Farewell, SDXC! We barely knew ye.

blisterpeanuts · May 1, 2012

Now that 64 gig sdxc cards are becoming available, with larger ones just around the corner, Google and HTC have decided that most of us no longer need mass storage on our smartphones, so are eliminating the choice completely in such "flagship" models as the Galaxy Nexus and HTC One series.

As a person who can fill up a 16 gig card faster than you can say "There's no cloud on a plane flight", I have been eagerly awaiting these higher capacity cards so that I can finally carry around all of my music and assorted other media/documents without having to tap my data plan. I do a lot of photography and video clips, and it's amazing how fast the storage fills up when you have a young child who is very cute and photogenic!

Now it seems Google has firmly positioned itself as the cloud company, forcing its Nexus manufacturer to remove the traditional memory slot just to make a point. My current Nexus S has less memory capacity than my original Nexus One from early 2010, and the powerful new Galaxy Nexus comes with about 12 usable gigs of storage, now and forever. They even canceled the 32 gig version.

Maybe it's pass

bigdrew · May 1, 2012

I'm kind of ambivalent towards sd storage. On one hand, it's a cheap way to expand your capacity. But it's slower than internal memory, even the class 10 chips, and it's not reliable enough. I rsync mine pretty regularly after losing some data. If you've ever had a card go bad on you, then you probably know how discouraging that is. I'm also not too keen on MTP, but there's always Airdroid. But it's still not as intuitive as USB mass storage.

I think cloud storage makes a lot of sense for music and pictures. It takes up a lot of disk space but not too much streaming bandwidth, so it's a pretty favorable tradeoff. Videos probably need local storage though.

chanchan05 · May 1, 2012

Uh, the Nexus phones, from Nexus One to Galaxy Nexus, never had mass storage via SD cards.

blisterpeanuts · May 1, 2012

chanchan05 said:
Uh, the Nexus phones, from Nexus One to Galaxy Nexus, never had mass storage via SD cards.

The Nexus One most certainly did! I have a 16 gig in it.

chanchan05 · May 1, 2012

It did? Hmm, from what I know my friend said it did not. But anyway, I never wanted the Nexus phones. And this is a manufacturer decision. People are buying up iPhones despite this limitation. Anyway, I doubt Samsung will follow suit, especially since its newest devices the Tab2 and Note 10.1 has SD card slots.

wxman2003 · May 2, 2012

chanchan05 said:
It did? Hmm, from what I know my friend said it did not. But anyway, I never wanted the Nexus phones. And this is a manufacturer decision. People are buying up iPhones despite this limitation. Anyway, I doubt Samsung will follow suit, especially since its newest devices the Tab2 and Note 10.1 has SD card slots.

Yes, but with the iPhone you can get one with 64 GB of internal storage.

chanchan05 · May 2, 2012

wxman2003 said:
Yes, but with the iPhone you can get one with 64 GB of internal storage.

Not sure where you are, but you also have to consider price point. Where I am, a 32GB iphone costs as much as a 32gb Galaxy S2. And a 64GB is more expensive, almost $100 difference last I checked, so the argument is invalid since you are paying more anyway. Any Android can have a 64GB internal storage as well, at much higher price point.

blisterpeanuts · May 2, 2012

chanchan05 said:
Not sure where you are, but you also have to consider price point. Where I am, a 32GB iphone costs as much as a 32gb Galaxy S2. And a 64GB is more expensive, almost $100 difference last I checked, so the argument is invalid since you are paying more anyway. Any Android can have a 64GB internal storage as well, at much higher price point.

Again, not quite correct. The whole point of this threat is that Android phones are moving away from expandable storage or even large internal fixed storage. HTC One S, HTC One X, and Galaxy Nexus all have no expansion ports. I'm particularly miffed about HTC because the One would otherwise be a very appealing handset. Now we just have to hope Samsung and Motorola continue to buck the trend. Moto being bought by Google however doesn't bode well for future products.

chanchan05 · May 2, 2012

blisterpeanuts said:
Again, not quite correct. The whole point of this threat is that Android phones are moving away from expandable storage or even large internal fixed storage. HTC One S, HTC One X, and Galaxy Nexus all have no expansion ports. I'm particularly miffed about HTC because the One would otherwise be a very appealing handset. Now we just have to hope Samsung and Motorola continue to buck the trend. Moto being bought by Google however doesn't bode well for future products.

I was replying to the argument by the other guy where he stated that iPhones have 64GB storage.

Roze · May 2, 2012

I too am pretty miffed with the trend of OEMs taking out the option of an SD expansion slot. Most people might not need the space, but others do. It's an option that all the OEMs should keep in mind as it caters to everyone.

If you look to the big carriers in the USA, unlimited data is slowly being phased out. Internationally, unlimited data is something we can only dream about.

When you are forced on a limited data plan, you are more conservative with how you use your data. What's the point of storing everything in the cloud when it costs more than the (cloud) storage to access it? Has the irony been lost to Google?

chanchan05 said:
Not sure where you are, but you also have to consider price point. Where I am, a 32GB iphone costs as much as a 32gb Galaxy S2. And a 64GB is more expensive, almost $100 difference last I checked, so the argument is invalid since you are paying more anyway. Any Android can have a 64GB internal storage as well, at much higher price point.

