you get faster speeds and better power efficiency in a form factor that will work even in foldables and slim phones. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra wasted no time in adopting the new standard.
Micron’s UFS 4.1 brings special features to improve performance. These might be a bit technical for the average reader (including myself), so I’ll try to simplify them.
- Zoned UFS: Stores similar data in the same zone on the storage, which improves read and write efficiency.
- Data defragmentation: This allows defragmentation to occur within the storage chip itself, which increases read speed by as much as 60%.
- Pinned WriteBooster: Allows data in the WriteBooster buffer to be accessed faster, improving reading speed by as much as 30%.
Micron Has Also Announced 1-Gamma DDR5 RAM for Better Power Efficiency
Storage, RAM, and SoCs are required to get a lot more performant these days, as AI applications on the average smartphone increase drastically. The RAM that your device uses is an important part of the chain, and as OEMs continue to dive deeper into the AI rabbit hole, things will only get more demanding.
Micron is on top of the game though, as it has just introduced 1γ, or 1-gamma, DDR5 DRAM. We’ll first see these new RAM chips at play in 2026’s flagship smartphones, as Micron has plans to sample 16GB units with major mobile manufacturers. Not only does this RAM come with 15% better performance, but it should be up to 20% more power-efficient, which is important considering how hungry AI needs can be.
As an end-user, I might not understand 100% of the technical jargon, but ultimately, these improvements will mean better performance and battery life on the devices that we use, and as a consumer, that’s enough reason to keep an eye out for the latest tech if you’re going to spend $1,000+ on a phone.
