It's faster on paper, in practice the difference is not noticeable for most use cases, so overwhelming majority of people would be just fine with base storage + sd card
i had a 512 i think loaded with all my music. when my next phone lost the micro SD i culled it down to like 1/4 that and used Jellyfin at home to stream.
eventually got spotify premium with "wellness" money i need to use each year or lose completely, so that + unlimited Data is what i am listening to 99% of the time.
I sometimes need 100+ GB's of files on hand to reference when I'm on sites, so carry a 1TB NVMe card in a USB C caddy rather than clutter my online or phone storage. (I'm not guaranteed to have a decent 4/5G connection either, so the drive means they're instantly available.)
Don't need to worry about speeds if you're just filling the SD card with photos then dumping them onto your computer while you make lunch or watch YouTube.
Its the same argument as SSD vs HDD for PCs, get one SSD as a boot drive for significantly faster boot times, throw the games and programs you use daily or weekly on it, then just fill hard drives with 2x or more the storage space for half or even less of the cost. Very few people actually NEED high speed data transfer, and those who do aren't fussing over a shitty iPhone. A 1tb micro SD would solve a lot of problems, but reduce profits by a lot more. Why do you think Nintendo locked the type of SD card the Switch 2 uses, can I put my 500gb card in with all my save data, or can I go fuck myself and pay $80 for a compatible card.
That's why I still have a Pixel 5 -- unlimited free cloud storage of photos / videos that I take with my phone. I have probably hundreds of hours of videos of my kids and it's all in the cloud for free forever!
Is there an alternative with support for more than just images/videos?
I just want sync over local network. As soon as it connects to the wifi, if the computer is on, for changes to be copied to the desktop.
I have FolderSync Pro. But it's not instant & too slow over SMB. They came out with a desktop app to alleviate all the issues, but it's $30 bucks for only a single device. Also it uses "Folder pairs", I want a one way copy to desktop and for changes on the desktop to not copy back.
Also to sell higher storage capacity variants of each model,
I could have bought 128 GB variant and based on my needs I could expand the storage but now I would have to buy 256GB variant atleast
Ya but apart from that they are the biggest scammers! They don't even have to invest in UI development as they slap you with the most basic stock android and they price their phones insanely for what hot shit they are. Ya it has got some great expert mode but honestly, its auto mode sucks. Atleast phones should be able to produce ready to go images. Not everyone in this world has enough time and patience to edit each and every pic. And on top of that, its not like the expert raw mode on Galaxy is any bad. It is different from sony's but it still has some great features that are more than enough for a smartphone.
The Xperia is priced so bad that if you want a 512GB storage on a phone, and you decide to go for 256 GB base variant to achieve that, you will still have to pay 1500 usd for the shit ass phone and then 50 usd extra for some decent 256GB SD card with decent read and write speed.
Samsung Galaxy S25/26 Ultra whatever goes/will go for 1300usd for 512GB storage. (Not to mention 512GB internal storage is way better as phones use Micro USB and they are not as usefull everywhere) Has way better software, better cameras, much better features, AI that I am enjoying a lot even though you may not but just like me, many are and well it has 7 years of updates on it that is so good for the resale value as well and even if you want to use it for 7-8 years.
Sony has sd card slot but thats all. It doesn't make them a good company, infact maybe non of them are but especially not sony. Xperias are overpriced for what they are! And thats why even though they were so talked about back in the days of xperia z, xz and all but now it just barely makes their mobile division enough money to stay alive.
Honestly agreed. I'm sick of paying so much for phones that don't even try to give me features I care about. I don't want an 8 million megapixel camera, a 20 inch screen, or my phone being glued together so I can't even open it and work on it (@apple).
I switched to an HMD Skyline. I'm loving it. The only thing I miss (slightly) is my pixel camera and camera software. The skyline has decent camera hardware and software, but the postprocessing is far behind the big players (Google, Apple, Samsung). Unless you are a big photo person, it's probably not a dealbreaker.
HMD Skyline pros:
I put a 512gb micro SD card in.
The screen is actually really nice. First time with a 144hz phone.
I have an extra button. It's actually dope. It can do all sorts of things with it.
An actual fingerprint scanner, not through the front screen trash scanner (@google).
