Like the new Nexus 5X, 32GB of internal storage was the most you could get with the Nexus 5. But 18 months on, that’s just not enough for some people — and there’s nothing you can do about it without a microSD card slot. Except one thing.

With the right tools, an incredibly steady hand, and plenty of courage, you can whip out the storage chip that’s inside your Nexus 5 and replace it with a bigger one — as you’ll see in the hack below.

KApetz2 of the XDA Developers forum managed to pick up a 64GB storage chip that’s compatible with the Nexus 5 online for a measly $35. He then pulled the logic board out of his handset, yanked off the old chip, and carefully soldered the new one into place.

The device had a problem recognizing the chip’s full capacity at first; because its software was never designed to support 64GB of space, this was a major hurdle. But KApetz2 managed to modify the partition layout to rectify this.

He’s now the only person in the world (probably) with a 64GB Nexus 5. And because the new chip supports the more recent eMMC 5.0 standard (as opposed to eMMC 4.5), read and write speeds are much-improved, too.

It should be noted that this isn’t an easy operation. The way in which the storage chip is soldered onto the Nexus 5’s board makes it incredibly difficult to remove, and even more difficult to replace. The average user probably isn’t going to get it right.

But if you’re also a talented solderer and you want to try this out for yourself, follow the source link below to the thread in which KApetz2 explains how he managed it.

• SourceXDA Developers