Brian & Anand Hate SD Card's in Phones

[blairharrington]

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.

It's impossible to pin down what percentage of people truly use their SD card slot. I would argue however that Apple sells many iPhone's in a 32 and 64 variant. I think the market is much stronger than you are implying for phones with larger storage beyond 16 GB. I truly don't think only geeks use SD cards with their phones. If Android phones started adopting 32 or 64 across the board then perhaps an argument could be made stronger for the lack of SD cards in the future. But far too many Android smartphones come in either 8 or 16 variants.

LTE and cloud storage help makes things easier for storing media and burning through data but not for consumption. Most of us have data caps and unless you are lucky enough to be in wi-fi areas most the time or have a great amount of monthly data to use then it isn't a true alternative. Even wi-fi isn't a clear solution. I was on an Acela train last month and when I agreed to their terms to use their wi-fi it clearly stated that I would not be able to stream music or video.

 

[desura]

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

Yeah, I never liked products like that because they seem to put too much weight on that small little micro usb port.

Still, probably the best option if you like want to watch a movie during a flight on your phone.

 

[Joe1987]

They're not exactly your typical smartphone users, so they'll have different opinions.

I'm less excited about it since you can't puts apps on the sd card without all kinds of mods.

 

[MSCoder610]

Yeah the Meenova adapter has come in handy for me multiple times, now that I switched to a Nexus 5 (from the Galaxy S3 which has microSD). Super small too.

 

[gmaster456]

I'm indifferent to them. If its there cool, if not I don't really care. They have their uses but not having one isn't a deal-breaker like it is for many here. I use my phone as a phone. Not a portable hard drive. If I truly need more storage I have a 25gb skyrdrive account and a 25gb Drive account that are both synced to my computer.

 

[Graze]

Yeah, I never liked products like that because they seem to put too much weight on that small little micro usb port.

Still, probably the best option if you like want to watch a movie during a flight on your phone.

huh? If you say but much worst force can be place on the usb port depending on handling the phone while its attached to it.

 

[s44]

It's sour grapes. They don't want to have to choose (or regret not choosing) Samsung.

I'm less excited about it since you can't puts apps on the sd card without all kinds of mods.

By "mods" you mean "current stock Touchwiz"?

 

[StrangerGuy]

It's sour grapes. They don't want to have to choose (or regret not choosing) Samsung.

By "mods" you mean "current stock Touchwiz"?

C'mon the S4 was eventually updated to allow apps on reside on the SD card.

Even if you hate the S4 because of the plasticky body the Xperia Z1 has proven you don't need to sacrifice build quality for a microSD slot and that is accomplished while being waterproof at the same time.

 

[tommo123]

how can they be against something that's optional? i mean if they wanted OEMs to remove that option then they're dicks. if you don't use one fine, but don't feedback to OEMs that it's unnecessary as that's not true, it's merely an opinion and the reason why i can't buy a nexus. i refuse to buy a phone without expandable storage.

16GB phones have around 10GB left after the software. even if it was a 32GB phone it's easy to fill. images, the cache for the images. videos, the cache for the thumbnails of said videos (over a gig on mine). games and their data (some of which are 3GB plus) x several. CWM backups, the original flashable rom zip, TB, 10s of gigs of music etc etc etc

plus less space would mean i'd have to use more data to upload and download constantly which would ruin battery life and be expensive (if i didn't have unlimited data).

 

[jiffylube1024]

I think they are against SD cards both for aesthetic purposes (the "it compromises build quality" argument) and philosophical ones - that SD is inferior in speed and reliability to onboard eMMC. And frankly, they're right in theory that we shouldn't have to compromise in this day and age -- it's ridiculous that only 16gb is standard on most phones and tablets. Not to mention, many/most industry heavy hitters seem to be against the idea of SD card slots: Apple, Google, Nokia, etc.


However, for the short term, I agree that having the option to use SD makes sense; it's a great, cheap, easy way to add 32/64 gb of memory to devices for cheap. I certainly won't pay a $200 premium to go from 16gb to 64gb on my devices.

 

[Ksyder]

To me the one downside (that I've experienced) is that if you shatter your screen or break your phone (make your phone storage unaccessible in any way) then it is very hard or impossible to recover your data.

At least with an sd card you can simply pop the card out and there you have your data, at least if you make sure your stuff is saved there.

However since I have a nexus 5 those days are gone. The nice(?) thing is that google is now backing up my pics to google plus automatically, the days of having things that aren't in the cloud is less likely for me.

 

[Oyeve]

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

Why do they suck?

 

[Carson Dyle]

They're not exactly your typical smartphone users

No, it's: They're not exactly your typical smart phone users.

 

[mnewsham]

Why do they suck?

as has been said in this thread, they are slow as hell and they take up space that could be used for real on board storage that is faster and thus more usable. There is no reason why it costs $100 to move from 16gb internal to 32gb internal. That's the real crime, get rid of SD cards and start putting 64-256GB on phones

 

[Joe1987]

No, it's: They're not exactly your typical smart phone users.

