Things you can do when you have no expandable storag...

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Things you can do when you have no expandable storage

It is becoming a very clear trend. More and more flagship devices are arriving with no micro SD support. It seems like it was just yesterday when Android users were laughing at iPhone users for having a fixed and non-expandable storage capacity. Now, both sides are in the same boat.

With more durable and slimmer design comes less space to add expandable storage. While companies like Samsung manages to keep their products slim but still hot-swap friendly, other OEMs like Sony and HTC opted to have none of the sort. Leading the charge is Google with their Nexus devices that are also famous for having a non-removable battery and a non-expandable storage space.

Why is it a big deal?

One word – multimedia. Multimedia content is slowly creeping up in size as well. As music, image, and video quality increases, so does the memory it consumes. With phones that now employ higher megapixel cameras, we will notice that the video and photo size output is a lot larger than a few years ago. This means that a GB of data is much faster to fill out compared to the previous generation.

Music is also a big driving factor. Music quality is also improving. In fact, mobile manufacturers are increasingly encouraging users to use higher quality music files to take advantage of the improving audio engine of each new device. Of course, better audio quality also translates to higher storage consumption.

So what can we do about it?

Cloud Storage

This is something that Google and the local carriers are trying to push. Cloud Storage is the ability to store files and media through a remote server using an internet connection. There are plenty of Cloud storage solutions out there, such as Google’s own Drive, Dropbox, Box, SugarSync, and so on. All of these cloud storage solutions require that you constantly be online to both store and access the data. That is simply something that cannot be done in some countries.

Sure, there is no problem if you are always connected to an unlimited Wi-Fi network. The problem is the fact that the data we usually store in memory cards are usually files that we like to use outside of the home. This includes music, video and photos we like to share. Unfortunately for us, Wi-Fi networks are not fully developed yet, so there is a huge chance that you can’t rely on a Wi-Fi network outside of your own home connection. So where does that leave you? You start using mobile data.

Unfortunately, this solution also breeds its own problems. While mobile data is slowly improving, it is also getting more expensive. Sometimes, it is even downright unreliable. Imagine that you stored a video you wanted to watch on a trip, and then you suddenly realize that there is no reception in the area you visited. That is simply a nightmare.

Store only what you need

When it comes to limited mobile space, all you can really do is micro-manage if you don’t want to rely on the cloud. Take the limited space you have and think of the things you really need to store in it. Many people say that you don’t really need all 2000 songs in your collection all the time, so maybe you can keep like 300 songs for now, and rotate the songs every now and then. This will often require you to connect to a PC.

If you plan to stick to a phone with no expandable storage, make sure you learn not to hoard information into your device. This not only includes multimedia, but also apps and games. There is no reason to keep more than 5 games at the same time in your device. You probably don’t even play with them all in a span of 2-3 weeks. Keep what you need and finish it, and then download the next one after uninstalling your old game.

Take advantage of USB OTG

Something that people don’t realize is that most phones that came out in the past few years that had no expandable storage had USB OTG support. This means that you can easily connect your smartphone with a low power USB device, or an externally powered USB device. This includes popular USB storage media such as flash drives.

You can keep your massive database of files such as videos and music on a flash drive and access them through a USB OTG cable whenever you need them. You could either play them directly from the USB device, or hot swap the data between your flash drive and your internal memory, as exemplified by the music rotation strategy introduced earlier. If you really want to use a memory card to expand the storage, USB OTG also affords you a card reader.

Buy a device with expandable storage

As you can see, the clear things you can do are merely compromises. It can never replace the sheer reliability and the convenience of expandable storage. If expandable storage really means that much to you, then you are better off buying a totally different device that actually has expandable storage.

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