Brian & Anand Hate SD Card's in Phones

[mnewsham]

Wait...

You think an sdcard is too clunky and inconvenient and your solution to not needing one is to dangle a usb stick off the bottom of the phone and manually transfer files across?

No, an SD card would be a lot easier, I just hate SD cards in general because the only thing I can use it on is my phone, unless I buy a stupid usb/sdcard reader for my computer or something, I'd rather have a flashdrive which can be used on pretty much everything without any hassle.

and USB 3.0 ftw, much faster at transferring large files

And no need to manually transfer files across like you're saying, the storage device is instantly recognized and all the files are immediately accessible through the file browser.

 

[ControlD]

I have had failures with SD cards. Granted I used them often but they just don't seem reliable to me. Cloud is the way to go.

And with this we get to the real reason for elimination of extra storage on phones. The carriers would very much like to see people utilizing the cloud rather than having files stored locally. As data speeds increase and at the same time data caps decrease, there are huge profits to be made. "Why store all of your music on a SD card when you can stream them over 4G? Wait a minute, you only have 2GB of data a month? We will be more than happy to sell you extra bandwidth for the low, low price of $10 per GB."

 

[cbrunny]

I've not used an SD card since my Blackberry. Running an 8gb Gnex with room to spare while my replacement N5 ships. Never had an issue with it. I stream media though, rather than store on my phone. Also I don't take 100 photos a day. Maybe 5 a week, tops.

I have used SD cards in my Sony Tablet S with poor results. I don't want to have to manage what goes where on my phone as Android is not built to move files around and I haven't found an app that does it well enough to make me think that managing where my own files go is a good idea. If Android was built this way, I might have a different opinion, but for now the implementation in the OS is poor at best. Also significantly slower (at least it was on my S) than running off the built in drive. I don't see the advantage of SD.

 

[s44]

No, an SD card would be a lot easier, I just hate SD cards in general because the only thing I can use it on is my phone, unless I buy a stupid usb/sdcard reader for my computer or something, I'd rather have a flashdrive which can be used on pretty much everything without any hassle.

So the adapter should be on the device you carry around all the time instead of the devices that just sit there... Right.

 

[mnewsham]

So the adapter should be on the device you carry around all the time instead of the devices that just sit there... Right.

except i use more than 1 computer a day, so you're saying i should get multiple adapters?

 

[WelshBloke]

No, an SD card would be a lot easier, I just hate SD cards in general because the only thing I can use it on is my phone, unless I buy a stupid usb/sdcard reader for my computer or something, I'd rather have a flashdrive which can be used on pretty much everything without any hassle.

Pretty much every sdcard I've ever bought has come with a usb adapter. Also you need an adapter to plug your usb stick into your phone yes?

And no need to manually transfer files across like you're saying, the storage device is instantly recognized and all the files are immediately accessible through the file browser.

You have the usb stick dangling the entire time your using the media?

 

[mnewsham]

You have the usb stick dangling the entire time your using the media?

Only when I am consuming that particular media which would require the flash drive, honestly 90% of my daily use stuff is stored on the 32GB of internal storage. I only keep large movies, FLAC, and important documents on the flash drive.

I could leave the flash drive at home and it wouldn't really be a huge deal, because I still have everything I'd need, I might not have star wars ROTJ on demand like I would if I brought the flash drive, but who really needs ROTJ every day anyway.

My real point is, there is no NEED for an SD card slot in devices anymore, and OEMs are obviously pushing more and more towards internal and cloud storage as opposed to SD cards.

 

[WelshBloke]

I have used SD cards in my Sony Tablet S with poor results. I don't want to have to manage what goes where on my phone as Android is not built to move files around and I haven't found an app that does it well enough to make me think that managing where my own files go is a good idea. If Android was built this way, I might have a different opinion, but for now the implementation in the OS is poor at best. Also significantly slower (at least it was on my S) than running off the built in drive. I don't see the advantage of SD.

You don't really need to micro manage the storage. The camera usually asks you if you want to use the sdcard when it's detected, after that once you can forget about it.
Transferring music/video across you have to choose where to put it the first time anyway, may as well be the sdcard.
Even the slowest sdcards are fast enough for storing data (unless you're talking about a seriously old card).

 

[Commodus]

Well that twitter thread seems heavy on circle jerkery and light on discussion.
I don't use twitter, is it normally like that?

Not normally.

