Brian & Anand Hate SD Card's in Phones

[blairharrington]

Title says it all. The subject came up on their podcast some time back. Basically they both hate the idea of SD cards in smartphones. They say less OEM's are providing them now and that in the future this trend will continue. I know Google is pushing for this. It blows my mind though. Too many Android phones are offered in 8/16/32 variants only. I can't make the case against SD cards unless we were to see flagships release 64 GB models across the board. Even then there is still value in removable storage if you want to shoot a ton of pics and videos on vacation, etc.

I was just reading Brian's HTC One Max review and he again makes a snarky point about SD card slots. Then he goes into the comments section of the review and argues with people about this.

I just think you can't make the case *against* SD cards. Even if you don't need them personally, you can't gripe about a company providing such an option on their phone.

 

[lopri]

They are incredibly biased for the industry. I suppose it is unrealistic to expect for them to evaluate things from users/consumers/enthusiast's perspectives at this point. It is an inevitable journey for majority of the tech bloggers who become known over time, from my observations. There are a few exceptions (e.g. Gary Key who does not write for AT any more), but they are, well, exceptions.

 

[deputc26]

Yep, AT has the best objective data in their reviews but they do seem to be heavily influenced by industry direction or perception there of. I certainly still want an sd reader in my phone, unless it has 128gb+ memory. I believe the sd card reader is partially responsible for Samsung's success.

 

[ponyo]

Isn't his main point that it compromises build quality? Which is absurd point. Why don't he say the same for SIM card? We should just get rid of SIM card too. We don't need SIM card and it's at expense of build quality. I don't bother reading Anandtech reviews anymore.

 

[ponyo]

Yep, AT has the best objective data in their reviews but they do seem to be heavily influenced by industry direction or perception there of. I certainly still want an sd reader in my phone, unless it has 128gb+ memory. I believe the sd card reader is partially responsible for Samsung's success.

I don't fully trust their objective data either. They like to rearrange data orders to fit their agenda. Who's to say the data itself isn't fudged?

 

[TerryMathews]

Title says it all. The subject came up on their podcast some time back. Basically they both hate the idea of SD cards in smartphones. They say less OEM's are providing them now and that in the future this trend will continue. I know Google is pushing for this. It blows my mind though. Too many Android phones are offered in 8/16/32 variants only. I can't make the case against SD cards unless we were to see flagships release 64 GB models across the board. Even then there is still value in removable storage if you want to shoot a ton of pics and videos on vacation, etc.

I was just reading Brian's HTC One Max review and he again makes a snarky point about SD card slots. Then he goes into the comments section of the review and argues with people about this.

I just think you can't make the case *against* SD cards. Even if you don't need them personally, you can't gripe about a company providing such an option on their phone.

The more this happens the more I think Steve Jobs spirit is possessing Anand's body.

There is no legit reason to dislike uSD slots on smartphones. They consume less volume in the design than a volume rocker.

Steve felt that computers should be appliances: sealed boxes that you bought, used, and threw away. I get the same feeling from AnandTech these days.

 

[blairharrington]

They are incredibly biased for the industry. I suppose it is unrealistic to expect for them to evaluate things from users/consumers/enthusiast's perspectives at this point. It is an inevitable journey for majority of the tech bloggers who become known over time, from my observations. There are a few exceptions (e.g. Gary Key who does not write for AT any more), but they are, well, exceptions.

But why are they biased? Is this common with tech journalists? At one point Brian says in the comment section of the Max review that something like 5-10% of people don't have more than 16 GB of music in their collection. I seriously doubt that.

This reminds me of Nilay and Josh at The Verge. At one point, I think when the last iPod Nano came out, they were trying to make a case on their podcast that people are ditching iTunes in favor of Rdio and Spotify. But it was obvious that they were simply stating this because THEY have gone this route. I'm not implying that those 2 services haven't changed the way consumers listen to music however I don't believe people are swaying from owning and managing their music versus relying on streaming services which eats up data off wi-fi unless you pin music beforehand.

I have great respect for Anand and Brian but hearing them utterly dismiss SD cards is just ridiculous.

