Brian & Anand Hate SD Card's in Phones

[StrangerGuy]

That's just plain dumb. External SD is not slow as hell at all. I have 3 64gb cards that perform just fine and they were 55 bucks. I agree that there should be higher capacity built into phones but saying SD option sucks for stupid reasons is stupid.

My cheapo class 10 Sandisk SD does 8MB/s writes and 10+ MB/s reads, more than fast enough for 1080p videos. Nobody except the the 0.0001% niche wants desktop SSD level of I/O on their phones.

 

[Scotteq]

On the great and glorious day when I can put the entire contents of my 8 year old mp3 player on my phone, with room left for apps and data storage, then I won't worry about SD cards.

... And that'll finally be one less thing to drag around.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Lol, you're delusional if you think it costs them anywhere near $100 to add on 16GB of more storage.

It will cost more then the SD card, but if you're paying $500+ for a phone there is no reason they are charging what they do charge for internal storage. A 120GB SSD is $90. So you're telling me they charge $100 for an extra 16GB over the stock 16GB for a total of 32GB for the same price you can buy an SSD with 120GB...
Now I am not saying they are the same thing, obviously they aren't but storage isn't THAT expensive, moving away from SD cards and towards larger internal storage just makes sense.

Seriously, what is wrong with having both a larger internal storage, and a MicroSD slot? Even if most users never fill even half the internal storage capacity, media files can be mirrored onto the SD card and provide a means of backup just in case the phone breaks, or some glitch wipes the internal storage completely (happened to my mom's Note 2, if she had an SD card in the slot, I could have recovered the pics). And no, cloud storage on a 5 GB data cap in not viable (not that I consider cloud storage viable anyway ).

 

[Skurge]

Yeah, I haven't been able to put my entire music collection on my phone because the last 3 phones I bought don't have SD card slots. So screw HTC and LG. I will give my money to Samsung who give me the choice. All the base phones going forward are 32GB+ with SD card slots. As much as I want a Nexus 5. I will prob get a Note 3 or SGS5 and just put ALL my music which as certainly more than 16GB on the SD cards and my photos and whatnot on the phone.

 

[blairharrington]

Another point for SD cards is the seamless transfer of media from one phone to another when you change devices.

 

[Yuriman]

The uSD cards I own have all been faster than my phones' internal storage. I tend to buy more expensive cards, but it's nowhere near the extra cost to get that same extra storage internally.

On my phone I keep ~16GB of music, ~2GB of audiobooks, ~3GB of game ROMs (PSX games are large), ~1.5GB of system ROMs and backups, and may use half a GB for photos / backgrounds / other images at any given time. Add in 4GB of system files/apps and keeping at least 20% spare area to keep performance up, and 32GB is just about right for me - assuming that my usage patterns don't change and I don't need any more space than I'm already using in the next 2 years. 8GB and 16GB phones without expandable storage simply won't work for me.

I'm not happy with the idea of paying an extra $30+ per month for higher data limit when the amount of storage I need to decrease my data usage to near zero is less than $30 up front. If I don't need to stream anything, I can easily get by with a 300MB cap.

 

[deputc26]

I'm not happy with the idea of paying an extra $30+ per month for higher data limit when the amount of storage I need to decrease my data usage to near zero is less than $30 up front. If I don't need to stream anything, I can easily get by with a 300MB cap.

This, I pay $29.95/mos for 1200minutes 3000texts and 500mb, I basically save $50/mos by having an sd card, if I had 5gb/mos of LTE I wouldn't care so much about having an sd card.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I can do without a SD Card slot on a 64GB+ phone.

What I WON'T do without until I have to is removable battery. It is just TOO convenient.

Brian even talked about the exact usage I do on a podcast (flipping batteries with external charger), said how convenient it was, and then said something like "but its not a deal breaker."

But it is for me. Far more than having easily dented aluminum on the exterior.

 

[WelshBloke]

...and then said something like "but its not a deal breaker."

Deal breakers a weird term to use when you're choosing between a bunch of very similar devices.

Its those little things that are the main differences and main selling points.

 

[dontl00katme]

What do you carry on your phones so a SD card is a must have? Movies? Your whole music collection? Pictures from the last 5 years?

 

[s44]

What do you carry on your phones so a SD card is a must have? Movies? Your whole music collection? Pictures from the last 5 years?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Also nandroids.

