SD Card on top end devices

[Moyah876]

I'm not sure what Samsung is playing at when it comes to SD cards.

So, I've just received a Samsung A34 5G, and to my amazement, it had a microSD card tray. Now, why is it that my top-end S24 Ultra doesn't come with a microSD card tray, yet a budget device does?

At this rate, I would be better off getting a budget device for the added benefit of an SD card tray!

[smiley · Accepted solution]

In some ways i would like to see a return of external storage media.

However, you will find the higher end phones are set with more internal storage. Additionally the world is transitioning into cloud and other methods for storing data.

I guess in some ways the common SD card is becoming obsolete. I would assume that the lower end phones still have the SD card slot as their storage is likely 64 or 128GB... and this adds some additional options.

As an engineer though I will discuss the limitations. External media peripherals and SD cards are only able to work at a certain speed. The data transfer has to be slowed down to interface with external media and therefore it is not as efficient as internal memory.
Larger internal storage is less susceptible to problems and is able to be clocked at the higher frequency of the board and the internal memory... usually much faster than peripherals speeds.

So there are some valid reasons why SD card media is not preferred these days. That and the need to have an additional port... connector... I/O pins ... and other considerations such as IP68 waterproofing etc.

So the decision is perhaps not as straight forward as you might think.

Smiley.

[Moiramon]

Unfortunately Samsung and Google still insist on starting the storage capacity at 128GB unless you go for the S+ or ultra. Most other top end android phones start at 256GB and above. They then like to to charge over the top for higher storage. Unfortunately if you are on contact in the UK a lot of the networks seem to only stock the lower capacity.

[keith30]

Probably cos the A models don't have enough space and memory like the S models do and therefore only a budget phone

[smiley]

To add a bit of context. The UFS4.0 internal flash memory that is used in the S24 phones for example... are able to run at a VERY fast speed. See this article for some information.

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/estorage/ufs/ufs-4-0/

For SD card speeds with the interface needed to read and write to the peripheral externally...this method of storage is massively slower and more susceptible to errors.

Even the Ultra High Speed UHS type of SD card is only around 300 to 600 Mbps.

This when compared to the flash UFS4.0 of at least 4200Mbps... possibly up to 23000Mbps (23Gbps).

So perhaps this explains some of the reasoning for the decision to use internal flash storage and remove external bus storage options.

By the way I am just a customer as well... but I see this as the driving reason for removing the SD cards from devices.

Additionally all these top end features such as AI, high MB photos, gaming and other high demands,require quicker and quicker storage and therefore the use of internal flash.

Whereas the A series is a low to mid range phone and not expected to excel in all these areas, can probably get away with slower read / write access, and is unlikely to receive the high demanding features for AI and performance gaming.

Smiley

[Piper123]

SD cards won't be coming to Flagships again.

Cloud storage and more storage on devices is far more reliable than SD cards which are notorious for failing.

[Moyah876]

I hear the argument for flagship devices not having SD card slots while budget devices do. However, I strongly disagree with this reasoning and believe that flagship devices should include all the features of lower-budget devices, including a microSD card slot. I've always said, if Samsung wants to prove us all wrong, then bring it back on an S series and watch the sales.

[Shadow057]