 

[lopri]

I don't fully trust their objective data either. They like to rearrange data orders to fit their agenda. Who's to say the data itself isn't fudged?

The most hilarious stuff can be seen if you go back to reviews from a couple years ago and compare the numbers back then to what they are today. On the exactly same products.

 

[lopri]

But why are they biased?

We are all human beings. It's not a rocket science that human beings acquire friends (and foes) as well as tastes.

 

[blairharrington]

We are all human beings. It's not a rocket science that human beings acquire friends (and foes) as well as tastes.

I.....guess. It just seems like a weird thing to come to a consensus about. Usually when people make the case against SD cards (like say in a tech forum) it's in response to whether they personally need one or not. But it's pretty rare that I'll come across something saying that SD cards are entirely unnecessary or don't have value in any regard. I think what really bothers me is how completely dismissive Anand and Brian are about them.

 

[postmortemIA]

i bricked my phone by restoring a backup of a ROM. I don't know how I would copy other ROM and the flash it if I didn't have the SD card.

 

[dawheat]

I don't fully trust their objective data either. They like to rearrange data orders to fit their agenda. Who's to say the data itself isn't fudged?

Woah let's not get carried away. I still find their phone reviews the best around, though they do need to be careful about moving with the times.

For example, their battery test is more fair than others since they match brightness and run a controlled test, but this is no longer apples to apples. Screens with higher contrast and/or lower reflectance don't need to be as bright for equal legibility - somehow there needs to be greater balancing as curved screens become more mainstream.

I also agree their bias toward "build quality" is also a bit much. Certain phones like the iPhone and HTC One do feel more "solid", but it's something I notice the first time I pick up a phone. From then on, it's all about using the screen once it's on and what you can do with it. Once I put a S-view cover on my Note 3, it's all about using my phone, not about massaging it's body every time I pick it up.

And yes, harping on sdcards is just stupid. All things being equal or even slightly disadvantageous, it's just a consumer benefit for those who use it. There's no downside to it - like mentioned about, you can easily use a SIM-like tray to overcome any "build" complaints. Having expandable storage is a great luxury to have, whether it be from a value standpoint or extra space standpoint.

 

[smitbret]

While I personally prefer having an SD card slot, I would agree that 90% of the consumer base has no use for one. We sometimes forget that we are the geeks; the ones likely to need an SD card and since we probably surround ourselves and work in environments populated with similar people it seems like everyone is like us but it's not the case. My GF just swapped out her old phone for a Nexus 4 hat had a 512MB SD card and while making the change over I noticed that it was only about half full. Now I'm wishing I had saved the $50 and just gotten the 8GB version instead of the 16GB. She had the old phone for 3 years. There's no way she'll fill the new one. You know what there's far more people that use their phones like she does than like I do. Not to mention the advent of high speed LTE and the push for cloud storage makes local storage on phones almost useless for the casual consumer.

 

[zerogear]

Personally I don't like mSD cards much as it leads to too much "management" from the user side, at least from the user experience side. However there are nice things about sdCards -- like storing your music and video and transferring to other phones without much of a fuss.

 

[Imaginer]

For me, I would like to have an SD card, but if that is what tech journalists are parroting and chicken-egging the situation with the industry to NOT GIVE OPTIONS, then I am less inclined to trust these "professional" reviewers.

There are times where I would like to have more on board space later on, something that either the manufacturer doesn't put outright. It would not be a problem and I would agree in not having the SD card slot - had if there are more of an array of options for large on-board storage. But that is not the case.

Also of note, I do not trust to stream media, which is another direction the tech industry is pushing from what I seen - clearly obvious with the limited space in Chromebooks, but it is seen in phones, the need for tiered limited data plans, the elimination of unlimited data - all a consistent profit grab that possibly does not get reinvested to improve things - but it is left stagnant in the coffers of the board and shareholders.

True, Anandtech provides reported numbers, but that is all they are good for. Their usage model for devices is getting incredibly skewed, I probably put better paces of my Surface Pro than Anand ever has (him glossing over the pen capabilities, calibration, and not one mention of the handwriting recognition for one). I guess I shouldn't expect him to touch on the Cintiq Companion either. Thankfully, Youtube users of all things have come to the rescue.

