Xiaomi Hugo Barra

For Android fans who don’t know, the iPhone has always been without a microSD card slot so storage expansion was never an option. You have to decide if you want a 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB memory. But for Android, expansion has always been an advantage. A small 8GB storage doesn’t really matter because you can just buy a microSD card and stick inside your phone.

Most Android phones do offer memory expansion. Unfortunately for the Galaxy S6 series, Samsung removed that one much to the disappointment of Samsung fans. As for Xiaomi, the company has long not included the microSD card slot for the premium models (the Redmi line still has it though). Formerly part of the Google Android team, Hugo Barra who joined Xiaomi a couple of years ago as Global VP, explained why you won’t find microSD cards in Xiaomi phones.

After the Mi 4i launch in Hong Kong, Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra gave more reasons why they are “fundamentally against an SD card slot”. For one, a small microSD card slot still takes up space and the design team did not want to sacrifice a lot of things like appearance, ergonomics, and battery capacity.

Barra also said that microSD cards “are incredibly prone to failure and malfunctioning of various different sorts”. That one makes sense and the fact there are currently fakes available in the market makes it more dangerous. MicroSD cards even those from SanDisk and Kingston are not as reliable. Cards can be slow, they lag, or stop working—giving users a lot of headache.

Mr. Barra believes SD cards will disappear like any trend. It’s already confusing and it needs to go. He sounds firm so let’s not expect any SD card slot in any of Xiaomi’s flagships.

VIA: Engadget

3 COMMENTS

  1. Not only Sammy S6 hv no sd support, the Nexus line as well…(Nexus sales must b poor to b forgotten) and previously Mi3 also do not hv as well.

    Having the SD slot the system to operated it takes up space…and if user purchase a class 4 with many files, it makes the phone looks slow as it processing.

    I beleive that OTG dual drive (for apple and non apple ) shd be the way..and make ut smaller..(ifalsh drive is too big). Or those portable wifi drive (makeks it smaller and with cast ability)

  2. These anti SD card people are full of it. If they don’t want to offer micro SD support then all flagship devices should have 128 or even 300GB internal storage ootion available from day 1 of device launch and these should be reasonably priced too.

  3. Hmmm I agree no micro SD card so they can keep their “aesthetics “? No thanks! I don’t really give a damn about their aesthetics. It’s my aesthetics I care about. And I need my phone to work and be useful. As for the supposed high fake/ failure rate. In the 8 years I have been using smartphones with micro SD slots I have had 1 failure. I need space for photos and music and downloads and movies Hugo Bara and his Xiaomi phones just can’t cut it. Besides anyone seen the LG g4 with leather backing… Yowza, now there’s a good looking phone. Hugo and Xiaomi could learn a thing or two from LG, if they actually cared about making good looking useful phone that is.

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