For those who prefer an app, so they aren’t tied to an OEM’s settings, I use BuzzKill for notification history, along with it’s more infamous tool set - deep notification management. Its a paid app, but it’s a one time purchase of less than $5 when I bought it.
You just made me put on my tinfoil hat. Because AI uses so much RAM and resources, and all these OS’s are implementing them on-device, this would be the ideal way to slow down all previous generation devices and force customers to buy new ones! Heck, even if they do onboard the AI software efficiently, they’d probably use it as the perfect excuse to slow them down anyway. Imagine how big the OneUI 7.0 update with AI would be. 30GB of internal storage and occupying 90% of RAM at all times, perhaps?
/Tinfoil rant
Someone mentioned a rumor on Reddit about the possibility of the Ultra having the SD Card returning. Anyone have the Vegas odds on that, because that would be the most exciting news a Samsung release would have had in years.
Not sure what Moto’s camera gestures are, but if you’re now using a Samsung, you can say “smile” or “cheese” to take a picture when in camera mode. Super handy when you’re holding something in the other hand. As for flashlight, there are plenty of options, such as MacroDroid & Tasker. I currently have the flashlight on/off bound to double-clicking the Bixby button.
In what way are any of those phones “premium?” You’re literally listing the two phones I can get to access an SD card. The $1400 Sony or low to mid-range ones. So I have to compromise my choice in my diminishing feature set so that the common man can have yet another Galaxy, Pixel, or even an iPhone that doesn’t distinguish themselves beyond their OS/skin, camera count, and folding screens? Pick any one of these phones in the last 3 years and tell me what makes them unique and more practical than my Note 20 Ultra.
Plus, at least in the US, the common man is going for an iPhone. Apple just got nearly 60% of the market share here, so no, there isn’t a plethora of choices, and Android OEMs aren’t exactly fighting tooth and nail to provide exceptions in their products. So if I want a phone with actual “premium” features - such as cameras that eat up storage - and includes an SD card slot, it’s down to Sony and Sony alone.
Still on my Note 20 Ultra, since it’s the last real “Ultra” phone that Samsung has released, except for the headphone jack, but I’ve learned to adapt with this compromise. I think my SD Card was a SanDisk? I don’t remember, since I bought it years ago, and it has lasted me since I got this phone on release day. I didn’t really care about read-write speed, because everything I’m accessing doesn’t really require blazing fast transfers.
Yup. How much would it hurt you if your phone had a small space for a SD card slot? If you don’t use it, who cares. It’s not affecting you a single iota. The only people benefiting are the OEM’s, because god knows your phone hasn’t gotten any cheaper since they began removing hardware features.
Exactly! I literally don’t know what to do with my SD card if I succumb to OEM’s wishes and get a phone without the memory expansion. Nor do I want to spend +$150 per phone to get the 1TB option if they even offer one. I already bought my SD card once, so why would I want to do it again and again and again?
I love audiobooks, haha. There’s also some by a studio called Graphic Audio, which is a dramatized version of audiobooks filled with a full cast of voice actors, music, and sound effects! It’s pretty cool, but each audiobook is like 4x the size of a normal book. I also read books that are part of a series. Each one is usually 5+ books long.
A lot of comments in this thread defending OEMs from customer’s benefits, which is disheartening to me, but I’m sure joyous for shareholders. I see comments saying you should buy premium phones that have SD cards, but there aren’t many options. The only one is a $1400 Xperia I V. I would love nothing more to have the SD card on only the “ultra” variants, if costs are too much of an issue for those who don’t use the feature, but there’s not much “ultra” in the “Ultra” variant besides an extra camera or two.
For those who are baffled by what we hoard on our devices, why does it matter? Do we ask what you do on your phone when there doesn’t seem to be anything on them? “I barely use 50GB on my device” and “128GB is more than enough for me” seem to be the prevailing notion here, and it’s frustrating since your demographic is already highly represented on the market. It’s similar to those who wish there wasn’t a selfie cam because they never used it, ignoring all the video calls millions use on a daily basis.