For that matter, he lumps it clearly with the tablet realm when it can double duty for both - I know some people would like to see numbers against the current ultrabook offerings, comparisons of the laptop-hybrid-tablet day to day use, and "gasp" actually fully use the device instead of just running a software bench and making glance over comments.

But I should expect this. At the time I started to read Anandtech, they have always been about numbers. I don't think they can quite review the whole offering of a device as it stands, without any throwback to comparing previous devices, yet go into great detail about the "industrial design" (re, they think that industrial design is solely how it looks, when it is function and form intertwined - thus going back to my disappointment when seeing this thread indicating hatred for SD cards)

But what do I know? I use my devices in full, acquired based on sparse information and work with it. These guys now? They just use the devices for about a week, in casual and light use and pass it off as that is what the device is about in complete fullness.

 

[deathBOB]

It's easy to understand: normal people don't use them -> phones are sold to normal people ->phones don't need them. On mobile device that's extremely size constrained anything that isn't absolutely necessary should be left out.

 

[deputc26]

It's easy to understand: normal people don't use them -> phones are sold to normal people ->phones don't need them. On mobile device that's extremely size constrained anything that isn't absolutely necessary should be left out.

Normal people use sd cards. Probably 70% of the GS3 owners I know use them, of the users at least half aren't particularly tech savvy.

 

[deputc26]

I.....guess. It just seems like a weird thing to come to a consensus about. Usually when people make the case against SD cards (like say in a tech forum) it's in response to whether they personally need one or not. But it's pretty rare that I'll come across something saying that SD cards are entirely unnecessary or don't have value in any regard. I think what really bothers me is how completely dismissive Anand and Brian are about them.

This.

 

[desura]

SD cards are weird. Oftentimes, inclusion of an SD card slot means that manufacturers won't bother with making expanded capacity versions of their phones.

My experience with SD cards in android devices has always been that it is better in theory than in practice. Yeah, it's great having the option of an extra 64gb of storage, but in reality, I get sync errors, speed problems, and so on.

 

[paperwastage]

SD cards are weird. Oftentimes, inclusion of an SD card slot means that manufacturers won't bother with making expanded capacity versions of their phones.

My experience with SD cards in android devices has always been that it is better in theory than in practice. Yeah, it's great having the option of an extra 64gb of storage, but in reality, I get sync errors, speed problems, and so on.

yep. my previous android phone had problems with the microSD slot pin alignment, and was slower reading from microSD than internal, and juggling the different mount points was difficult (these might be phone-related issues, or issues fixed by newer versions of android.... and of course, google points to these problems and say no microSD support for nexus line)

I wouldn't mind if the base memory had some 64GB option... price sensitive consumers would buy the 16/32GB model, I'll spring for the 64gb one

 

[Carson Dyle]

Ok. Why do I care what they hate?

 

[openwheel]

SD cards suck so I agree with Anand and B Klug,

 

[Mopetar]

I think they're nice to have, but in a few years once phones are offering 128 GB models, there really won't be any need for them. I suspect that a lot of manufacturers have abandoned them simply because it gives them more profit by offering 32 or 64 GB models for upwards of $100 when it only costs them an extra $10 to include.

Another reason the manufacturers might not like them is that a lot of consumers will put crappy, low-class SD cards in their phone that hamper performance which they will think is due to the phone. I recall Microsoft having some issues with this when Windows Phone first came out.

 

[mnewsham]

SD cards are slow as hell, and not really very useful for anything but media storage, for which the cloud will store everything I use ANYWAY, so life without SD cards would be fine, it might start OEMs on the path towards larger integrated storage that is actually fast enough to store apps and such.

I carry a flash drive with me at all times anyway, so I use my flashdrive connected to my phone when I NEED the extra storage.

 

[Yuriman]

I have a Moto X on the way and can't fit all I need on the ~14GB of available internal storage, so I ordered one of these:

Mini MicroSD Reader for Android, Carbon Black