The thing is, there are NO Android phones on the market now or have existed with a 64GB storage. So even IF you are willing to pay that $100 more for your Android pone with that 64GB, you can't.

I wanted the Galaxy Nexus but the GSM model only offers 16GB. The 32 GB is NOT even an option for those that want more memory. You also don't get the FULL 16GB of the internal storage but maybe 12-14GB. A few songs, a few videos and nephew of my nieces and nephews that I regularly has my card filled to the rim.

Also, apps are now getting much bigger, going from 50mb to 4GB. So a few of these apps and there goes your 16GB internal storage.

Where Android is about options, Google and its OEMs seem to be slowly stripping them away. I simply feel that Google is going Apple.

Hadron · May 2, 2012

I've never understood why anyone buys the 32GB Galaxy, since it's a lot more expensive than the 16GB one and much cheaper to just buy a card plus the 16.

If HTC sold the Ones in different sizes I'd understand - it would be a scam to get people to pay over the odds for extra storage (Apple, I'm looking at you). But just removing expansion and providing one inadequate capacity (One S - 16GB is 10GB for user's media) is just silly.

Roze · May 2, 2012

Hadron said:
I've never understood why anyone buys the 32GB Galaxy, since it's a lot more expensive than the 16GB one and much cheaper to just buy a card plus the 16.

The Galaxy Nexus doesn't have an SD Card slot :mad:

and only the CDMA model has the 32GB option. :mad:

Hadron · May 2, 2012

Sorry, I think of that one as a Nexus rather than a Galaxy - I was thinking of the SGS2.

And yeah, not even a 32GB GSM GNex - absurd!

Roze · May 2, 2012

Hadron said:
Sorry, I think of that one as a Nexus rather than a Galaxy - I was thinking of the SGS2.

And yeah, not even a 32GB GSM GNex - absurd!

lol, most of the devices discussed were Nexus, so I thought you meant Galaxy Nexus not a Galaxy S line

haha.

blisterpeanuts · May 3, 2012

Yes the fact that the carriers are tightening up data at the same time that the manufacturers are removing on-phone data storage means we users are being squeezed at both ends.

What's annoying is that the reviewers for phones like the HTC One and the G. Nexus hardly mention memory expansion, except as a little by-the-way footnote, as though no one cares about such features. I suspect a lot of these people are beholden to the carriers and manufacturers and probably aren't allowed to trash the product too much.

Maybe in a couple of years, the general population will begin to dimly realize that they've been had, and mainstream bloggers and reviewers will rediscover the merits of expansion memory on phones.

My goal is to buy the most powerful, expandable phone possible (Galaxy S 3???) that will last me for the next 2-3 years, and hopefully by then there will be a decent upgrade. Of course, in 3 years who knows what handsets will even look like? They could be radically different from what most of us are using today.

wxman2003 · May 3, 2012

chanchan05 said:
Not sure where you are, but you also have to consider price point. Where I am, a 32GB iphone costs as much as a 32gb Galaxy S2. And a 64GB is more expensive, almost $100 difference last I checked, so the argument is invalid since you are paying more anyway. Any Android can have a 64GB internal storage as well, at much higher price point.

Right now yes. But not one android phone has 64 GB of internal storage. And it doesn't look like any will be offering that very soon, much less 32 GB. Most are only offering 16Gb of internal storage and pushing us towards the cloud, which of course requires us to stream and use more data, which increases the cost to each consumer, especially in the US. If the android manufacturers abandon external storage and don't offer 32 or 64 GB of internal, I will be forced to go back to the iPhone when it comes out with a 4G model. I already have a 32 GB card for my razr maxx, and luckily I can upgrade it to 64 GB, which should keep me away from the iPhone for a few years.

Hadron · May 3, 2012

wxman2003 said:
Right now yes. But not one android phone has 64 GB of internal storage.

But a couple have been announced: Meizu MX Quad in 32/64 GB capacities (fixed), and SGS III in 16/32/64 GB flavours + SD expansion.

bob60626 · May 3, 2012

Along with data issues, don't forget battery life. If a phone's battery life is "good enough" with data OFF, think how bad it will be with streaming stuff from the cloud. It's a terrible idea. Also, keep in mind that most reviewers (you know, like when a new phone comes out and there's 300 reviews posted THAT DAY) are idiots.

We're actually getting screwed on three ends, however that works.

wxman2003 · May 3, 2012

Hadron said:
But a couple have been announced: Meizu MX Quad in 32/64 GB capacities (fixed), and SGS III in 16/32/64 GB flavours + SD expansion.

:thumbup:

Gmash · May 4, 2012

Just like with the non removable batteries, vote with your wallets.

blisterpeanuts · May 4, 2012

Gmash said:
Just like with the non removable batteries, vote with your wallets.

I'm planning to

Unfortunately, for the vast majority of semi-clueless customers, these details simply don't matter. They see that the Apple phones aren't expandable and you can't remove the battery, so they think "OK, that must be the standard."

Farewell, SDXC! We barely knew ye.

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