The original Google Pixel launched in 2016 and the series changed not just Android, but the entire mobile market in the last eight years.
The original Google Pixel launched in 2016 and the series changed not just Android, but the entire mobile market in the last eight years.
I’ve been holding onto my phone well past its prime since I can’t help but see every new phone on the market as a downgrade because of this.
I know people say that you don’t NEED an SD card if you buy the most expensive version and rely heavily on cloud services but it’s definitely an intentionally worse customer experience.
I’m actually really sad Sony pulled out of the US, since I was planning on getting an Xperia this year. Now it feels like I’m limited to Samsung or Google if I want a flagship SoC…
Honestly, this depends entirely on the user. My previous phone had 64 GB internal storage and an SD card slot, but I never felt any reason to use it - all I need is enough storage to hold the photos I take until I get home and copy them to a hard disk (which then periodically gets backed up to another hard disk stored at a relative’s house). Then I can delete most photos and videos and keep only a few that I think I might want to share.
I’m not saying this is a workflow that everyone would find acceptable, just showing that different people can have vastly different needs. I personally definitely don’t need an SD card if I have 20 GB+ available for my photos, and that doesn’t seem to be a problem with 128 GB being the baseline for current Pixels.
Of course that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop ragging on Google for taking away features with obvious intention of creating problems for a portion of the userbase and selling the solution. There’s no reason Pixels can’t have an SD card slot at their current price.
Google’s Tensor is definitely not a flagship SoC (Tensor 5 is rumored to change that, but its launch is still far in the future and there’s no guarantee it actually lives up to these rumors), so it seems like deciding on the vendor should be pretty easy if you don’t mind Samsung’s OneUI
This is what I do. Routinely clean the phone every now and then with a backup to physical storage. I’ve personally never had problems with storage, and until recently was using a 64 GB phone. The SD card was always just for my music collection and it’s sad to lose that but not the end of the world (I didn’t listen to music on my phone that much anyway). I’ve never had to use cloud services because I don’t need access to every single photo or video I’ve taken at all times.