Need a $200-250 Phone - Suggestions

[Kevin OQuinn]

I disagree. Google is grudgingly allowing SD support because they don't want a backlash that taking away SD would cause. But they definitely don't like it, IMO, and are committed to throwing roadbloacks in our way to encourage us not to use it. They want us to use the stupid/slow/unreliable cloud. The cloud is not a replacement for local storage, and may never be.

This is far different from the days of the Nexus 1 when they embraced it.


Yeah, someplace like, oh I don't know...an SD card inside the phone? That would have been great.

I definitely learned my lesson though, and now that I don't have SD I will make sure to carry some other much-more-expensive-and-cumbersome backup solution along with me. It's part of the price I will have to pay to use Nexus devices now.


As is evidenced by the zero (0) SD cards that have gone bad for me and friends and family over dozens of devices and 5 years time. But people on the internet have had problems, so it is clear I should completely ignore my own experiences and assume that every SD card has a high failure rate now.


Only 99.9%. I agree, thats much worse.

I have yet to see any actual figures on failure rates. Even estimated ones.

They already took SD card support away. Then they added it back. Not because of backlash, but because they want it to be done properly. You might not like what their idea of proper SD card support is, but hey, you can always build your own OS if you like. I think it's also safe to say that you don't consider SD card support to be that crucial, or you would have chose a device that has it. As it stands, other things are clearly higher up on your list than SD card support. So yeah, there's that.

I use cloud backup for photos when I'm connected to wifi. It definitely minimizes the chance of losing photos. The odds of my device actually failing to the point of not being able to recover it while I'm away from wifi, and have taken pictures that aren't currently backed up, are slim.

I'm glad that you have never had an SD card fail on you. That does not mean it doesn't happen or that it won't happen to you.

 

[Almeuit]

That sounds more like a problem with the specific phone in particular than with SD cards in general.


I agree. The reverse is true as well, don't you think? How many people are experiencing data corruption every time they reboot the phone? I don't think your experience is the norm.

Yeah you think it's not the norm but you have no proof people don't have these issues .. So yes it goes both ways. I never said people don't have issues... I simply said I wouldn't trust sensitive stuff (such as photos) to an SD card. It's just my opinion on the subject ... Just as it's your opinion this isn't the norm. .

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

 

[dpham00]

Let's try to keep this thread on track. There are plenty of sd card threads out there for people to discuss it's pros and cons.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

 

[JeffDenver]

[No message]

 

[Almeuit]

Let's try to keep this thread on track. There are plenty of sd card threads out there for people to discuss it's pros and cons.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

True. We are derailing the original posters question.

Sorry! .

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

 

[JeffDenver]

[No message]

 

[JeffDenver]

[No message]

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

And we are not allowed to complain about anything Google ever does on forums, because we can't make our own OS. Got it.


Not as crucial as other stuff, no. The UI matters more. Camera matters more.


Would be nice if I could use both. In my situation, wifi was prohibitively expensive. Wifi access is not as common as a lot of people like to believe.


I'll let you know if it ever does. I am totally holding my breath.

Wi-Fi access is extremely common for me. And 99% of the people that I know. Does that mean that's the case for everyone (like you not having experience with SD cards failing)?

Nobody ever said that complaining about things Google does isn't allowed, or shouldn't be done. But you're complaining about SD card support, when Android DOES support SD cards.

EDIT: In an effort to not further derail the thread, the Moto G with LTE seems to be the perfect choice in the price range given.

 

[JeffDenver]

Wi-Fi access is extremely common for me. And 99% of the people that I know. Does that mean that's the case for everyone (like you not having experience with SD cards failing)?

Maybe we should start a poll. It's definitely not common on cruise ships.

 

[B. Diddy]

http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...xy-s4-micro-sd-card-corruption-issues-10.html

 

[JeffDenver]

If it's just the S4 having the problems, that leads me to believe it is the S4 that is the issue, not SD cards in general.

It's only the people with problems that are going to post. So we don't get to hear from all the people who are not having problems. Could also be a bad batch of SD cards. Some brands of hard drives are prone to dying, yet people are not poo-pooing hard drives as a storage medium in general. The supposed SD issue seems to be largely speculation driven.

XDA seems to think it is an issue only with Sandisk cards, and it seems to be limited to the S4. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2281813

Saying that all SD cards are prone to failures just seems a bit premature to me given the complete lack of actual evidence. Even with hard drive failures, we have sites that have actually done tests on them, or gotten actual return statistics or whatever. I have not seen that done with SD cards so far.

 

[Ed Briggs]

I just bought a Nexus 4 for $215 new on ebay. It's still a fast, quality phone that will everything you need. It has a quad core cpu, 2gb ram, and the adreno 320 gpu. Good specs.