Yes you know here's the problem with the whole cloud thing and the amount of internal storage even on a s24 ultra. I cannot stand the quality of music that comes from streaming services. I used to be able to not only have my higher quality mp3s for the multiple artists that I want to listen to I could take advantage of the camera and video options. I personally find it ridiculous that we have The ability to film at 8K but we don't have enough storage to keep doing that or to save our pictures on our phone we have to put them on a stupid cloud server that belongs to either Samsung or Google or Microsoft unless I want to get a personal cloud storage that I could have at my house and then I'd have to still download stuff to my phone and vice versa. It's bad enough that mp3s are extremely compressed that it actually does not give you the full range of the music that you're listening to but no matter where you stream it from the quality is awful compared to what you can have when you actually purchase the music via mp3 with bandcamp or something. I don't like the fact that I have to delete stuff just to be able to film my kids part at a performance. Now granted I just got the s24 ultra late last year but I had the s23 ultra before that and between not being able to store my apps or even keeping my apps on the phone store my media on there it's ridiculous. Why even putting 8K video option if you're just going to have to send it to some cloud that everybody wants you to purchase. And then not only that since all these different clouds sit there and by default if you have an account with say Samsung Google or Microsoft all of them start backing up all of your stuff you know how hard it is to delete something I really do not want anymore? They need to go back to having the memory card slot especially for the higher end phones like the Ultras we shouldn't have to pay for cloud storage after paying what we have for the phone. There are very high-end SD cards made specifically for faster transfers and as somebody who makes a living being a consultant to musicians by listening to their tracks or their soon to be released albums to let them know if there's a problem with the sound problem with the quality even if something just sounds off or they need to add something it's impossible for me to do that via Spotify. Half the music I have you can't really find on any of these streaming places and the quality just is so compressed you might as well be just listening to the radio. I just really wish that they would put the SD card slot back in is it really that difficult to do? I can completely see them not doing it for the regular phones like only put it in for the ultra people don't have to use it but for those of us who have an SD card with over a hundred gigs of music that they really wish they could have with them all the time but can't or people who want to use all the options on the camera and the pro video options having that space right there instead of having to go through the cloud menus and what happens if you can't download something what if you need a picture and you can't get it because service sucks? What happens if the service sucks and you're listening to music while you take a hike through the woods sorry about your luck hopefully you decided to download your favorite tunes on spotify's spotty canned compressed music. In reality it's because of greed. It's because things are moving too clouds because people have to buy space on those cloud servers which are not helping the environment at all either. It's because they can get people to buy Spotify so they can look up the artist they want to listen to well you can't find a lot of the stuff that I want to listen to it's almost like people think that there's only pop mainstream and that's it. I'm not going to find the DJ fix early 2000s continuous DJ mix on most places. Yeah it could get it on YouTube but hey that's awesome quality as well said sarcastically. The amount of money that we pay for these little tiny micro computers we should have the ability to add more storage on our terms and I highly doubt that jumping back and forth from cloud servers is any quicker than an SD card a higher end SD card. It's just a poor choice to do and really it comes down to greed. I have yet to be able to save music on a cloud service and be able to pull it up and play it on my phone and I don't want to have to download a picture or a video just to be able to work on it in an editor every single time especially since these phones cost as much as a laptop actually more than a laptop. The least they could do is give us an SD card slot. But hey at least they're not trying to give us advertisements in the Samsung music player like they did a few phones ago. I have been a Samsung customer with Samsung phones since at the very least 2010 but I'm pretty sure yeah my first phone was a Samsung yeah since 2002 I love their products I just find that this is a very poor greedy decision and for me it completely has taken away one of my favorite aspects to the Galaxy phones. The fact that there is a very good internal equalizer so I can completely customize the sound quality and the screens and I keep saying it the cameras are wonderful I've stopped bringing my actual mirrorless SLR around but what's the point of having all of the different effects and the different time lapse options and pro and to save them as raw format and then force us to pretty much send them to a place that somebody could just sit and collect all our data. If I don't want to have all of my photos and videos of my family on some random server somewhere that could get hacked as quick as people are doing to DC right now I shouldn't have to and it just kind of makes me feel like it's a way for them to collect money and data. Then it's not fair for what we pay for these phones and they need to bring it back to that people can actually use these phones to the fullest. I think having to choose between your apps your music and your media or pay somebody money for off s phone storage is actually taking away the quality that's in this device. You talk about how things need to be slowed down to be put on an SD card or what about sending them to the cloud and back? With an SD card at least if there's no signal If there's no service if there's no Wi-Fi I can still get my stuff I can still listen to music and I can still mess around with my photos and my videos but not only that I think that it compromises the security of the phone itself. I have found it so frustrating and I just really wish they would bring it back hell I would pay an extra hundred bucks just to have it and I don't want to carry some stupid type c thumb drive around to plug into the bottom of my phone been there done that a long time ago not type c but we shouldn't have to not with an ultra that should be part of the ultra sorry rant over

[Shadow057]

