Future of expandable storage in phones?

[Ry]

It's foolish to generalize about who prefers what. Some of us need the onboard storage because we live someplace with lousy data or want to minimize our belongings for space reasons (or whatever).

Then there are those who don't need it and see everyone who can't live with only 16 gig internal ROM as an entitled brat. That POV lends itself to extrapolating that its bearer is them self an entitled brat not understanding why differences exist between himself and others. Solipsism is bliss.

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As long as Samsung and Sony continue support expandable memory, it will always be an option. You have to pick and choose which OEMs offer the features most important to you. This is not a big deal.

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[mrsmumbles]

As long as Samsung and Sony continue support expandable memory, it will always be an option. You have to pick and choose which OEMs offer the features most important to you. This is not a big deal.

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It is an issue if not on contract. I'm limited as to what really good phone(s) I can buy off contract. I'm lucky the Nexus 5 supports USB OTG unrooted.

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[Ry]

It is an issue if not on contract. I'm limited as to what really good phone(s) I can buy off contract. I'm lucky the Nexus 5 supports USB OTG unrooted.

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Options. You still have them. When was the last time a Nexus had expandable memory? That was the Nexus One back in 2010 and it wasn't exactly the off-contract, Google-subsidized value Nexus 4 was and the Nexus 5 is.

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[mrsmumbles]

Options. You still have them. When was the last time a Nexus had expandable memory? That was the Nexus One back in 2010 and it wasn't exactly the off-contract, Google-subsidized value Nexus 4 was and the Nexus 5 is.

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What are the options?

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[Ry]

What are the options?

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Practically every Samsung and Sony Android phone.

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[Haalcyon]

With the Meenova the expandable memory booboo has the sliQest of Band-Aids.

Optimus G Pro

 

[mrsmumbles]

Practically every Samsung and Sony Android phone.

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Not if I want anything current.

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[Ry]

Not if I want anything current.

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They stopped making phones? lol

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[mrsmumbles]

They stopped making phones? lol

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I already explained. I'm not interested in being a postpaid contract customer anymore (unless something miraculous happens to Sprint in the next few months).

So I can't afford to buy the Sony or Samsung phones I'd want. I'm instead stuck with mid tier phones and it isn't certain even they would continue to have onboard microsd.

I love my Nexus 5 except for the storage and battery issue.

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[garublador]

Everybody needs an sd card. They just don't know it yet. They will find out when their phone has to be reset and wipe their data or their cloud servers crash.

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Cloud servers are many times more reliable than SD cards. An SD cards is a bad option for backing up data. I've had several SD cards break but I've never heard of anyone losing data from a cloud service. Instagram being down for a week or so isn't the same as losing data from a cloud service, either. AFAIK, no data was lost, you just couldn't access certain pictures of your dog and food for a little while.

Everyone's media should either be backed up in a cloud or in two places other than your phone (usually a PC/laptop and a backup hard drive). Your app data and SMS data is easy enough to back up to a cloud service using a $5 app. It's very easy to back up your cloud service to your home PC/laptop and backup drive as well.

SD cards are really only good for storing extra media files on your phone. They aren't reliable enough to store your only back up of anything and cloud services are extremely reliable, free and easy to use. The only reason anyone "needs" an SD card is because the internal memory in their phone is too small to hold all of their media. Once that problem is solved no one will "need" an SD card in their phone.

 

[Ry]

I already explained. I'm not interested in being a postpaid contract customer anymore (unless something miraculous happens to Sprint in the next few months).

So I can't afford to buy the Sony or Samsung phones I'd want. I'm instead stuck with mid tier phones and it isn't certain even they would continue to have onboard microsd.

I love my Nexus 5 except for the storage and battery issue.

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I already explained that the option to purchase them still exists. If you're not willing to pay that price, no one can help you.

 

[mrsmumbles]

I already explained that the option to purchase them still exists. If you're not willing to pay that price, no one can help you.

That's one of the most willfully oblivious statements I've come across in AC forums.

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[Ry]

That's one of the most willfully oblivious statements I've come across in AC forums.

