Is It Time for the MicroSD Card to Return to Phones?

For a good chunk of the 13 years that we’ve been chatting about Android and smartphones around here, we talked about the microSD card, the best versions of them, and where you could find them at the lowest prices. MicroSD cards were a big, big deal for so long because you could expand the storage of your phone for a reasonable price and then move to another phone easily by bringing that card with you.

Over the weekend a reader pointed out to us that Samsung fans had taken to reddit to beg for microSD cards to make a comeback after Samsung posted a series of fresh ads promoting new cards. It seems that a certain group of people really do miss the microSD card, which got me looking back at the last time we even mentioned them.

It looks like the end of 2020 was the last time we shared a microSD deal with you, which makes sense if you look at how the industry switched shortly after. Or should I say, where Samsung went to kick off 2021. With the launch of the Galaxy S21, Samsung once again killed off the SD card slot in its phones and that essentially ended any last reason to talk about them around here.

Google stopped accepting SD cards long ago, OnePlus has never really been a fan, and LG called it quits in 2021, just as Samsung was done including SD slots. Since we aren’t a site dedicated to the Nintendo Switch or the Steam Deck, and because the Android tablet with its SD slot has always targeted a small audience, we just haven’t thought about them in a while.

But now I’m curious – do you guys miss SD cards in smartphones?

I’m not sure how I feel about them, to be honest. Since the SD card slot has mostly disappeared from phones, a big portion of what I would have put on them is now in the cloud. I don’t have a stored music library locally because I subscribe to Spotity (and YouTube Music), my photos are all on Google Photos, and well, I’m not sure what else I’d toss on one. My contacts and calls and messages all sync through my Google account and I use Google Drive for file needs.

I also get why someone might want to use one. Maybe you invested in a 512GB card years ago and have put your entire digital existence on that card, so that you can move it from new phone to new phone. Maybe you don’t want to pay for all of the cloud services that have been forced upon us or to upgrade internal storage. Maybe you just want to control your stuff and have it at the ready.

Let me know.