By When the Nexus 4 was announced, there was really no secret that it wouldn’t have an SD card slot. We haven’t seen ’em since the Nexus One days. Slowly but surely, the industry has been moving away from expandable storage, and while there are numerous technical reasons for this (better, more secure file systems, easier user experience) there’s still no denying that, well… it kinda sucks.
It’s so bad that I’ve actually seen people in our comments say “crazy” things like they’re going to pass altogether on the Nexus 4, opting instead for one of the other many varieties of Android being offered by various OEM’s. Yeah, I know. It’s nuts. But, I have to admit — I’m kinda right there with some of you. Maybe not enough to keep me away from a pure Nexus phone (I gotta have them updates, dawg), but I do see the inconvenience posed by lack of memory expandability only because a 32GB version doesn’t yet exist.
But alas, there’s no such thing as a perfect device and in the end, you just gotta weigh out your priorities. With that, comes our poll. The question is simple: do you care about having an SD card slot so much, that you’re willing to pass on the Nexus 4? Or is there nothing that will keep you away from that beautiful, stock Android 4.2 Jelly Bean goodness?
[polldaddy poll=6654242]
Lack of LTE is the deal breaker for me!
Are you on T-Mobile or AT&T? Or are you referring to LTE/CDMA/Sprint/Verizon?
probably referring to a lack of cdma, but Google would have to join forces with Verizon and Sprint to push such a device. I love my Verizon coverage and data speeds, but I hate that it comes at the cost of a convenient phone with a swappable SIM card and world capabilities
I keep seeing this “lack of LTE omg” business. Reality is that Verizon and Sprint both have huge pockets in their LTE coverage. For me, and I’d bet most people that can read, it’s the CDMA that’s a deal breaker. Not that I like CDMA all that much, but it’s hard to break a family unlimited contract…
[EDIT] Interesting downvotes. Not sure what there is to “dislike” or “disagree with”. Facts: Sprint and Verizon have holes in their LTE. Fact: those holes effect some people. Fact: I am one of those people. Fact: CDMA is specifically what Google mentioned as a reason behind not having an LTE version. Fact: I’m in a family contract and breaking it would disrupt several other people’s phone use.
Apparently people don’t like facts.
Yeah I saw this picture of theverge.com forums showing the download speed for an iPhone 5 on T-mobile’s 1900Mhz (2G). People are complaining about LTE when their carrier’s 2G and 3G can’t even beat T-mo’s, they only have one option but we have multiple back ups.
heh t-moooble.
Good speeds, but doesn’t compete with Verizon’s LTE [attached]
What happens when you get to far way and end up in Verizon’s 3G and 2G (1mbps and 100kbps) but these speeds are the same for T-mo 2G, 3G and 3G+ and they are going to add LTE.
That probably means I’m driving somewhere, and I shouldn’t be browsing the web while I’m driving :) :)
In case of such an event though, in google maps I’ve cached a 20 mile radius around my house, work, my parents, and my in-law’s. That way my navigation won’t get interrupted.
Worst case scenario (battery dies) I have maps behind my carseat. Plan ahead! :)
those are the speeds i get on hspa+ with tmobile
As others have pointed out I’ve seen speeds that good on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ FauxG network, Verizon’s LTE may be lightning fast compared to their slow as molasses CDMA/EVDO but it’s really not that impressive.
Now AT&T’s LTE speeds (where you can get them) are pretty amazing, they have the slowest HSPA+ (still faster than EVDO) but they have the fastest LTE, of course the T-Mobile LTE network (if it ever comes) should be even faster (not that it matters if you can’t get a signal and you are thankful for EDGE speeds)
This is lovely but it means nothing when the ONLY signal you get in your office (NYC of all places) has NO signal on all carriers but Verizon Wireless and you’re forced to use them. Google has slapped me in the face with this.
That was from New York. This is where I got it from: http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/30/3577198/nexus-4-t-mobile-usa#124559683
AT&T. Currently using a Galaxy Note LTE in an AT&T LTE market. AT&T HSPA is the worst. Once you get LTE, you’ll never want to go back and I’m not going to.
I will probably upgrade to the Galaxy Note II by the end of the year, but I’d really like fast OS updates even though Android 4.2 is a yawner.
please shush
I’m with you 155!!!!!
Where is the SD slot wont prevent me from buying but I still need time to think about it option?