 

[Ed Briggs]

Sounds like you lost your pictures because you didn't have proper backups in place to ensure that they were saved somewhere else. And remember, SD cards can and do go bad also. Just because you have an SD card does not make it a fool proof backup plan.

Yes. There's a saying: One backup is none, two backups are one. (if you don't understand this, scratch your head for a while)

 

[UJ95x]

If it's just the S4 having the problems, that leads me to believe it is the S4 that is the issue, not SD cards in general.

It's only the people with problems that are going to post. So we don't get to hear from all the people who are not having problems. Could also be a bad batch of SD cards. Some brands of hard drives are prone to dying, yet people are not poo-pooing hard drives as a storage medium in general. The supposed SD issue seems to be largely speculation driven.

XDA seems to think it is an issue only with Sandisk cards, and it seems to be limited to the S4. S4 another SD destroyer? Damaged SD Card | AT&T Galaxy S4 | XDA Forum

Saying that all SD cards are prone to failures just seems a bit premature to me given the complete lack of actual evidence. Even with hard drive failures, we have sites that have actually done tests on them, or gotten actual return statistics or whatever. I have not seen that done with SD cards so far.

I've had issues with other brands of SD cards.
The point is that the SD card is more prone to corruption than the internal storage on any device. In either case, neither should be your sole place for keeping backups. I have the photos on my SD card(1), make nandroids and copy them to my computer (2), and have Photos to automatically backup to G+ (3).

 

[B. Diddy]

No one is really saying that SD cards are prone to fail or are definitely going to corrupt. Statistically speaking, most people who use them will not have a problem. But the point here is that after seeing numerous threads like these:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/414801-my-sd-card.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/general-help-how/413728-sd-card-keeps-corrupting.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/413461-micro-sd-card-not-found-my-computer.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s5/412642-memory-card-issue.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/as...ing-music-stored-micro-sd-card-galaxy-s5.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/413691-sd-card-problem.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s4/362577-cant-add-new-music-my-microsd-card.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/412916-cant-get-my-microsdhc-work-my-moto-g.html

which I found after searching for only about 5 minutes, I can't help but advise caution to anyone who wants to rely on an SD card as an ironclad storage solution.

 

[VDub2174]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. My reasoning for wanting an SD card is I've been using an iPhone since the first one and always manage to fill it up with pictures, videos, music. iClouds storage isn't enough. so constantly backing up to PC. 16GB Moto G doesn't have LTE or SD. Probably could get by 8GB until my contract runs out and get S6 in the Spring subsidized.

Were you able to find a phone?

 

[JeffDenver]

I've had issues with other brands of SD cards.
The point is that the SD card is more prone to corruption than the internal storage on any device.

Probably. But the real question is how significant it is. If it is only .5% more likely to corrupt data, is that really a good enough reason not to use it?

We don't really seem to know the actual rate, because no one seems to have any non-anecdotal data. And the data we have is definitely not consistent.

In either case, neither should be your sole place for keeping backups.

Never was for me. I have never relied on SD for longterm storage.

 

[JeffDenver]

No one is really saying that SD cards are prone to fail or are definitely going to corrupt. Statistically speaking, most people who use them will not have a problem. But the point here is that after seeing numerous threads like these:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/414801-my-sd-card.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/general-help-how/413728-sd-card-keeps-corrupting.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/413461-micro-sd-card-not-found-my-computer.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s5/412642-memory-card-issue.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/as...ing-music-stored-micro-sd-card-galaxy-s5.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/413691-sd-card-problem.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s4/362577-cant-add-new-music-my-microsd-card.html
http://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/412916-cant-get-my-microsdhc-work-my-moto-g.html

which I found after searching for only about 5 minutes, I can't help but advise caution to anyone who wants to rely on an SD card as an ironclad storage solution.

People with problems are the ones who are going to complain. If you counted all SD owners on this site, how many do you think would have SD problems? 50%? 10%? 1%? Less than 1%?

IMO, it would probably be really low.

 

[B. Diddy]

I know how forums work. The point is that this happens, and to be cautious.

Posted via Android Central App.
Please excuse any typos or autocorrect derps.

 

[Aquila]

S3 is two years old but looks to have slighty better specs than the Moto G LTE.

Which ones? The G is much better software, they're the same resolution but the IPS on the screen of the Moto is a bit better, as is DPI. The build quality of the G seems to be substantially better. The processor is a huge upgrade over the S3. As others have stated, battery life and software obsolescence are both in favor of the G. As far as I know the GSM S3 doesn't have LTE, so that'd rule it out entirely from your criteria. The only redeeming quality of the S3 that I can think of is the camera. Value wise, the G is by far and away the better option IMO. The real consideration would be whether the X at $299 is an even better value. That'd be hard to gauge as easily.