In depth: Do we really need expandable memory on our phones any more?

Everyone wants more storage on their phone, but the cost seems too high. Apple is constantly lambasted for not having expandable memory ports in its iPhones – but now that we have a 256GB iPhone, and access to reams of cloud storage, do we really need it?

For some the extra space is a safety net; for others it’s a media storage centre that enables them to hold masses of music, movies and photos. You can only consume so much media though – and with streaming so widely available, do you really need everything on your phone at all times?

Now that most top-end Android phones offer a microSD slot the debate still rages: is it better to have expandable memory, or pay the extra money to jump up and have the security of internal memory?

The problems with external storage

Design has been an issue when it comes to external memory, with more premium-looking handsets aiming for unibody designs, which has made putting microSD slots in more difficult.

However, more recently manufacturers have been able to create unibody handsets that also feature microSD expansion. The Samsung Galaxy S7, for example, features a strong metal and glass build, and waterproofing, and yet still offers a SIM card slot that doubles as a microSD holder.

Speed is also an issue. Cheap memory cards in particular just don’t perform as well as internal memory, with one study, carried out by Hyojun Kim at the Georgia Institute of Technology, showing that using a microSD card in your phone can cause it to become sluggish, with even basic tasks like web browsing suffering as a result.

Overall performance can often drop by between 100% and 300% – and in one case the study found that there was an incredible 2,000% decrease in performance.

Even at the lower end that’s a massive loss in performance, and an unacceptable trade-off for some extra storage.

The good news is that, thanks to the demands of users like GoPro fanatics, who want to be able to instantly swap cards in and out while recording high–quality content, the newest microSD cards are comparable in speed and performance to internal memory.

Ruben Dennenwaldt, Senior Manager, Product Marketing EMEA at SanDisk, told TechRadar: “Our microSD cards [now] go up to transfer speeds of 275MB/s – that’s much faster than usual embedded storage.”

More recent iPhones have speeds nearer to the 200MB/s mark – while that would suggest memory cards are actually faster than internal memory, the way the memory card is read and cached can also be factors, so in reality there’s very little difference in speed in real-world usage.

There’s another issue coming though: as storage sizes increase, speeds need to get faster.

Looking ahead, Dennenwaldt makes a telling statement: “We can’t comment on our future roadmap, but demand for memory is ever-evolving, and files [keep getting] bigger with new technologies like VR, 4K, 6K and even 8K coming.”

Then there’s the issue of how much the two kinds of memory cost – or, more precisely, the perception of it. Many see internal storage as being far too expensive compared to the cost of just buying a larger microSD card.

For instance, the iPhone 6S is offered in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB sizes – the cost difference between the models can be up to 10 times the price of buying the equivalent memory card.

What isn’t taken into account with that stat, of course, is that internal memory is higher-quality, faster to use, and generally more stable, as it’s part of the phone’s core operating system.

The same can’t generally be said of expandable memory. Giving a talk at Chaos Compute Club Congress, hardware hacker Andrew Huang said: “Flash memory is really cheap. So cheap, in fact, that it’s too good to be true.

“In reality, all flash memory is riddled with defects – without exception.”

Nonetheless, if given the option to buy an entry-level phone and upgrade it with aftermarket memory, many would choose it – especially if they weren’t using their phone for the kinds of things that would tax a microSD card regularly.

Adoptable storage

A feature that was introduced with Android 6.0 Marshmallow – adoptable storage – could provide the perfect solution, at least for Google OS-powered phones. Where previously there was a clear separation between internal and external storage, the two are now effectively one and the same.

Adoptable storage essentially formats your microSD card so that it adopts the same structure and permissions as the phone’s internal storage, effectively absorbing it into the internal memory.

The key benefits of this are the improved speeds with which the phone can read and write to the card, and the facility to install large apps on it – something that’s not possible when the phone ‘sees’ the card as external memory.

This means you can expand the storage capacity of your phone easily – and for a lower cost than buying a larger-capacity handset.

Another advantage of adoptable storage is security. The card can be formatted to only work in the handset it was set up in, so if the card were to be stolen or cloned it shouldn’t work in another device, meaning your data couldn’t be accessed.

However, this is a fairly niche scenario, and would only be an issue if you regularly took the memory card out of your phone and put it back in – something that’s not recommended when using adoptable storage, as it can remove files key to the phone’s operation.

While adoptable storage sounds like the ultimate solution, there’s a reason that manufacturers are wary of adding it in as a feature, even if their phones are running Android 6.

If a card isn’t high-enough quality it can’t be embedded as internal storage, due to the slower access speeds it can achieve – a phone needs memory that can operate at a certain level, otherwise it would struggle to open and close apps and perform other tasks.

Manufacturers are coming around though. While Samsung refused to include adoptable storage in its Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phones earlier this year, it’s now decided that the feature is robust enough – or maybe it’s realised that users have become more savvy – to offer the option in the recent Galaxy Note 7, suggesting it could become a standard feature in future handsets.

The cloud is the future

The thing that could make the issue of where you store your data on the phone moot is cloud storage. Storing your precious photos, music and other files in an online server is now easier than ever – there are plenty of free or cheap options available, all of which are backed up instantly and without prompting.

The only problem comes when you need your stuff but don’t have the right connection. As SanDisk’s Dennenwaldt says: “The main demand for storage comes from user-created content.

“Have you ever tried to record something in 4K directly to the cloud? Or save something to the cloud where there’s no coverage?

He adds: “Local storage and cloud can work together to address the growing user demand for storage.”

Storing 4K video locally on a removable microSD card allows for instant saving, quick editing and the ability to swap out for more memory.

Backing that up to the cloud means that even if a card is lost or damaged you still have a way of getting your data back – but that doesn’t really help to answer the question of whether we still need memory cards or not.

An expanded view

One thing is certain: we don’t need expandable memory in the way we used to. Online streaming and pervasive connections mean we can watch TV and movies wherever we want, just by grabbing them from the internet.

Meanwhile, rapidly increasing base levels of internal storage in phones mean the days of running out of space after taking just a few photos are long gone too.

But there’s still one thing that consumers crave: confidence in their device. There’s something visceral about knowing that your content – and perhaps your whole digital identity – is stored locally, and can be removed when you need it.

That’s why there’s still a market for Lightning port drives that can copy data from your iPhone and store it externally – it’s cumbersome, but it offers security and reassurance.

Android’s introduction of adoptable storage, meanwhile, will certainly make microSD expansion more desirable for both consumers and manufacturers.

It offers convenience and flexibility for users, and allows manufacturers to put lower amounts of internal storage in the base models of their phones, leaving the buyer to decide how much capacity they want to add.

Major brands like Samsung including expansion ports in solid state builds makes for an appealing alternative to Apple’s closed iPhone design – whether or not it’s needed isn’t really the question.

There’s no doubt that as connectivity becomes more dependable and omnipresent, the desire for greater amounts of expandable memory in phones will diminish, with gigabit Wi-Fi giving you masses of ‘expanded’ memory that’s as accessible as a memory card.

But right now the memory card is still a crucial part of daily life for many Android users, bringing a degree of convenience and confidence to their phone purchase – and even many iPhone users are secretly wishing they could do the same.

Source: techradar.com

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