Samsung Galaxy S4 MicroSD limitations

[Dari]

Apparently the SGS4 only comes with 16GB of space, of which only a ridiculous 8GB is available because of all the bloat. Yes, you can add a mSD card but that can only be used for data, not applications. Worse, if you buy products off of Google Play they can only go on the internal NAND. Also, mSD interface is slower than internal NAND and less reliable. What a waste. This is supposed to be a superphone compared to the iPhone? I don't know whether this limitation is Samsung or Google's fault but, either way, they're not communicating and this is a joke. Add in the terrible Samsung OLED screen and this device is not as awesome as others are making out to be. Seems like the HTC One is a better deal or, better yet, Optimus G Pro if you're on AT&T or T-Mobile.

 

[Crono]

It's the same kind of issue you see with a full blown desktop OS, like with the Surface Pro.

But it's odd to see so many people touting the microSD card slot as an advantage of the S4 when you really don't want to rely on that over onboard storage as all apps can't use it. And it's bad when your phone is reading 9GB or less free, especially on a premium high-end phone.

I don't think the OLED screen is a problem, though. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison of it with my HTC One, but it doesn't look bad from comparison shots and my prior experiences with OLED. But it would be nice for the new superfans of the S4 (not all S4 users, just a vocal segment, much like the Apple fans that preceded them) would at least acknowledge that the One, Sony Xperia ZL, and some other phones on the horizon are real contenders. So many users are defensive of the plastic, TouchWiz lag (at times), and the random features Samsung has implemented. You have to give Samsung credit where it's due - it has a great camera, 1080p screen 5.0" screen, and the S view cover seems neat - but the lack of space is not a feature.

The S4 is still a "superphone" because of the specs, but I think Samsung gets away with a little more because of its new-found dominance of the Android market; they'll beat HTC's One with sales even though I *personally* feel that it is a better phone and a better value. HTC, LG, and Sony don't throw as much into eyetracking and other gimmicks (Nokia hit the nail on the head poking fun at the tap to share feature Samsung used to advertise, which I've never seen done in real life) or marketing so they really have to struggle to compete on the overall aspects of their phones. Samsung packs the fastest CPU, but it doesn't help if you have to remove all their crapware to take advantage of it in anything but synthetic benchmarks.

 

[bearxor]

I just realized I posted in a Dari thread again. My apologies, I thought it was someone who had gotten the phone and was genuinely complaining about the lack of available space. I'll just leave now.

 

[dawheat]

Caveat that I agree the amount of bloat is ridiculous. I don't know if I'm not unusual a user, but on my Note 2, I have the following:

on 16GB of internal storage with 10.97GB available:
- 1.92GB of applications (something like 90 installed apps)
- basically a few MB of pictures/videos/audio
- 1.03GB of misc files which is the ROM, themes, and other tweaks I've loaded
- 7.54GB available

on 64GB of SD storage with 59.47GB available:
- about 48GB of videos, music, photos
- about 11.5GB available

I suppose for those who buy the 16GB S4 and need more than 8GB of apps on their phone (so something like 350 apps or so?), this could be a limitation. I wonder what percentage of users this applies to.

I'm not sure what the 'speed' concern is over mSD - a 64GB class 10 card for $40 shipped doesn't have a single issue with any media. I guess synthetic benchmarks obviously do show a difference.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I just realized I posted in a Dari thread again. My apologies, I thought it was someone who had gotten the phone and was genuinely complaining about the lack of available space. I'll just leave now.

Yeah, I thought there was actually a real issue that I hadn't noticed yet. Some posters are getting utterly transparent in their desperation.



As useful information, the GS4 appears to have partitioned more space of its 16GB for the internal app installation space. 7.8GB out of the 16GB that is (interestingly enough, 9.62GB is claimed for the "fake SD" which adds up to 17.4GB so there's so weirdness with binary and SI here).

So more of the space is allocated for apps than you'd think. From history, the 32GB and 64GB models will have the same space allocated for app storage in this manner. Also, the One has about the same amount allocated as well so it's probably something Google prescribed.

Most large games will use the Fake SD partition (9.62GB) for extra storage so their data is split across both internal storages automatically anyway. 9.62GB isn't terribly roomy but I'd be hard pressed to fill it since I've put my REALLY large stuff like movies and games on my microSD.