As for the lack of LTE that is not a deal break since I am currently stuck with sprints crappy edge speeds since I hardly have 3g in my aera and my home connection is rated at 12mbs t-mobiles 21HSPA+ speeds would be better then either so no need for LTE for me. Plus only paying $30 a month is better then the $40 I am currently paying which should drop down to $35 in a couple of months since I am on Boost Mobiles $50 with shrinkage plan since I got my current Samsung Galaxy Prevail before the android plan came in to effect. having a lower monthly payment and keeping the unlimited plan I currently have for data is a plus I hardly talk on my phone its usually texting for me so the 100 talk mins in that off contract plan is fine with me.
Sprint doesn’t use EDGE
Or what ever their 1x is considering that is what I mainly get I see 3g only 1% of the time around here.
Not sure why it would be a deal breaker for anyone that has owned a Nexus phone before and has been happy with it. They don’t have SD card slots.
Deal breaker for me is lack of removable battery
nice profile pic
I am more bothered by the lack of removable battery
What? Thats a joke??!! So i can not use it as a camera! You must be joking Google! Definitely not buying….Stick with sgs2 for many years it looks
Damn it I have to……what are you talking about…?
Do you use a camera when on vacation? :)do you manage ethg. with one battery? ;)
lol okay. haha but to you my answer is yes. But I don’t use my phone besides for pics on vacation. I usually go on airplane mode because I want the least possible distractions while I am on vacation. my answer doesn’t apply to everyone else though.
Personally I take a camera with me on vacation its just the right thing to do along with taking one to holiday events with the family so in those cases its obvious most people would want a camera handy. Same with going to kids sporting events and anything else the kids may do.
exactly, Smartphone SGS2 serves me as a camera, navigation, guide, events guide, …. replaceable battery is crutial!…..so Nexus 4 or iPhone is not a smartphone for me
of course you can use it as a camera, wtf are you talking about?
you take your pictures and then plug the phone into your computer via usb.
or even easier download an app to make your device a remote nas device over wifi.
I do it all of the time. Both are easier than taking out the sd card.
Dropbox now uploads photos automatically
I’m more bothered by the lack of LTE
This. The lack of LTE/CDMA support is an absolute outrage and means that Google has effectively abandoned over half the US population including loyal customers such as myself.
Do you remember the clusterf*** that was the galaxy nexus when it came to updates, Verizon and to a lesser extent Sprint slowing down updates. Without google controlled updates, it’s not a nexus device anyway.
IDK, maybe Google should call Apple and ask them how they do it :P
Meh, I’ve got an LTE Galaxy Note as my work phone and I admit that it’s blazing fast (seen speeds over 30MB!) but it’s not strictly necessary.
Simultaneous voice/data is nice when navigating/talking in the car. 4G for hotspot is also nice
Why does everyone say this? No way I am carting around spare batteries. I just turn off mobile data and other measure to conserve power if I know I am going to be without charger.
I thought it was somewhat (easily) removable with just unscrewing 2 screws?
trying that will void your warranty. Yes, you CAN take it apart, but they don’t want you to.
I prefer to not have an sdcard. Also, LTE is not currently a must have for me, maybe a few years down the line it will be though.
grab your pitchforks and torches for those 2 people that voted for a 3GS
26 people now
In a phone anymore, not really. I dont consume that much content on the phone. The tablet not having it is a big deal because HD content takes up a ton of space and you dont live in a world of 100% connectivity (or good connectivity anyway).
The battery is a concern though.
See to me it isn’t about media for the phone. You are right about the tablet thing. Why have a beautiful HD screen but not enough room to store plenty of HD content? However, on the phone side of things its about apps.(for me) I have and use a lot of a apps. Games especially take up more space and with HD screens comes HD apps and games and their size continues to grow. I think phones should range from 32-64GB and tabs 64-128GB.
My largest issue with the Nexus 4 is not the fact that is does not have the option for SD but that it has no option for LTE. I see no reason to exclude LTE since it has become the standard here in the US.
you should have found out why before you typed all that
Non removable battery is the dealbreaker for me
I’m the same. Non-removable battery is a deal breaker. Other is the lack of memory-card slot. For my phones, those 2 conditions must be met.
Dont care about SD card, but without a 32gb version then I wont be getting the Nexus 4
agreed, wtf were they thinking? axe that 8gb option now and intro the 32gb!
Give it 6 months like with the Nexus 7 :p
No kidding. They are severely lacking in common sense.
I get why they do it, the memory is one of the most expensive components of a phone and they wanted to keep the price low.
And that is exactly the reason they should include an SD card slot. SD cards are far cheaper than RAM is. a 32 gig card from Newegg is $24.
Greed drives their decision making process.
No, it’s not greed. They have their own ideas in their own little world and just go with them without asking what consumers want. Especially the well informed tech consumer that would pick a Nexus specifically because they appreciate OS updates.
the S4 will be out by then. Pretty stiff competition.
