Any way to make it faster?

Hi Ben,

This is going to be true for almost every smart phone out there when I say that generally, no, there's no real upgrade path for any of them. No phone is made with replaceable processors or RAM, which are going to have the biggest impact on performance. Most Android phones support add-in storage, usually in the form of a microSD card, and yours is no exception; it'll take up to a 128 GB card. The closest you can come to upgrading your phone is to get one with 32 GB onboard memory rather than the other choice, which is 16 GB.

But as far as doing anything that's comparable to upgrading a desktop computer, nope, there really aren't any options for cell phones. You can't overclock them, there are no processor upgrades possible, you can't swap out motherboards for a newer model, and you can't add RAM or upgrade the GPU.

It is possible to replace a 16 GB storage device with a 32 GB one, for instance, but since most phones use Ball Grid Array (BGA) parts, doing that swap requires specialized equipment and expertise that is generally beyond the capability of most of us home DIY-ers.

To make a long story short, on pretty much any phone what you see is what you get. If you want something better, faster, brighter or shinier, then it's time to buy a new one; that's pretty much the only upgrade path there is for smartphones.

I should add that this all applies to the hardware only; software-wise you may be able to improve performance by wiping the phone and getting it down to basics, removing all apps you don't need or use to free up as many resources as possible.

I'll have to leave it to others to speculate whether there are alternative operating systems that can be installed, or if there is anything to be gained by jailbreaking the phone, etc.