There was a time, you could peel off the back cover of your phone and easily swap in a new battery and microSD card. In addition to feeling like a dual agent in spy spick, this added flexibility gave Android phone fans a bit of a welcome over their Apple competitors. Things have changed, however.
Phones today are narrower, slower and more powerful than ever, but we are also losing more and more features as the years go by. Rechargeable batteries are a distant memory, and even the powerful, seemingly immortal headphone jack has almost disappeared from a modern flagship.
The latest feature in smartphone evolution crosshairs? Extensive storage.
That’s right – the microSD slot, loved by both power users and media keepers, is in danger of entering the graveyard of a smartphone feature. While expandable storage options have not been as common in the last few years, it is the latest release of the Samsung S Galaxy S21 series that may mark the beginning of the end.
Trendsetter
It is reasonable to say that many see Samsung as the ‘Apple’ in the Android world. Its handsets are widely considered to offer one of the most prestigious smartphone experiences around, both in terms of hardware and functionality, as well as price. Not only that, but the South Korean tech giant also tends to jump on board Apple-created trends.
Yes, we know, that’s blasphemy in Android Temple’s dedicated halls, but it’s true.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that expandable storage is becoming an option on smartphones,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.
“Apple has always taken this approach, forcing customers to buy much more expensive memory replacements than a low-cost aftermarket memory card. With market leader Samsung abandoning expandable memory on its latest S21 smartphones, it looks like this option will stick with the 3.5mm headset jack. ”
Ah, the badly lost headphone jack. Remember when Apple eliminated it? Samsung released video ads making fun of Apple for it, just to pull them off later when they blacked out the port from its own flagship Galaxy line.
The same thing happened when it came to removing the previous Galaxy S21 cost plug as well. While the company has shown that they can reverse decisions – it removed the microSD slot in the Galaxy S6 and brought it back in the Galaxy S7 in 2016 – we can’t see for sure restoring the expandable storage franchise.
We are focusing on Samsung especially as the company is very reliable for trends in the Android world. While we can’t guarantee that other manufacturers will follow suit, it’s very similar, especially when you look at the headphone jack removal move.
At the time of writing, the flagship level phones with microSD slots include last year’s Galaxy S20, and Note 20 Ultra, the Sony Xperia 1 II and Xperia 5 II, the LG V60 ThinQ, and the Xiaomi Mi 10i , to name a few key examples.
Backlash or acceptance?
Humane man, and arguably, thanks to 24/7 bombing of memes, mind-boggling TikTok videos, and steady news rounds, our memories have never been shorter.
Remember when the idea of removing the headphone jack seemed silly? Ask the average person on the street about that today, and they’ll most likely barely record the Before Times, going on happily with their AirPods or AirPods-esque clones attached to firmness of ears. Those of us who are older may believe that the death of the headphone is largely motivated by the sale of wireless earbuds, but that is another story entirely.
“It will be interesting to see how this trend develops in the long term,” said Bill Nagy, TMT analyst and independent consultant.
“Apple opposed consumer backing for the removal of the headphone jack, but it did not immediately affect iPhone sales over the two years following the move. However, Android-based phones are famous for their versatility, a feature that is well appreciated by Android users. An increase in the removal of the option to use microSD cards, especially with the replacement of cloud storage, is likely to increase demand from Android customers.
“Other Android manufacturers would be wise to assess the market response to Samsung’s move to inform their future development cycles.”
It’s very likely, then, that Android hardware users – the kind of people who often go into the world of intractable bootstraps, custom ROMs, and several Android forums – can opt for the smaller boycott of Samsung phones, but they make up a small percentage of sales. .
Not only that, but OnePlus (a company that is highly regarded for serving Android lovers) has never offers expandable storage, and still seems to have a positive following. That’s still true for the new OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro.
Do you even need expandable storage?
Today, you might strongly believe that most people don’t need expandable storage. Thanks to the availability of cloud storage solutions like Google Drive and Photos, you can easily store your files and media online, saving your phone space for any apps and media files that are you want instant access (such as times of your favorite show to fly a long flight).
Beyond that, the reality is that despite advances in technology, microSD transfer speeds remain much slower than your phone’s built-in NVMe storage, which delivers much smoother, more stable performance. Yes, that’s a little geeky, and won’t interest the casual user much, but it’s worth mentioning.
The problem, however, is that we are seeing things like 8K video recording become more common in new handheld devices. If you’re a videographer fan, you’ll be chewing through onboard storage in no time. Plus, services like Google Drive and Google Photos are no longer completely free – you’ll need to charge a monthly fee once you exceed the free 15GB storage limit agad.
You could (certainly) argue that removing expandable storage options is a way for companies to push their own cloud storage solutions into the future, such as Samsung’s cloud services and OnePlus, to list a few examples. If you haven’t already seen this, this could lead to a wireless headphone jack / headphone upgrade setting again.
At a much lower level, this will also allow companies to follow Apple’s method of pushing higher-capacity devices at higher price points.
“Ultimately it means if you want a high-capacity smartphone you have to choose a more expensive model rather than augmenting the memory later with a memory card,” Wood says.
This is all an idea. Samsung may bring back expandable storage along with the headphones in a retro nostalgic product throw.
Phone manufacturers may make it a little thicker to give us bigger batteries, that can be changed again. Hell, we might even see phones with removable covers like the old Nokia days.