But maybe an answer might stop the “curiosity” of the sparse data hoarders, and they might understand our plight. On my 1TB SD Card, I currently have:
220GB Audiobooks 18GB Music 34GB Pictures 330GB Videos, Movies, and TV Shows 10GB Work and Project Files 12GB Podcasts 14GB Games
As someone who is frequently in low-signal areas, especially while driving, streaming is not an option. My media has entertained me during flights, public transit commutes, working out, jury duty, and the DMV. I also don’t want to transfer my media in and out of my device (I do back up my data wirelessly to my own server), nor do I want to bring an adapter when the technology is already embedded inside.
So OP, I feel you, and I’m hoping SD cards comeback.
I said it before and I’ll happily say it again. Removing hardware features while increasing prices will always cause stagnation down the road. When software features, camera bumps, and folding screens are all you have to offer, people will just keep their phones longer and use a $3 app to fill in the missing “feature” on One UI 6, Pixel’s exclusive feature drops, or even Apple’s Dynamic Island.
We obviously disagree, so I’ll just conclude with these last few points. With a 6-4 deficit (and getting worse), can you afford to lose ANY features that might drive your customers to your competitions? What is Samsung going to do if Apple decides to suddenly introduce an SD card in their phones (far-fetch, but they did do it with their MacBook Pro)? Bring it back and hope the people who left will come back? That’s a gamble on its own. Enthusiasts are also more likely to shill for your feature-complete phone (I know I talked/recommended several friends into the Note series back in the day). And honestly, other than a folding screen, has enthusiasts have anything to be excited about? Even their folding screens are losing their luster with the lukewarm introduction to the 5 series, and with new competition from Google and Motorola.
At the end of the day, I’m just a consumer. I’m not a shareholder or in Samsung’s C-Suite, so I can only give my opinion as a frustrated user, so I don’t really care about their revenue earnings. I just don’t want to keep losing features for the sake of quarterly earning calls, and I don’t understand people who defend their practices without a financial stake in their company.
There’s nothing wrong with Aegis, I just preferred the extra features on Authenticor Pro. Before I switched, I was hoping Aegis would implement WearOS support, but apparently the developer wasn’t interested.
You’re talking about the sales of a phone line that has virtually $0 in advertising in the US Market as a sign of flagging sales of feature-complete phones compared to Apple and Samsung’s marketing team?
But let’s say you’re 100% right. Lets say 95% of people don’t care about headphones jacks, SD Cards, etc. You’re STILL losing to Apple 10% YoY, and they haven’t even released the iPhone with USB-C or forced to open their OS to yet. It’s 6-4 iPhone majority today. Are you really going to continue the same strategy that got you to this point? How are you, if you’re Samsung, Google, Motorola, going to entice customers? Suddenly, that 5% of power users look pretty important for your shareholders.
How can the data show that these phones are selling less when no phones are selling them at all? With the exception of Sony’s Xperia line, who made a profit for the first time last year, what other mainstream phone sold in North America (a direct Android to Apple sales comparison where Apple has grown 10% YoY) has both of these features?
I moved from Aegis to this, and it has been seamless! And for those who care, it has Material You theming, and most importantly, the WearOS app is stellar.
Not surprising, and many Android enthusiasts called this a few years ago. Other than folding devices (some of which costs enough to buy an Iphone Pro Max + iPad), how is Android differentiating themselves from Apple on the hardware front? The few things they could have done to separate themselves, like SD cards, headphone jacks, etc. are now gone with some niche exceptions. And now that Apple is finally adding some customization on iOS, plus being dragged kicking and screaming by the EU to conform to universal standards, the feature set differences continue to diminish.
Copying Apple only benefits Apple, and we’re seeing this occur quarter by quarter. Pixels may be the exception simply because they cost two-thirds (half, during their generous sales) as much as Samsung’s. But if they continue their trend of raising prices, I think their sales will eventually stagnate too.
At some point, KDE Connect’s remote input plugin stopped working between my phone and Android tablet. I can’t figure out how to get it working again.
I’ve learned that I can’t do the in-ear bud style for more than an hour. Full overhead headphones (I use Bose NC-700s are good for 2 hours or so for me), but buds like Samsung Bud Lives can stay in ear for 3+ hours. I just wish the ANC for these types of buds worked better.
Finally! I just hope it’s precise when updating scores, and that it’s customizable to some degree. But knowing Google, you may get one, but not the other.