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Samsung and Sony sell micro SD cards. They have a vested interest in continue to support expandable memory on their devices. And you'll continue to have those OEMs as an option to purchase for as long as they support it. I'll be oblivious to your price requirement just as you have been oblivious to having the option to buy a Samsung or Sony high-end phone that actually meets your needs. Oh and in the no-contract realm, none of these guys have ever priced the high-end phones you say you want at the Nexus 5 levels of price.

Basically, what you're looking for never existed in your eyes.

 

[mrsmumbles]

Samsung and Sony sell micro SD cards. They have a vested interest in continue to support expandable memory on their devices. And you'll continue to have those OEMs as an option to purchase for as long as they support it. I'll be oblivious to your price requirement just as you have been oblivious to having the option to buy a Samsung or Sony high-end phone that actually meets your needs. Oh and in the no-contract realm, none of these guys have ever priced the high-end phones you say you want at the Nexus 5 levels of price.

Basically, what you're looking for never existed in your eyes.

That's what I've been saying, more or less. That's why it's a problem for me and others who do want SD support in the good phones we *can* buy. Geez. :banghead:

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[sauce_a_poutine]

Cloud servers are many times more reliable than SD cards

Not when a data connection is unavailable. Typically where that happens, you're probably also far from a broadband connection.

Everyone's media should either be backed up in a cloud

In my nick of the woods, data over the 1Gig plan carries a surcharge equivalent to 1500$ per Gig. If you don't mind the carrier's gouging, sure, use the cloud all you want (oh, yeah, when and if it is available, though.)

The only reason anyone "needs" an SD card is because the internal memory in their phone is too small to hold all of their media. Once that problem is solved no one will "need" an SD card in their phone.

Again you assume availability and affordability of both connectivity and bandwidth. Out there in the real world, for billions of people, connectivity is spotty or innexistent, and fopr others, just too expensive to even send a single picture per month.

 

[Ry]

Not when a data connection is unavailable. Typically where that happens, you're probably also far from a broadband connection.

People really should be backing up to both the cloud and physical storage.

In my nick of the woods, data over the 1Gig plan carries a surcharge equivalent to 1500$ per Gig. If you don't mind the carrier's gouging, sure, use the cloud all you want (oh, yeah, when and if it is available, though.)

Which carrier are you on?

Again you assume availability and affordability of both connectivity and bandwidth. Out there in the real world, for billions of people, connectivity is spotty or innexistent, and fopr others, just too expensive to even send a single picture per month.

And again, OEMs like Samsung and Sony are still offering devices that have expandable memory.

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[garublador]

Not when a data connection is unavailable. Typically where that happens, you're probably also far from a broadband connection.

I'm having a hard time imagining a situation where you need to restore lost data on your phone but don't have an internet connection, let alone it being probable that it will happen. Remember we're talking about backing up data, not accessing frequently used data. Anything frequently used is probably best kept on your device. It's just that it's more reliable to have the back up on a service with redundant servers than it is to have it on a micro SD card. Plus, if you don't have data available, then your phone won't do much, anyway, so restoring data won't be that important.

In my nick of the woods, data over the 1Gig plan carries a surcharge equivalent to 1500$ per Gig. If you don't mind the carrier's gouging, sure, use the cloud all you want (oh, yeah, when and if it is available, though.)

If data is that expensive for your phone then why not have a broadband connection? I'm having a hard time thinking of a smartphone that doesn't have WiFi and using WiFi doesn't count against your data plan. Again, we're talking about backups in case of data loss, not accessing frequently used data. Perhaps your usage is different, but when I need to restore data that I had backed up I'm either in complete control of when I need it (I'm doing a factory reset for some reason) or I just got a new phone. Getting a new phone generally happens in controlled situations as well (you aren't restoring your data to a new phone in the middle of nowhere, you're at home with WiFi). I generally use less than half a Gig per month (I've never used more than a Gig) and I have all my music backed up on a PC and/or cloud (anything purchased as an MP3 is generally automatically backed up by the store that sold it to me, e.g. Amazon or iTunes).

Again you assume availability and affordability of both connectivity and bandwidth. Out there in the real world, for billions of people, connectivity is spotty or innexistent, and fopr others, just too expensive to even send a single picture per month.

