Continuing a series I started a week ago (Can I live without it? Removable Battery), we will take a look at external memory. 16-32 GB memory cards came included (as a bonus) with our android smartphones back in 2009. It was so much a stable of the phone that android would read “the root of the SD card” for its update (Update.zip).
Over the years we have seen some devices go the route of the iPhone and ditch the SD card slot, while other device manufacturers continued with including it in their phones. Google, in particular, have ditched the SD card after the Nexus one. Their excuses on why they ditched the SD card ranged from that it was bad for the UI (Android Police) to being an issue for multiple user support (AP2). Samsung and other manufactures have found a way to make having a SD card work for their customers despite Google continuing to ditch an external SD card.
So the the topic at hand, Can I live without a SD card?
Before I answer I would like to preference this with saying I have had a few corrupted SD cards in the past. Though it is rare, it does happen and the unfortunate thing is that it is nearly impossible to recover your data once that has happened. But when that happened we did not have the kind of cloud service backups we have now. With the ability to back up most app data to the app cloud server or to something like Dropbox and Drive, this concern of a corrupted SD card haves diminished (at least for me).
As far as whether I can live without a SD card, well I managed to do so just fine for the past 3-4 years since I have bought the Nexus 6. I have been with pure Google (regularly) since then. Though I briefly gave the Note 5 a chance, I quickly ditched that a few month later and went to the Nexus 6P and am currently using a Pixel 2XL. So to answer, yes I can manage to live without a SD card. But because I can does not mean I like it.
The one issue I have had with Google’s phones, other than the fact I feel like they hold back at times, is the constant excuse not to go with an external SD card slot. All this nonsense about how it is bad for the UI has been proven false by Samsung, LG, Motorola, and other android hardware manufacturers. It is obvious why Google intentionally leaves out the SD card, probably similar to why Apple does it, to force users to their cloud. It also forces users to choose the more expensive (phone) option for adequate storage space. Where as with a phone like the Motorola Z, a user can go with the cheaper phone and pick up a SD Card for twenty bucks (64 GB option) to bride the gap for extra storage.
I can live without a SD card but I don’t like it.
Tell me if you can live without a SD card slot in the comments.
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