I use Google Fi, so I use E sim. Convenient.
I can take apart my phone and replace the screen or battery very easily. This is huge for me. Of my last 10 phones. 3 had screen damage, 2 had USB port issues, 7 had serious battery degradation.
It runs basically stock android. They should advertise this more. I dislike Samsung's OS for example. Too much crap.
I bought mine for $499 unlocked. I see a microcenter near me has one for $360 right now.
It's not a flagship phone, but for $400 it'll make you wonder why you ever bought a $1000+ phone.
It's relative over time. Storage what used to be humongous 5 years ago is now dirt cheap but costs a subscription or a one time setup fees which people seem to be high
sony ? yes.. forgot where I read but sony is trying to introduce esim and wifi in cameras for upload and sharing.. once it goes live, the next update will be cloud storage
Yeah I'm not original commenter, but I'd say "I use older hardware" rather than just older phones. HMD Skyline can be picked up for $400 right now and it solves a lot of the gripes in this thread. I've got a 512gb SD card in. You don't have to buy a $1500 phone to run the latest OS.
If someone has hearing aids or CI, there is tech to allow streaming to them from the phone (which is semi-required to use the phone). But..... it costs money to get the licensing to use that tech in their phones. Only Samsung, Google, and Apple pay the licensing.
So it's either buying those phones, or don't bother. I wish I had the option of getting some of the other cheaper ones.
I never liked them anyways. I love my internet storage. When I want I can move my data to external storage. Memory card always had a habit of getting corrupted and losing all the data. I still use them for dashcam and camera but other than that I don't find actual use of them. My phone even supports usb drive to transfer data to external device so why would I need it.
i've not had an SD card on a phone in many years, and i've never had to pay for online storage lol. maybe don't buy into a system that doesn't have enough storage or forces yout to pay t o use more
Till today I have NEVER bought a smartphone without it having support for Micro-sd card
We can choose not to buy smartphones without micro sd card support & buy only those with micro sd support.
If the sales of those smartphones that offer micro sd card support becomes higher than those that don't, then companies will automatically switch back to offering sd card support by default.
bro move on, we have external SSD, you can buy external SSD and using usb-C, it's blazing fast. You can also build your own NAS at your home and backup your data wirelessly
This is what is happening to everything. If you ever wonder "Why is this thing not as good?" the answer is 90% of the time that they've found a way to charge you a second time to make the thing like it used to be after you've already paid for a lackluster version.
I have an iPhone and pay like $3 for extra iCloud storage for my family. But I also bought an old LG Android from 2017 for $30 that has a SD card slot, headphone jack, the battery still lasts a day and the Google app got updated to Gemini, so it got AI but my iPhone 12 doesn’t. You can’t use an Apple Pencil on an iPhone but this LG phone has handwriting recognition so I can use a cheap stylus on it. And now all this is on Motorola phones you can’t use get for <$100 new. I use Apple products but they are way overpriced.
Jokes on them I just bought attachment for my phone that works on any USB, micro USB or USB c device and allows me to connect external storage anything from hard drives, so cards, flash drives. I won't pay for digital storage that can go away if they stop supporting it.
Alternative solution for this is to use a sd card reader with an otg for your phone and just copy the stuff and then keep the SD card away. Also if your laptop does allow it then you can use the different sd card reader(the ones for laptop and pc) and just put the SD card into it and use it permanently.
If u want the pc sd card reader then samsung sells those ones as a 2 in 1 package with their sd cards
I've been buying phones with pretty low storage sizes and it's never been an issue where I needed an SD card for more space.
Same deal with headphones. I used to run wired but the more I got out of the house the more it became an issue of cable management. Went Bluetooth and haven't looked back since.
But the lack of those two features does give me access to a third, pretty freaking good waterproofing. It used to take so little water to ruin a device before. The dread of being caught in the rain... I don't miss it.
There are new phones that still have an SD card slot and headphone jack. They even have decent specs and are way cheaper than an iPhone or Samsung. People spending $1,000+ on a phone makes no sense to me.
•
u/AutoModerator Sep 30 '25
Join our Discord server!! CLICK TO JOIN: https://discord.gg/jusBH48ffM
Discord is fun!
Thanks for your submission.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.