That said, the Twitter conversation does provide some important context. While many of the people in this thread are convinced that SD cards are the center of the universe and that any phone without a slot is an unmitigated disaster, there are a lot of people that sincerely wonder what the fuss is about. They even have technical reasons to prefer the absence of a slot, on occasion.

 

[WelshBloke]

Not normally.

That said, the Twitter conversation does provide some important context. While many of the people in this thread are convinced that SD cards are the center of the universe and that any phone without a slot is an unmitigated disaster, there are a lot of people that sincerely wonder what the fuss is about. They even have technical reasons to prefer the absence of a slot, on occasion.

Yeah but in this thread you have differing groups with people posting their reasons for their likes/dislikes.
Not so much in that twitter thread where it just seems to be an echo chamber of one opinion and no discussion at all. Which is fine but seems pointless.

 

[WelshBloke]

Only when I am consuming that particular media which would require the flash drive, honestly 90% of my daily use stuff is stored on the 32GB of internal storage. I only keep large movies, FLAC, and important documents on the flash drive.

I could leave the flash drive at home and it wouldn't really be a huge deal, because I still have everything I'd need, I might not have star wars ROTJ on demand like I would if I brought the flash drive, but who really needs ROTJ every day anyway.

My real point is, there is no NEED for an SD card slot in devices anymore, and OEMs are obviously pushing more and more towards internal and cloud storage as opposed to SD cards.

Well you've already shown a need for the storage. You might not need all of your data all of the time but it's nice not to have to go without.
And as there's no downside I'm still not seeing the argument against.

So there's some advantage to having it but none to getting rid of it.

Cloud storage is great as long as you have uninterrupted service that's fast. And unlimited. And you never roam.

 

[GTRagnarok]

When phones get to 128gb is when I could go without a microSD slot. For now, I'm rocking a 64GB card.

 

[dawheat]

What's complicated about managing an sdcard? The phone automatically prompted me to save photos on the card once it was detected, and I have a Movies and Music folder that holds about 50GB of media.

Frankly, I still need to pick and choose what movies I put onto my phone since I have a library of movies around a couple terabytes. So every month or so I do swap out the 20 or so movies on my sdcard with new ones.

Again, if consumers could even buy larger storage options (most of time you can't) and would have remotely fair pricing, I could move on from sdcards.

 

[crashtestdummy]

I don't think AT is biased so much as it caters to high-end users. For those that are willing to spend $700 on a phone, and SD card is indeed silly as you just get the phone with more storage built in and use a cloud service with your unlimited data.

I'm not a high-end user. I have a cheap $100 (off contract) phone and a minimal data plan. An SD card is a great way for me to supplement the meager storage that's included with my phone and enables me to put media files on it that I would otherwise have to stream. It's plenty fast for what I use it for.

But I'm not their market. When they review an iPhone, it's like watching the guys on Top Gear talk about a Porsche. I'll likely never get one because it's just not worth the cost. But like with that Porsche review, I still like reading their stuff because it gives me an excellent idea of what phones are currently capable of.

 

[nOOky]

As an enthusiast forum, I don't think it really represents the majority of smart phone users. The majority probably are just fine with never removing their battery, and never swapping out micro-sd cards or rooting their phone with custom roms.

Most smart phone buyers buy a new phone every two years, use it, probably never fill up the storage it comes with, and don't really care. All's they worry about is transferring their important pictures of their cat or dog onto the new phone and not having to transfer their contacts manually.

Most tech savvy people I'm guessing are the power users, and represent the minority, but probably squawk the loudest on forums like this. Unfortunately products aren't designed and sold to the minority, the 5% or whatever number it is, they are designed for the masses.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I just checked: on my 16GB phone I have 2GB free and on my 64GB Microsd I have 5 GB free. Put me in the camp that 64GB would be too small. Give me a 128GB phone and I am happy.

 

[tommo123]

No, an SD card would be a lot easier, I just hate SD cards in general because the only thing I can use it on is my phone, unless I buy a stupid usb/sdcard reader for my computer or something, I'd rather have a flashdrive which can be used on pretty much everything without any hassle.

and USB 3.0 ftw, much faster at transferring large files

And no need to manually transfer files across like you're saying, the storage device is instantly recognized and all the files are immediately accessible through the file browser.

see, my phone can be used as a flash drive. throw an mkv on it and my smart TV reads it and can play the file just fine. throw files onto it from my work pc, home pc, whatever. mSD is easier

 

[XYZ-]

I'm not sure that Anand and Brian's complaints are merely about having SD card storage as an option. I think its more of a complaint that OEM's ship devices with 8, 16 or 32GB of in-built flash memory and then just chuck a mSD card slot in there to compensate, when they could be fitting the phone with 64 or 128GB of in-built (and apparently significantly faster) memory, without too much damage being done to their profit margins....
I suppose build quality and such is also something that can be compromised as well, but I think that's a bit of a lesser issue. And given the Xperia Z1 packs Aluminium and Glass, as well as waterproofing and an mSD card slot, I'm not sure that can really be used as an argument.

