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I might be an outlier on this one, but what was SD cards good for? Hear me out :-) It was good because you had a phone with 32GB storage (11.3GB free!). It also was good for swapping photos and films and such in/out of the phone.
I have a meager 128GB Storage space on my old phone, if I had to buy a new one (I buy used when I can) I'd opt for 512GB just to not nedding to care any more. I also have a ten dollar 64GB USB-A/USB-C key that I use to transfer stuff to and from the phone. I'm too lazy to set up a shared folder on my PC and maybe that's a bit technical for some people but that could make things even more smooth.
So what's your use case that absolutely needs an SD card nowadays?
Side note: they can try to pry the 3.5 jack from my dead hands though.
For storing photos and videos, mostly. As OP mentions specifically, TV and movies.
Removing SD cards was part of an overall strategy of extracting more money, because now they can absolutely take you to town for additional storage. 128GB SD card? $28 to SanDisk. 128GB upgrade for your phone? $200 to the OEM. ๐
Nr2 for sure, it was all 32GB (unusable) on the budget phone or 128GB on the flagship.
I have a phone with 128GB of space and an SD card with 256GB. To update to 256GB internal would have cost 250โฌ because price reductions often only happen on base models.
I have used 86GB of internal with the rest on the SD. That is near-zero photos, a few streaming playlists, 2 game apps, and almost no documents. Apps take up ridiculous amounts of space now because devs don't give a fuck about space.
On my SD card I have used up 154GB of 256GB.
My music library, all of my photos and videos are stored directly on the SD card, backups from apps, etc...
See how 154 + 86 is way more than 128 and a 256GB SD card cost 30โฌ while to upgrade to 256GB internal would be more than 800% the cost? And the sum above would be at the limit of 256GB anyway? They didn't offer a 512GB model.
The added benefit of if my phone dies or gets destroyed, the chance that I can just pull my SD card out and have all of my needed info including backups of my TOTP codes and everything without having to go to a multi-hundred euro recovery service.
Also the cost of getting more internal storage is not just the difference between the two models. Because as you said the 512GB model wasn't even available when you bought the phone but in 2-3 years it will probably be the default. But by then you can't just buy more storage like you would by getting a bigger card, you need a new phone.
That's expensive! Kids phone got that +100โฌ 512GB a year or two ago when he needed a new one.
I'm no apple/samsung guy though so it depends I guess.
What if the SD card dies?
What if the phone dies?
The answer is always the same.
What if the user dies?
Obviously backed up to the chatGPT overlord!
Backups
All their backups are on the SD card.
I thought I was going to be that way with the 3.5 mm jack but once I bought a pair of Bluetooth headphones I've been chilling, they're really good nowadays unless you're going full audiophile with .flac files
"Bluetooth is good" is not a counterargument though. Because all the phones with headphone jacks also had Bluetooth. They took away headphone jacks and gave us absolutely nothing in return except coercing us into buying more expensive and disposable shit. I've been using the same $20 wired headphones for 7 years; can you say the same about your $150 BT buds? I got a pair of Pixel Buds A with my P7 and they died in <3 years.
Yeah actually my Jabras are probably pushing 5-6 years right now. Maybe slight reduction in battery life but I never wear them for extended hours anyways.
Most $20 earbuds don't make it more than a year, and that's that I take good care of my stuff.
These are the ones I got (they're $16 now) note the replaceable wire. Also added some Comply foam tips (not sure exactly which ones) and they're so comfortable that I will forget they're even there sometimes.
Shrugs, I do use my FIIO BTR DAC sometimes (somewhat audiophile I guess), hooked up to my headphones. But only when the jack is not working as expected. Am I doomed?!
SD cards are cheaper than paying for more storage on the phone and easier to manage. I have mine loaded up with my entire music library and game roms for emulation as well as a smaller selection of movies. I spend a lot of time at work in places with little to k ow network so it's great to have on hand. I could fill the storage on any phone available today but I'd be constantly dealing with space when I wanted to install a new app or take video or whatever. I prefer to keep my media library separate.
Well, new phones have 512GB so I personally doesn't see the need for more storage, and double-usb keys make for easy transfers.
I mean I'm not against it, I had a 128GB SD card before, I just, personally, doesn't feel the need any more (and I'm only having 128GB base storage).
As I said I can fill that with ease. Leaving no space for apps. If I have everything on the separate card that is a non issue. Using USB dongles is not a solution. It's more crap we have to carry around when we already have an ideal method with the SD card. It takes up practically no space and offers great utility for those who need it. It's not like they're using the space on the board saved by taking it out to add new features.
If you fill up half a terabyte with ease, but not want to offload it on a usb key, well Xiaomi has a 1TB phone out ๐ .
You're right though, why remove something that small just because? Shitty move.
My current phone has an SD card slot but I never used it. I sync my photos to my server via wifi. In 2025 I don't really see it's point.
Also type-c usb drives and external hdds are common nowadays, if you just want to backup huge data via a wire, you can do that via it's port. It's more convenient plugging-unplugging an usb drive than removing the sd card, I use this feature occasionally.