I'm assuming you have access to data that isn't through your mobile carrier (WiFi). If you don't have that and have very limited mobile data, then there's little chance you'll have a lot of data to back up. It would cost too much to download that data in the first place. Remember the claim was that everyone "needs" an SD card to use as a way to back up data. Just because it's theoretically possible that there are people out there with almost no internet connectivity on their phones who somehow are generating data that need to be backed up who also don't have any other computing device they can use as back up doesn't mean that claim was incorrect. Micro SD cards have a relatively high failure rate compared to most all other forms of storage so they're a poor choice as a backup solution.

Out of curiosity, what do these billions of people do with smartphones that don't have internet connectivity? There's no way to get music on your phone if you don't have an internet connection or another device with a CD drive. If you're relying solely on a micro SD card to store your pictures it's just a matter of time before you lose them all. Pretty much all I can do with mine without internet is make calls, text and take pictures. You don't need a smartphone for that.

 

[mrsmumbles]

When your computer dies, when you get evacuated from your home, you'll want the media stored on your card if your data coverage sucks.

In the over three years I've been using cards not one has failed or become corrupted.

Card failure seems to happen in the Samsung Galaxy series at least 90% of the time according to what I've been reading.

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[sauce_a_poutine]

Anything frequently used is probably best kept on your device.

It is, thanks to a MicroSD slot allowing me to have lots of storage. These days, I've got about 57Gbytes with me at all times.

If data is that expensive for your phone then why not have a broadband connection?

I do, at home, but not when I spend weekends up north, where the closest building is a gasbar/convenience store about 2 hours' drive away.

Out of curiosity, what do these billions of people do with smartphones that don't have internet connectivity?

That is NOT what I wrote. I wrote that "billions of people subjected to flaky data reception and/or extremely limited data plans". That you cannot fathom this very real situation just shows how lucky you are. Believing everyone else is as privileged as you seem to be (connectivity-wise), is short-sighted, and denotes that you are not much of a traveler. That, in itself is no sin, but your skepticism about data connectivity being problematic in certain ways for many people is quite puzzling.

Pretty much all I can do with mine without Internet is make calls, text and take picture

Well, perhaps it's your case.

For me, the smart phone is much more than just a streaming device/browser/phone. A smart phone loaded with a bunch of apps, is nothing less than an ultra-portable computer. A computer does not necessarily need to be connected to the web to be useful. If it has ample storage, the Internet becomes much less important, and the same holds true for a phone.

My phone gets a lot of bandwidth-less use. It's the ultimate deep woods cabin and camp site jukebox and video playback device. It's no tablet, but still, I read books on it. It's also what I use to keep and edit my Journal. My work hours are logged on a spreadsheet which I edit and save on the phone itself. (I don't have a regular office job). I use it to have a read out of my GPS coordinates and use it's compass. I use it to ID vegetation and birds with my botanical and birdwatchers' guides. I also have a folder with a whole bunch of recipes saved from the web, in many deferent formats, including some in video form, so I also use it for cooking. The timer on the phone is also quite sweet for cooking times. It's Notepad is a regular life saver. I also keep a few catalogs of all owned hard copy media, which avoids double purchasing of CD /DVD/ Blu-Ray. I also keep a locally stored "wanted list"; because my Amazon list can be hard to connect to Inside a big shopping center, and HMVs often have better deals than Amazon on the type of titles I like.

From April to October, I spend my weekends camping in out-of-coverage areas. I live in a city of a 3 and a half million people on the east coast. Yet the first "No reception at all" zone I encounter is just 3 hours' drive away. On the 11 hour drive to the city where my parent met, and where 40 thousand people live, there are 3 "data blind" spots and one 2 hour "No reception at all" zone.

 

[sauce_a_poutine]

Hi , my name "sauce_a_poutine". I have a smart phone, even though my country's data/phone coverage and costs are horrible.

But, from this thread, I have seen the light.

I'm not worthy of having a smart phone. I will therefore swap it for a stone dagger and a wooden club. Now excuse me, I have to go club a mammoth to death with my tribe.