Samsung made a MicroSD card that doesn't suck, but there's a problem

Galaxy S24 Ultra with MicroSD card
(Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)

Samsung rolled out new MicroSD cards at the end of February, and while that isn't noteworthy on its own — the Korean brand is one of the largest manufacturers of SD cards — the new cards are quite different. They use the SD Express standard and go up to 800MB/s in sequential reads, and that's more than what you get with SATA SSDs.

Hardwired

Android Central's LLoyd with a bionic eye

(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

In Hardwired, AC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all things hardware, including phones, storage servers, and routers.

Crucially, the standard is nearly eight times faster than 104MB/s that was possible with UHS-I cards, and 312MB/s with UHS-II. The SD Express MicroSD cards start at 256GB and go up to 1TB, and they use Samsung's V-NAND tech, which is similar to what the brand uses in its regular SSDs.

Clearly, there's a lot to like with these cards, even if you discount Samsung's claims about facilitating on-device AI. But the biggest problem with the SD Express standard is that it hasn't made any mainstream headway even though it has been around for the better part of a decade, and that is unlikely to change.

What's more relevant here is that MicroSD cards are unusable on the best Android phones; sure, Samsung still makes a few mid-range Galaxy A phones that have an MicroSDXC slot, but that list is getting shorter with every generation. All phone manufacturers moved away from the standard on their flagships, and for good reason — even though SD Express has heady gains over UHS-I, it doesn't hold a candle to UFS 4.0 storage.

All flagships released in 2024 feature UFS 4.0 storage, and the standard goes up to 4,000MB/s in sequential reads — five times that of SD Express. Micron just rolled out new UFS 4.0 modules that are miniscule while delivering 4,400MB/s sequential reads, and UFS 5.0 is on the horizon. 

Galaxy S24 Ultra with Samsung MicroSD card next to it

(Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)

Phone manufacturers used eMMC storage for several years, and as the standard wasn't noticeably faster than prevalent MicroSD cards, they had no issues offering expandable storage on their devices. But as UFS storage started gaining momentum nearly a decade ago, they had a dilemma: the standard delivered performance that was similar to NVMe SSDs, significantly outmatching MicroSD.

Brands could continue to offer MicroSD slots on their devices, but that would have meant a noticeable difference in performance between the onboard storage and expandable modules, or eschew the port altogether — which is what we ended up with. This situation isn't going to change with the introduction of faster MicroSD cards; brands stand to make much more money by upselling users to buy higher-storage variants of phones.

I like the idea of expandable storage; I use all the M.2 slots on my gaming machine, I slotted in a 2TB SSD in the PlayStation 5 to augment the limited storage available on the console, and put in a 2TB M.2 2230 SSD in the Steam Deck as soon as I got the handheld. But I never felt the need to do so on a phone — even though it would make transferring data to a new device a lot easier.

MicroSD card on the back of the Galaxy S24 Ultra

(Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)

That's the second part of why most phones don't have MicroSD card slots: reliability. I've had a few instances in the past where MicroSD cards failed, and I ultimately ended up losing the data stored on those cards. So when I got the LG G4 a decade ago, I decided to not bother with MicroSD cards at all and started backing up the data on my phone to external sources — Google Photos on the cloud, and a NAS within my home network.

Unless a better standard comes along, it's unlikely phone manufacturers will consider offering expandable storage on their devices. Even then, I doubt most brands will care; ports are at a premium these days, and iPhones don't even have SIM card trays (thankfully only in North America). Given the state of UFS storage and the direction the industry is headed in, expandable storage isn't making a comeback.

Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is Android Central's Senior Editor of Asia. In his current role, he oversees the site's coverage of Chinese phone brands, networking products, and AV gear. He has been testing phones for over a decade, and has extensive experience in mobile hardware and the global semiconductor industry. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.

  • veesonic
    Thankfully Sony still makes phones with SD card support 👍🏽
    Reply
  • joeldf
    "All phone manufacturers moved away from the standard on their flagships, and for good reason..."

    What was that "good reason" again?

    All I'd heard was all bull.
    Reply
  • shag_on_e
    Removing SD card slots from phones was not because of the performance difference and we all know it. The point isn't performance, the point is convenience. Today's cards are fast enough to support camera storage, that's good enough. Fast internal storage can be used for system speed, but the slot will always make sense. Don't start thinking the conglomerates holding us hostage are doing things for our pleasure!
    Reply
  • Laura Knotek
    It's not a problem with speed, it's a problem with reliability. SD cards don't last very long.
    Reply
  • Brad Arbeiter
    This entire article just sounds like a sales pitch for phone manufacturers to continue sticking it to the consumer. A SSD is only 5 times faster than a micro sd and you are saying that is not fast enough for expandible memory? Video's, Music or photos will not come close to using that speed and having a micro sd card makes it far easier for the average consumer to transfer data to another phone or PC. I have also never had an sd card fail. These aren't needed to run an operating system which would heavily increase reads and writes but for expandible storage. This entire article is a complete failure.

    The only reason micro sd cards were removed were so that manufacturers could charge more for internal storage as micro sd cards were becoming too large and cheap to justify a large internal SSD.
    Reply
  • BerryBubbles
    Laura Knotek said:
    It's not a problem with speed, it's a problem with reliability. SD cards don't last very long.
    Definitely! My 'brand name' SD card on my Samsung s9+ became corrupt & it was no fun at all to fix.
    Reply
  • Mooncatt
    Laura Knotek said:
    It's not a problem with speed, it's a problem with reliability. SD cards don't last very long.
    They can last a long time as long as they are used as a write once/read many type of storage. For stand alone files, they are fine. It's when people try using them for app storage that they become unreliable, due to the excessive amount of data writing involved.
    Reply
  • dbpaddler
    joeldf said:
    "All phone manufacturers moved away from the standard on their flagships, and for good reason..."

    What was that "good reason" again?

    All I'd heard was all bull.
    He didn't say who the good reason benefitted. Increasing profit margin on phone storage upgrades is a good reason for the manufacturers.

    And poor baby had a card fail. Guess the tech blogger couldn't be bothered to back up his card. Just because something is backed up to the cloud or somewhere else, doesn't mean that's how we want to restore things when we have to. It's called "backup" for a reason.

    Gotta remember blogger does not equal journalist. They have no clue how to be journalists. Sensationalism, hot takes, and clear bias drive their articles solely to invoke clicks and spark "spirited" comments. Logic and facts are a distant memory now.
    Reply
  • dbpaddler
    Mooncatt said:
    They can last a long time as long as they are used as a write once/read many type of storage. For stand alone files, they are fine. It's when people try using them for app storage that they become unreliable, due to the excessive amount of data writing involved.
    That's why Samsung screwed the pooch going from 256gb on board to 128gb on board on the Note when it still had card storage. Let's build in obsolescence by giving the customers a half assed effort and then claim the customers didn't want it ignoring the fact they gimped the device from the start.
    Reply
  • shag_on_e
    So they removed one of the most useful features because the occasional card went bad once in a blue moon? No, more like how much money can we yank from these suckers' wallets
    Laura Knotek said:
    It's not a problem with speed, it's a problem with reliability. SD cards don't last very long.
    Reply