 

[mike5757]

I suppose for those who buy the 16GB S4 and need more than 8GB of apps on their phone (so something like 350 apps or so?), this could be a limitation. I wonder what percentage of users this applies to.

Don't forget about games. Many of them are in the GB range. I wouldn't be worried about the slower microSD speeds for storing videos, photos, and music, but I would be for running apps. Except you can't do that anyway.

 

[MrX8503]

There's only 8GB usable and not all apps can use the mSD? Why do Android users put up with this?

 

[zerocool84]

There's only 8GB usable and not all apps can use the mSD? Why do Android users put up with this?

We don't have to, we can get an Android phone without this limitation. I thought I cared about removable storage on phones but I don't make use of it.

 

[Dari]

Is Samsung coming out with 34GB and 64GB versions of the S4?

 

[ChronoReverse]

There's only 8GB usable and not all apps can use the mSD? Why do Android users put up with this?

Is Samsung coming out with 34GB and 64GB versions of the S4?

You can get 32GB and 64GB models. But if you're stuck with a 16GB One (it actually exists, luckily most carriers have the 32GB), then you're done. The GS4 has a microSD so it somewhat alleviates it.


Incidentally, the smaller fake SD slot appears to be because more of the space is dedicated for applications. I'm genuinely curious what games you folks are playing on your phones because now that I have a phone fast enough to chew through any game, I'd like to know some good ones.

 

[Dari]

You can get 32GB and 64GB models. But if you're stuck with a 16GB One (it actually exists, luckily most carriers have the 32GB), then you're done. The GS4 has a microSD so it somewhat alleviates it.


Incidentally, the smaller fake SD slot appears to be because more of the space is dedicated for applications. I'm genuinely curious what games you folks are playing on your phones because now that I have a phone fast enough to chew through any game, I'd like to know some good ones.

Well, so long as they have 32GB and 64GB models in stores then it should alleviate some of the problems. But it sucks that those with 16GB models have to jump through hoops when it comes to space management. As someone else mentioned, developers are starting to take Android seriously as a gaming platform with quad cores and powerful GPUs, the worst thing that could happen would be to have all that power limited by space. It'll be like the Nintendo 64 debacle all over again. HTC and LG are starting to look good...

 

[Crono]

You can get 32GB and 64GB models. But if you're stuck with a 16GB One (it actually exists, luckily most carriers have the 32GB), then you're done. The GS4 has a microSD so it somewhat alleviates it.


Incidentally, the smaller fake SD slot appears to be because more of the space is dedicated for applications. I'm genuinely curious what games you folks are playing on your phones because now that I have a phone fast enough to chew through any game, I'd like to know some good ones.

Dead Trigger is the only somewhat demanding game I've played. I don't really play games on my phone, though, I do a lot more Netflix and video watching.

 

[Dari]

Dead Trigger is the only somewhat demanding game I've played. I don't really play games on my phone, though, I do a lot more Netflix and video watching.

Don't forget Bittorrent. But I've never tried it...

 

[poofyhairguy]

Most large games will use the Fake SD partition (9.62GB) for extra storage so their data is split across both internal storages automatically anyway.

Exactly. And there are often tricks to move these large game download folders to the Micro SD.

Don't forget about games. Many of them are in the GB range. I wouldn't be worried about the slower microSD speeds for storing videos, photos, and music, but I would be for running apps. Except you can't do that anyway.

Why would the Micro SD guaranteed be slower? Those new Samsung Class 10 Micro SD cards and the 64GB Class 10 Sandisk Micro SD cards are faster than the internal memory on almost any Android device.

My Transformer Prime's ROM has a kernel option to basically run everything off the Micro SD card to bypass internal storage that has way worse 4k write random speeds than the aforementioned Micro SD cards. Forget app2SD, everything to SD.

In fact I see that as the ultimate advantage of the Micro SD slot- as the MicroSD cards get larger and faster your phone can upgrade and not be left behind (to a certain extent). I could see me one day running everything off a 128GB Micro SD card and just leaving the internal memory for photos or something.

 

[olds]

I am only seeing 16gb models on verizon and wirefly

 

[Yuriman]

Root and remove the crap.

I'll take a phone with a uSD slot any day over one without.

 

[ImDonly1]

LOL so much for the I need a S4 because it has a microSD and removable battery argument.
The HTC One is looking better and better (32GB and 64GB storage for the same price).