Do you enjoy having to flush your storage every time you buy some music or take a bunch of pictures?

 

[Zodiark1593]

What do you carry on your phones so a SD card is a must have? Movies? Your whole music collection? Pictures from the last 5 years?

A big Yes right there. ^_^

 

[dontl00katme]

Yes, yes, and yes.

Also nandroids.

Do you enjoy having to flush your storage every time you buy some music or take a bunch of pictures?

Don't know, never had to yet.

 

[blairharrington]

What do you carry on your phones so a SD card is a must have? Movies? Your whole music collection? Pictures from the last 5 years?

50 GB of music. My collection. I also have the freedom to shoot a ton of photos or videos if I choose to with another card.

If my next phone has an SD card slot I can transfer all my music in a snap.

 

[WelshBloke]

What do you carry on your phones so a SD card is a must have? Movies? Your whole music collection? Pictures from the last 5 years?

Went on holiday abroad, took loads of HD videos of the kids.

Should I have paid for some ridiculous international data rate just to upload it to cloud storage?

 

[Bateluer]

I can see smartphones nixing the SD slot, provided they have a minimum 32GB of storage onboard. Tablets should have sd slots, any model without one is immediately relegated to the low end. Given how fast and easy it is to fill a media consumption device with media, a pox on those who ship 16GB tablets!

 

[Oyeve]

I can see smartphones nixing the SD slot, provided they have a minimum 32GB of storage onboard. Tablets should have sd slots, any model without one is immediately relegated to the low end. Given how fast and easy it is to fill a media consumption device with media, a pox on those who ship 16GB tablets!

Word.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Word.

There is zero reason why something like the Nexus 7 can't have a memory card slot when the hardware cost for it is next to free. The only motive for that is vendors want to milk the cash cow at internal storage and you have to be pretty much have to be a corporate sheep to support such a thing.

 

[mnewsham]

Yeah, I haven't been able to put my entire music collection on my phone because the last 3 phones I bought don't have SD card slots. So screw HTC and LG. I will give my money to Samsung who give me the choice. All the base phones going forward are 32GB+ with SD card slots. As much as I want a Nexus 5. I will prob get a Note 3 or SGS5 and just put ALL my music which as certainly more than 16GB on the SD cards and my photos and whatnot on the phone.

Eh, I have the LG G2 and use my flash drive for that, 64GB flash drive is pretty cheap ($30-$50) and more versatile than an SD card (everything has USB ports)

I have LOTR Extended edition bluray rips and some FLAC music albums(besides my resume and other important docs and pics), I don't need to have access to these all the time tho, so my flash drive is a perfect solution since i always carry that with me anyway.

 

[blairharrington]

Eh, I have the LG G2 and use my flash drive for that, 64GB flash drive is pretty cheap ($30-$50) and more versatile than an SD card (everything has USB ports)

I have LOTR Extended edition bluray rips and some FLAC music albums(besides my resume and other important docs and pics), I don't need to have access to these all the time tho, so my flash drive is a perfect solution since i always carry that with me anyway.

Carrying around a flash drive might work for you but it's not as convenient as having the content already on your phone to begin with via the SD card.

 

[mnewsham]

Carrying around a flash drive might work for you but it's not as convenient as having the content already on your phone to begin with via the SD card.

if it's all media that you want to store than it shouldn't really need to all be on your phone in the first place, right? It's not like it's storing vital apps or anything.

 

[blairharrington]

if it's all media that you want to store than it shouldn't really need to all be on your phone in the first place, right? It's not like it's storing vital apps or anything.

No. It's about having the freedom to consume the media you want when you want without having to use another gadget in conjunction.

 

[thedosbox]

There is zero reason why something like the Nexus 7 can't have a memory card slot when the hardware cost for it is next to free.

Might want to pick another example that retails for more than $200. When you're selling a device at that price, pennies matter. Using an ad hom like "corporate sheep" doesn't change this.

 

[mnewsham]

No. It's about having the freedom to consume the media you want when you want without having to use another gadget in conjunction.

It's a flash drive, pull it out of pocket, plug in.

Done, 3-5 seconds of your life gone, maybe im just missing the point

 

[blairharrington]

It's a flash drive, pull it out of pocket, plug in.

Done, 3-5 seconds of your life gone, maybe im just missing the point

You aren't missing the point. But you also don't realize that it's just easier and better to not need that drive in the first place.