A screenshot of the condition screen indicating the phone has detected the prolonged RAM.
A denizen of the venerable XDA forums reports that it is possible to upgrade the RAM of the Nexus 5X from 2GB to 4GB.  Having experienced the dreaded bootloop, [Cathair2906] decided to send their phone off to China for repair. The technician advised that since reflow of the CPU was necessary anyway, it makes sense to upgrade the RAM as well. This is because of the RAM really being fitted directly on top of the CPU, a technique amusingly understood as bundle on Package (SFW).

Upgrading RAM in the typical computer is a fairly trivial task. Pop the situation open, and you slide the new sticks into the additional slots. It’s not the exact same situation for smartphones as well as tablets — in the endless quest for the slimmest type factor, all parts are permanently soldered. In addition, every device is essentially bespoke hardware; there’s no single overarching hardware common for RAM in portable devices. You might discover yourself browsing high as well as low for the right chips, as well as if you do track them down, the minimum order quantity may extremely well be in the thousands.

Unless, of course, you had gain access to to the Shenzhen markets where it’s possible to buy sample quantities of almost anything. Given gain access to to the right parts, as well as the capability to solder BGA packages, it’s a simple sufficient task to switch a bigger RAM chip on top of the CPU during the repair.

It’s the kind of thing that’s trivial in Shenzhen, as well as almost mind-bogglingly impossible in the West. The cost of the repair? about $60 USD. [Cathair2906] was even nice sufficient to share the address of the shop that did the work.

We’ve seen similar antics before – such as this Nexus 5 storage upgrade to 64GB.

[via XDA Developers, thanks to Jack for the tip!]