UFS vs eMMC: Which Storage Solution Is Better For You

Key Takeaways

• In terms of architecture, UFS uses a faster interface with separate read/write paths, while eMMC has a single, slower path.
• This translates to much faster performance results by UFS, resulting in quicker app launches and data access. eMMC storage is sufficient for basic tasks but not ideal for high-performance needs.
• The performance is dependent on the RAM as well. That said, UFS’s faster speeds can further reduce lag by quickly feeding data to RAM.

UFS vs eMMC: Which is Better?

Architecture

UFS, unveiled by standards body JEDEC, is a storage solution that determines how the storage chip of a device connects and exchanges information with the rest of the system. This system is responsible for speeding up the data transfer, app load time, and also the app installation time on most phones. And contrary to popular thinking, UFS is not just limited to smartphones.

It is also used in car media players, VR systems, and Chromebooks. The first iteration of UFS was announced in 2011, and the UFS 2.0 standard was published in 2013. The UFS 3.0 standard was unveiled in January 2018, and UFS 3.1 made its debut in January 2020. The latest version, UFS 4.1, was launched in 2022.

On the other hand, the MMCA (MultiMediaCard Association) was introduced eMMC in 1997 and is a traditional storage solution. However, it’s still stable and dominantly used in several consumer electronics, such as e-readers, smartphones, and tablets. The latest version is eMMC 5.1, which was announced by Samsung in 2015.

On a more technical level, eMMC is an advanced NAND flash memory that bundles a controller apart from the flash memory.

Performance

Before we get down to it, let’s make one thing clear. The storage solutions were designed for faster file copying to improve your overall usage experience on phones and other devices. When it comes to the first generation UFS, it provided 3-fold faster read-write speeds than its counterpart.

If we talk numbers, UFS 3.0 offers sequential reads of 2,100MB/s while writing the data at a speed of 410MB/s. This was succeeded by UFS 3.1, which offers a higher sequential write speed of 1,200MB/s while retaining the same 2,100MB/s sequential reads. The latest version, UFS 4.0, offers a whopping 4,200MB/s and 2,800MB/s of sequential read and write speeds, respectively.

On the other hand, eMMC 5.1 runs at a snail’s pace of just 250MB/s for sequential reads and 125MB/s for sequential writes. Compared to eMMC 5.1, UFS 4.1 is about 16x faster in sequential reads. All these numbers eventually translate into better multitasking and faster turnaround time. This boost in speed can be seen when you open a new app or capture a high-resolution photo or a 4K video.

What About RAM?

A smartphone’s performance depends on many factors, and the RAM (Random Access Memory) plays a vital role in it. In the simplest terms, RAM is used by apps and games to rapidly move around huge chunks of data between the processing core and the file system.

It also prevents apps and games from making frequent calls to the file system or core to reduce the turnaround time for a call. For example, if you are playing a graphics-intensive game like Fortnite or PUBG, there is plenty of data that the phone needs to move around, and here. the RAM acts as a temporary data storage.

That’s where RAM with a higher bandwidth like LPDDR3, LPDDR4, LPDDR4X, LPDDR5, and LPDDR5X comes into the picture. These memory management systems allow for a higher amount of data to be moved and are accompanied by low power consumption. The newer LPDDR5 RAM can theoretically reach speeds up to 8,533Mbps. Meanwhile, the previous generation LPDDR5 provided a maximum speed of up to 6,400Mbps.

When it comes to a phone’s performance, both the RAM and the UFS complement each other. This is especially true when it comes to running memory-intensive jobs like playing 4K videos, taking burst photos, or playing high-resolution 3D games.

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