 

[Chrono]

Well... you could just root it, pop in a 64GB ultra-microSD card into it, install script manager and apply the internal memory -> sdcard swap. That's what I'm doing and love it.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Yeah, it's not like you can't actually use your SD card for apps. In the end, Android is configurable even if it's not always friendly.

 

[dawheat]

I really feel like people are stretching this a bit.

So the people possibly affected are 'gamers' who need to install dozens of games, most of which are <100mb, but there are a couple games I saw in the top 20 paid games that are 1 GB. So we go with the premise that there is this niche of users who buy and download dozens of the largest games available in the Play Store.

Whether 9.6GB or 12GB (say without the bloat) are available in internal storage on a 16GB S4, either number sounds too constrained for this niche of gamers. These people should get the 32GB or even 64GB S4, which is on the way.

So they buy a 32GB or 64GB phone and still have the option of slapping in another 64GB mSD for the rest of their media for under $40.

 

[Hunt3rj2]

There's a lot of defensive arguments going on here for something that really isn't acceptable. This is like not putting in 5 GHz WiFi on a phone, Samsung should've spent the extra dollar and gone up to 32GB.

16GB storage tiers should not exist by this point, Android has moved on.

 

[grkM3]

lol dari keep on hating man

I have a uhs ultra 1 64gb in my gs3 and I have not found one single other android phone with an sd car slot to even support that file format and wanted to re format it to the slower file system.I have tried my droid x,x2 and a moto tablet along with my friends razm and all would not work with my sd card while the gs3 and note 2 have no issues with it.

It cost me 37 bucks on black Friday and will smoke any internal memory installed in any device in speed.Now lets get to your issue with space,first of all it take 3 seconds to setup the phone to save movies,pictures,downloads and songs to the EXTERNAL sd card on the gs3 or gs4 and then that leaves you with 7-9GB of space for apps,I don't know wtf you have for apps on your phone but if you are anywhere near 8gb you have issues my friend,even bigger issues then the hate you have towards Samsung to make a stupid thread like this

Ohh Dari where is the thread about the nexus 4 that is googles pure android device and that it only comes in 8gb and 16gb version with NO SD SLOT? why hold Samsung to such high standards when the freaking phone comes in 16,32,64 sizes along with the ability to add another 64GB sd card?

The galaxy s4 is the only android phone on this planet that can hold 128gb(unformatted)space and somehow you make a stupid thread about how android will not allow apps to sd card natively and its like its samsungs fault for what google has done.

can you name me one other android phone that supports uhs1 cards and has 64gb space on board?and what are your thoughts on the nexus 4 with only 16gb space and no sdcard at all?

 

[zerogear]

lol dari keep on hating man

I have a uhs ultra 1 64gb in my gs3 and I have not found one single other android phone with an sd car slot to even support that file format and wanted to re format it to the slower file system.

It cost me 37 bucks on black Friday and will smoke any internal memory installed in any device in speed.Now lets get to your issue with space,first of all it take 3 seconds to setup the phone to save movies,pictures,downloads and songs to the EXTERNAL sd card on the gs3 or gs4 and then that leaves you with 7-9GB of space for apps,I don't know wtf you have for apps on your phone but if you are anywhere near 8gb you have issues my friend,even bigger issues then the hate you have towards Samsung to make a stupid thread like this

It's not a huge issue for us, but to normal users, I don't think they would bother redirecting music/movie/pictures/downloads to external.

I think Samsung needs to stop marketing the 16GB for mainstream, especially if the OS bloat takes up 5-6 gigs. They seriously need to have more 32GB and 64GB. -- I've had SGS3 and Note 2, and I tried to look for 32GB or 64GB models, but they always seem rare or locked to some carrier. I decided to leave Samsung and go for the HTC One.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I dunno. The majority of space I use is music and video. I drag those straight to the microSD. In fact, I loaded it up before inserting it into my phone. And my music apps detect it just fine afterward so it's not like I had to do anything "power user"-like.

The only scenario that's a problem is if you have a lot of large games. You'd need to be the hardcore type though because you can install a hundred of the standard games (not even casual) that only take up 50-100MB each.

 

[Dari]

Well... you could just root it, pop in a 64GB ultra-microSD card into it, install script manager and apply the internal memory -> sdcard swap. That's what I'm doing and love it.

Do you tell your customers that at the phone store?