I dunno, that's just what I think. I could of course be completely wrong.

 

[sweenish]

I thought I needed one, but I don't. A 32 GB phone is good enough for me. I still use dedicated devices for music (iPod Classic 160 GB). If I think video will be a factor, we bring a laptop, otherwise the phone is fine on its own with YouTube and Netflix.

I may buy an OTG adapter for the tablet, but I'm still not sure about that. Those wireless HDDs seem pretty cool.

For something like my phone or tablet to actually be a true universal device, I would need much better DACs and a minimum 512 GB of storage (~2 TB preferred) (if I'm going to locally store stuff and make my device "the one," it's going to need to hold a lot of stuff). Since we're nowhere near that, I'll keep using multiple devices.

 

[WelshBloke]

I'm not sure that Anand and Brian's complaints are merely about having SD card storage as an option. I think its more of a complaint that OEM's ship devices with 8, 16 or 32GB of in-built flash memory and then just chuck a mSD card slot in there to compensate, when they could be fitting the phone with 64 or 128GB of in-built (and apparently significantly faster) memory, without too much damage being done to their profit margins....

I'm not sure that those two things are linked. There's certainly nothing stopping them from adding 64 or 128GB versions now. The addition of an SDcard has no bearing on it.
There's been 8GB phones released without SDcards as well.
I really think that it is more of a push for the cloud than a money saving thing.

I suppose build quality and such is also something that can be compromised as well, but I think that's a bit of a lesser issue. And given the Xperia Z1 packs Aluminium and Glass, as well as waterproofing and an mSD card slot, I'm not sure that can really be used as an argument.

Yeah, I need some way to insert a SIM card, I can't see that adding some way to put an SDcard in there is suddenly going to make the build quality take a dive.

I dunno, that's just what I think. I could of course be completely wrong.

You're thoughts are just as valid as anyone else's in the thread.

 

[Megatomic]

I'm not trying to question if you should or shouldn't demand an SD card slot on your phones, that's your business. What I want to know is why you all feel the need to bring your entire music collection around with you on a daily basis, and why you have entire movies on your phones? I want to sympathize with you guys but I just don't understand your motivations or usage models.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

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.

I realize that people can get like that sometimes, like I just discovered SigFig and Personal Capital and I've been urging my parents to get on board with that for their investments and to keep an eye on all their accounts considering how they're savvy investors. However I recognize that these tools aren't for everyone.

For me, I like Spotify on the computer, but I still see why some people might want offline storage and MP3s and what not. I don't pay for Spotify Premium because I have limited bandwidth and I don't want to rape my battery streaming. Nor do I want to spend time queueing stuff for offline access. SD cards have a place for people, and using twitter to act all smug isn't really the place to have that discussion. He's better off writing an article about it.

 

[WelshBloke]

I'm not trying to question if you should or shouldn't demand an SD card slot on your phones, that's your business. What I want to know is why you all feel the need to bring your entire music collection around with you on a daily basis, and why you have entire movies on your phones? I want to sympathize with you guys but I just don't understand your motivations or usage models.

The guy streaming video to his smart TV gives a nice example.
Hell I'm tempted to buy a new TV just to do that.

It's not just (or even) my entire music collection.
I live in the sticks so I don't always get brilliant coverage. A bunch of music, some TV shows, my sat navigation maps, a bunch of HD video recorded on my phone, load of pod casts...

That lot there is going to take up a lot of space and that's not including stuff like high quality film rips.

I'm not saying that you have to use an SDcard, I'm just saying that there's no downside to letting me use one.

 

[mikeymikec]

Unless a phone comes with an obscene amount of available local storage, I'll want some sort of memory card slot. My HTC has a MicroSD that I've got a 16GB card in atm.

 

[Megatomic]

So the phone is the primary media outlet for these people and they consume so much media daily that they need massive (to me it is) amounts of storage space for their daily media needs?