I hate the Verge Mobile podcast but I was told they discussed the AnandTech post in response to this thread. You can listen for yourself at the 20:26 mark of episode 70. Of the four panelists only 1 was going to make case for SD cards and his feed got cut off and I couldn't get myself to keep listening to potentially hear his side. At one point Vlad makes the case against SD cards because they are too small and too easy to lose. I can't stress enough how crap that podcast is. Production value alone is a joke.
Keeping up with this thread just hammers home for me at least how valuable SD cards truly are in phones.
How do you lose SD cards in phones? Every phone I'd had with an SD slot has used either the shape of the battery cover, or the battery itself, to hold them in place. That's Motorola and Nokia camera phones, up till now. There's a reason I call it expanded storage, not removable
.
The few tablets I've used with SD slots have had an excellent friction-fit. I would at least hope the same is true for the few phnoes with an external MicroSD slot. Plus, you can buy credit-card-size many-MicroSD holders at big box stores, should you use them as removable (I saw one at either Walmart or Target just a few weeks ago).
I've got no problem hating on SD. At all. It's a shame, IMO, that it was the best out there when everybody needed something smaller than CF, that wasn't limited to single companies (mainly Sony). But at least hate on SD for its real problems.
I lose loose SD cards, but no more often than I lose much larger USB sticks.
Oh and "opportunistic charging" is BS. Why do I need to be constantly vigilant about charging? With an external battery charger I never pay attention to my phone battery, wakelocks, usage patterns, charging when I can etc. When my phone beeps, I flip the battery. The closest I come to thinking about it is if I will be out all day I bring the extra battery with me. It really doesn't add much to my pocket, nothing compared to my power pack.
Lithium-Ion batteries lose cycles and capacity faster with deeper discharges. Since I rooted my phone and removed the crapware (a problem as bad for Android phones as big-name PCs, and maybe worse, since you have to go out of your way to fix it, by rooting, which may void the warranty--**** the major carriers!) it has only gone down to less than 50% for a whole day with no charging, except once in the basement of a concrete building (low signal still eats battery, it seems). But, waiting until the phone warns you about low battery is reducing the life of the battery. I have a midrange phone, but there are several upper echelon phones with good batteries stock, and even a few with bigger optional batteries.
Not to say you shouldn't keep a spare charged battery with you. That would be hypocritical of someone that carries around tools they usually don't need every day
. But, that is something worth looking for in reviews, and using as comparison points, when choosing a new phone.
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