It’s brilliant marketing. Look at the best selling point for the Nexus 7 when it came out–the PRICE. Granted, it was the 8GB version, which is measly. Now, they discontinue it and offer a bigger 32BG version. They don’t need the media hype anymore. In fact, offering a 32GB Nexus 7 gives them a second stab at the hypebeasting community.
This is the same thing they’re doing for the Nexus 4. Price an off-contract phone at $300 on release; let the media go gaga over how “cheap” it is. Then a few months down the road, offer an “updated” version with 32 GB. And the blogosphere goes crazy again, and more publicity for the Nexus brand.
I won’t be getting it anyway because I’m on Verizon but I need either a MicroSD card slot or at least 32 GB internal to be happy with it. I currently have 48 GB total in my Rezound and I just picked up a 32 GB Nexus 7 yesterday to replace my 8 GB since 5.5 GB of usable space was way too little.
Also on Verizon — passing because I will not get any phone that does not have a 4G LTE radio (using Rezound atm – love the storage space!)
I plan on using USB 2GO if I need more room
Unfortunately yes 4g is good enough but can’t store pics vids music or podcasts is stupid as the cloud no solid Internet = your screwed we arnt ready yetttttt
Agreed.
If it was available with at least 32gb, then I could live without a MicroSD card, but no MicroSD + no LTE makes the Nexus 4 a phone I wouldn’t consider right now.
Deal breaker for me is LTE. Well that and I can’t order T-Mobile service in Omaha, NE even though the coverage map shows full HSPA+ availability.
iPhone doesn’t even offer a 8GB version. The Nexus 4 should be 16GB or 32GB. There is a reason they made the change with the Nexus 7 and I wouldn’t be surprised it they do the same with the Nexus 4. I just not sure if I should wait or not to see if it will happen.
just got a Gnex last week and im kinda glad for no sd slot. less issues to put my case mate back on. but plus i didnt want to drop the money on another 32gig sd card since my last phone with it got jacked. but do agree on the non-removable battery though. so used to taking my battery out and extrnded batteries that the non-removable is no bueno
I *could* deal with the lack of an SD card if it had LTE capabilities. My current phone (Samsung Fascinate) has 2GB onboard storage + a 16GB SD card. I’m using just a bit over 1GB of the onboard and only 9GB or so of the SD card. If I really needed more storage I’d use a cloud solution. But, I wouldn’t want to go that route unless I had 4g.
Actually, this is the deal breaker for the tablet. I dont need a whole lot of storage on my phone as most large files (games, LOTS of music and movies). Those types of storage options are needed on tablets.
I want a tablet I can put a lot of stuff onto and use as much like a laptop as possible. Not gonna happen with a puny 32gb. 64gb is min in tablets for high end ones. Make them in 16gb, 32 and 64gb variants. WHy not 96gb or 128?
With most carriers not giving an option for unlimited data that sd card will be more and more important if you don’t want to pay your entire salary for your cell phone bill. Who cares about cloud if you can’t use it due to data limits.
Except for Sprint… but they aren’t even going to have the Nexus 4!
>.<
Speed on sprint are so slow, even if you maxed out your connection 24/7, you wouldn’t hit 2GB, lol. Until they get 4G LTE over their entire, weak, native footprint, I wouldn’t even consider them half decent.
Not true. My daughter uses 3G only and hits 5-6GB of data a month. So much exaggeration.
It all depends on your location but in Philly, Sprint speeds are pitiful.
I used 5- 6 if not more when I had a Dinc.
I used almost 8 last month and am over 5 this month.
i’ve done over 30GB a month on Sprint 3G… though i admit i was tethering heavily at the time, but lets quit with the hyperbole.
I regularly clear 20GB a month on Sprint, and only have 3G where I live, so you are just wrong.
Tmo has unlimited data, and they’re actually good. Plan on leaving Sprint for unlimited HSPA+. =.D
I’ve been with T-Mobile for nearly 10 years and at least in my area their network has gone to sh*t the last almost 2 years. Plenty of dead zones all around my house (I live in suburban Los Angeles) and if I’m out in the hills riding my motorcycle it’s rare that I can even pull down an EDGE connection.
In Houston that is not the case. In as n a family play and Tmo performed way better them Spring. Their 2G is faster than Sprint’s 3G in most cases.
But wii all live in different areas. I know what I won’t be getting if I move to LA. LoL!!
Idk man, I’m getting pretty fast speeds with LTE from Sprint in Houston… I know T-Mobile’s 3G is a shit-load better than Sprint’s, but Sprint has improved with their LTE.
