How A MicroSD Card Could Save You $100 On Your Next Phone

With my current cell phone refusing to charge, I was shopping for a new one. I wanted a Samsung Galaxy S8+ (I could save money by buying the previous generation of phone), color didn’t matter. A little more thought was required when the sales representative asked me how much internal storage I wanted. Several choices were available, the price increasing with the memory size. I knew memory could be added to the current Galaxy phones by inserting a microSD card, so I contemplated if I should buy a phone with less memory and add a microSD card, or just buy a phone with more capacity.

Price

Adding memory with a microSD card is cheaper. A Samsung Galaxy S9+ with 256GB of internal memory cost $910, which is $120 more then the same phone with 64GB of internal memory. However, a 256GB microSD card can be purchased on Amazon for about $50, or if you don’t need that much room a 128GB card cost about $30.  That’s a lot of extra capacity for a savings of almost $100!

Usage

Older versions of Android treats external storage differently, allowing only things like pictures and videos to be stored on the microSD card. Applications and application data could not be stored there. However, current versions  of Android include a featured called Adoptable Storage which integrates microSD storage with the internal storage making it all usable for any purpose.

Performance

Reading data from, and writing to a microSD card is slower than using a phone’s internal storage. Therefore, using one as part of your phone’s storage may negatively impact it’s performance.

Analysis

Using a microSD card in your phone makes sense when:

  • The phone is used mainly for social media, pictures, video, music and email
  • Cost is more important than performance
  • You want the option of adding additional storage later

Buying a phone with a larger internal memory capacity makes sense when:

  • You use a lot of aps
  • You play games that store internal data
  • Performance is important

My personal usage falls into the first category. I purchased a Galaxy S8+ with 64GB of internal memory, the smallest amount offered. If I find myself needing additional storage in the future, I can do so with a microSD card.

Mobile phones are offered with different amounts of internal memory and some offer the ability to add additional storage through the use of microSD cards. What solution works best for a given individual depends on their usage of the phone, and what is important to them.

How about you, EOD Nation, do you own a phone that can add storage via a microSD card? Do you ever find yourself running out of room on your phone?

About Travis

3 Responses to “How A MicroSD Card Could Save You $100 On Your Next Phone”

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  1. Sassy Mamaw says:

    Two of my grandkids requested SD cards for Christmas. One for a phone, and one for a tablet. ~sniff~ They grow up so fast…

  2. Kevin says:

    BTW a couple things worth noting:

    1. Not all phones support the Adoptable Storage feature, including Samsung iirc.

    2. If you use Adoptable Storage, then you won’t be able to read the MicroSD card in other devices or even if you reset your current phone.

  3. We may be switching out from our iPhones, so this will prove helpful in the future! I would not of thought about using a simple MicroSD. And that’s why I read blogs! Lol

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