What?

 

[WelshBloke]

as has been said in this thread, they are slow as hell and they take up space that could be used for real on board storage that is faster and thus more usable. There is no reason why it costs $100 to move from 16gb internal to 32gb internal. That's the real crime, get rid of SD cards and start putting 64-256GB on phones

If you think that by getting rid of an SDcard slot you're suddenly going to get the option of 256GB of cheap built in storage I think that you're delusional.

Its wierd that we put such a premium on how well our phones take pictures and videos and then rail against the ideal form of storage for them.

 

[mnewsham]

If you think that by getting rid of an SDcard slot you're suddenly going to get the option of 256GB of cheap built in storage I think that you're delusional.

Its wierd that we put such a premium on how well our phones take pictures and videos and then rail against the ideal form of storage for them.

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.

 

[Oyeve]

as has been said in this thread, they are slow as hell and they take up space that could be used for real on board storage that is faster and thus more usable. There is no reason why it costs $100 to move from 16gb internal to 32gb internal. That's the real crime, get rid of SD cards and start putting 64-256GB on phones

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.

 

[mnewsham]

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.

Its not fast enough to use apps on, and if you do the apps usually run slow as hell. There is a reason it's a pain in the ass to store apps on SD, and it's because the latency is higher, the read and write speeds suck, and don't even get me started on IOPS

 

[WelshBloke]

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

I know that it doesn't cost £100 for 16GB of storage. So why aren't Apple, HTC or LG offering large amounts of cheap built in storage given that they also don't have SDcard?

Its not fast enough to use apps on, and if you do the apps usually run slow as hell. There is a reason it's a pain in the ass to store apps on SD, and it's because the latency is higher, the read and write speeds suck, and don't even get me started on IOPS

Apps don't run from the SDcard, they get loaded into the device memory.
The reason some apps don't run from the SDcard is that they need to be loaded at startup and the SDcard isn't mounted.

 

[Dulanic]

I love having a SD card and won't buy a phone without one. The cloud argument is made null by data caps. Why should I pay $20 a month now with tmobile when I can throw almost my full music collection on one SD card. My photos go straight to the SD card also.

I don't get the speed argument. SD cards are plenty fast for data storage. What do we need true speed for? Apps should be kept on phone memory. SD card should really only be used for static data. I use FolderMount to move any static data where the app doesn't let me choose the download location.

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.

You missed his point. It's not about what it costs them. It's about the price they charge and manufacturers reluctance to putting more onboard memory for unknown reasons.

 

[WelshBloke]

I don't get the speed argument. SD cards are plenty fast for data storage.

Also 80/50 read/write fast enough?
http://www.sandisk.co.uk/about-sand...ntroduces-worlds-fastest-64gb-microsdxc-card/

The price is still LolWTF though.

 

[TerryMathews]

Its not fast enough to use apps on, and if you do the apps usually run slow as hell. There is a reason it's a pain in the ass to store apps on SD, and it's because the latency is higher, the read and write speeds suck, and don't even get me started on IOPS

Wrong. Some SD cards are faster than some MMC. The Asus transformer series, for example, one of the lag fixes for it patches the system to put a lot of data on fast SD because the EMMC Asus chose was so slow.

 

[dawheat]

If you think that by getting rid of an SDcard slot you're suddenly going to get the option of 256GB of cheap built in storage I think that you're delusional.

Its wierd that we put such a premium on how well our phones take pictures and videos and then rail against the ideal form of storage for them.

I actually think everyone is agreeing with each other. If OEMs would stop abusing consumers for onboard storage, considering the BOM difference, then sdcards truly might be unnecessary. But OEMs don't - they abuse customers for storage increases and often don't even introduce larger versions to different markets. In these cases sdcards provide a significant advantage, especially modern cards with good read/write speeds.

If OEMs would price 32GB as the base for $199 on contract, $249 for 64GB and $349 for 128GB, they'd still make healthy profits. Instead like we all know it's normally 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299 and 64GB for $399. But as long as customers keep taking it and reviewers like Anand don't call OEMs out and push them to improve, OEMs will keep the current pricing scheme as long as they possibly can.

In this respect, kudos to Samsung and other OEMs for offering an alternative on the cheap.

 

[nOOky]

I used to worry about not having the micro-sd card slot, now I don't care.

On the phones I have had with one I never touched the card that was in it anyway. I don't feel the need to have every mp3 I have on my phone, or save every picture I take, or have hundreds of apps. Some would argue that they should have the option to increase the storage or swap cards out, which is fine.
I like to archive all my photos etc. and clean up my phones memory every now and again. It's probably a good practice to save anything of value off of the phone anyway just like any other storage device. With 4g or wifi being just about everywhere, sometimes streaming new music is better than listening to my old crap anyway