I'm sorry but it's more greed than anything I'm sorry if a Samsung tablet can have an SD card slot and I know they make faster SD cards then they should be able to make an SD card slot for the ultra. In the end what it is is money it's greed. You have an 8K camera on here but in reality unless you pay for cloud service it's worthless if you want to keep higher quality mp3s for music to listen to. You have to pick they make you pick between crappy quality music on a streaming service or good quality video of your kid taking their first steps or the apps that you may need for work as well as play. If there is a problem with them failing then that's a failing of the phone itself and I've had Samsung for hell since 2002. It's because they want people to pay money for streaming services and cloud storage it's greed because you cannot tell me that it is faster and that it is more convenient to have my phone send the stuff it needs to store to some random server somewhere and then have to retrieve it when I need to get said video or if I want or even could save my higher quality mp3s on a cloud. What about when there's no service? What happens when I'm hiking or camping in the woods but I also have to critique a new song that I have to give a report on? Streaming services don't usually have the music I listen to Heck a lot of the stuff I do for work isn't even out yet. For the amount of money we pay which is sometimes more than an actual laptop and with all the abilities that these phones have I think that they could figure out what the glitch is so that people who spend the money to get an ultra can actually use the phone to its fullest ability. Cloud storage sucks plain and simple it sucks I don't trust having to have all my media on some server that could get hacked into like our government. I think that it's greed. It's greed which is a shame. I see no reason why we couldn't have that in our phones when we can have it in our tablets other than hey let's make a whole bunch of money making people back up their phones to a cloud service so that when they are trying to record memories of their family or share them we can tell them they're about to run out of space on the cloud too and that they have to buy more it's always bye bye more. Kind of like when they decided to put advertisements in Samsung music player a few phones ago. Nobody really wants to have all of their information on a random server especially now. And there's no streaming service who has high quality mp3s streaming mp3s does not give you anywhere near the full range even though mp3s are already compressed so you're not going to get the full range you would have if you had a CD but streaming services don't give you high-end quality even if you have the settings on there not like when you purchase something and you download it to a high quality. It's greed Make them spend more make them buy more More more more more more more more well we bought the ultras that should at the very least give us the ability to add storage to our actual phone so we have it on hand so maybe they should just figure out how to fix that glitch but I know they won't because money money is always funny when you make people pick between their memories their apps and music. Not to mention all those cloud server farms are doing absolute wonders for the environment. Instead one little tiny chip compared to Giant servers just to make people pay for storage.

[Shadow057]

I don't understand why higher end quote flagship devices can't have this I agree with you completely on that I think that if somebody pays the money for an ultra and they have to choose between having their media right there at hand on their phone being able to save better quality music to their phone or actually have the on phone storage to utilize the 8K video we should be able to especially if they can put it in a shall we say budget friendly phone. In the end it's if somebody has the money to buy the ultra let's make them buy cloud storage and I don't see how that is any more convenient than actually having my media in my phone. I think it's ridiculous and obviously it's got me a little bent right now. Maybe that's because I just had to go and pick between the new album from one of my favorite bands or they're older album. I don't even know and I've never been able to record to cloud so to me if I want to record a video of my kid doing a performance it's not like I can record straight to the cloud If I had an SD card I could have the space to actually record a full video in 8k but I can't not without taking my music off my phone so I agree with you anybody who pays the amount of money we've paid for these micro computers just to have to pick between paying money for a streaming service with crappy quality even at highest quality paying for cloud storage or memories not to mention it's a server somewhere and if there's no service you can't retrieve your photos you can't retrieve any music your SOL all because honestly they want to make more money people want music make them pay for Spotify hey look at that they're going to need more storage up You're almost out of the free storage would you like to upgrade your cloud storage so we can have all of your data on a server instead of you being able to have it right there on a teeny tiny little card right in your phone. That's okay we will use massive amounts of power in some server cloud farm where people can potentially farm your data we can see everything you're doing if we really wanted to and we can give it to whoever. After everything that's going on in DC right now The last thing I really want is to have all of my videos and pictures and art and music somewhere that some tech kid could just decide to farm. I also don't get why we can have SD cards in our tablets and our everything else I mean heck even Tesla's you get an SD card to record the century mode and everything else on it I think it's greed I think it's a cop out. So long story short I absolutely agree with you that we should have all of the abilities that the non-flag ship phones have and then we can choose if we want to actually use the SD card or spend even more money on cloud storage. And no matter what they say it will change because people are not going to want their information out there all because people need to make more money. If there is some sort of glitch it would have been fixed by now If it wasn't for the fact that it's not about a glitch it's about making people get subscriptions making people buy more that's why a lot of apps now you can't just buy the whole thing like Adobe you can't just pay a lump sum and hey I've got the program now nope it's monthly God forbid you get a high speed SD card that makes it so that you don't have to buy anything from anybody you don't have to have a Spotify account so that you can listen to music without any ads that sounds like it's on the radio you don't have to pick between Google's cloud or Samsung's cloud or Microsoft cloud where they're constantly telling you you should buy more and you don't have to make sure you have Wi-Fi or service in order to listen to good quality music. God know people who spend the money on an ultra can't do that no no no these billionaires need to make more money That's legitimately what it is.