I’m actually glad to here that. I have WiMax and I wanted to pick up an LTE phone but I didn’t trust their LTE network. Hmm…
Best bet would be to upload to cloud when only on Wifi.
You make a really good point Mike. First the carriers discontinue unlimited, and now the OEM’s are pushing us to the cloud. Great business model.
I’m lovin my unlimited data on tmo. I’m at 17gb non tethering
Unlimited but not unthrottled
I too have tmo and $50 a month unlimited throttled data works great for me!
If you get the 4g truly unlimited data package you WONT be throttled!! Time to change!!
I’m also on Tmob w/ Nexus S – was hating on them for various reasons over the last couple years, but I cannot dispute the unlimited plan pricing and promise are fantastic. I am at almost 12GB and have noticed no throttling with video playback, file downloads, etc. I was throttled once on their old school ‘unlimited’ plan (5gb I think) and it wasn’t pretty. The phone was utterly useless without maps, functional voice recognition, email, web, all of it.. just crawling forever. That this will not happen again has cheered me up and put my mind at ease. Cheers Tmob, I’d gush thanks more but really it’s about time all the carriers started offering unlimited plans. 2013 is just around the corner and it’s getting embarrassing.
this is pure thievery on the part of Google being complicit in force feeding us this orwellian future of charging us for every bit of info we store. And shame on you an&roid sheep for falling in the footsteps of the iclone pod people who just want something new at the expense what we choose to purchase tells the manufacturer that it’s okay to limit our freedom to do what we want with our data needs.
Sorry to say it, but crazy here has a point.
I don’t agree but your comment made me snort tea out of my nose :D
Crazy here has zero point. What “freedom” do you refer to? I can’t seem to find it in this little piece of paper called “The Constitution”. Can you point out any reference similar to “And all men shall be granted freedom and rights therein to have their smartphone include an SD slot”.
Where’s that sentence??
The masses have spoken and the manufacturers are building phones that people want. It shows that most people could care less about SD slots.
Don’t like it? Go build your own phone.
As those of us hit by Hurricane Sandy can attest, “the cloud” is all but useless when there’s no power. With no lights/TV/internet having media on a device’s local storage can really pass the time and keep kids entertained. Fortunately, my office has a generator and I can recharge devices during the day.
word! i have unltd data, and i’m keeping it, so that’s not on my radar, but to expand on what u said…android is about choice. don’t lock me in to 8 gigs. i have more than that in music alone. i have 1080p movies on my sd card, videos of my girls, cached memory, etc. where does all of that go? 16 gig hard drive with option of 64 gig card is more than enough for most people, and a killer amount for heavy users. i understand the security issues, but dang! how much does it cost to add a 32 or 64 gig card slot? would it boost the phone to $500 a pop? hard to think it would.
iphone totally killed google in this respect. awesome phone but no 4G and no storage and a locked battery. C’MON, MAN!
I dont really care. My game plan is to get off the major Motofail Atrix 4G and get with something (off contract) for cheap. This $300 off contract godsend will let me do that. I will then wait to buy a 1080p phone on contract later.
Amazed manufacturers don’t put these on anymore, must cost pennies. Add no hdmi out on the nexus 7 and that’s why I went Iconia A110.
The lack of an SD slot doesn’t really bother me, but what does bother me is when the cost of moving up the rungs in internal storage space is so out of whack. You can buy 8GB SD cards for $6 or $7 easily, but adding 8GB to a Nexus 4 costs $50.
internal memory and external memory aren’t the same in costs. say 8 GB chip I’d 15. and 32 chip is 30. your production costs rise when your producing in the hundreds thousand’s or millions
Yet the lack of the sd card doesn’t bother you? I’m confused.
uhh, people complain too much. No SD a problem? Move along, there’s someone behind you waiting to purchase the phone. The Nexus hasn’t had SD support since the Nexus One, get used to it. Now onto a real problem, when will I be able to pre-order this thing?
The question was asked. People are answering. What’s good for you isn’t necessarily good for others is all. Let’s say there is a phone you really want, but it’s lacking something that you personally absolutely have to have. It’s ok for you to complain about it…we won’t reprimand you for it. ;-P
I think all he’s really saying is that given the trend of current Google-based devices, nobody should be surprised when the device specs don’t list expandable storage.
Yeah, I wasn’t killing him on it. And I think most people are ok with no expandable storage, as long as we have the option of 32GB or higher. Just my very humble opinion. :)
Preach!
I’m fine with no SD Card slot as long as the base has enough. My GNexus 32GB is perfect. 16 just doesn’t cut it. And the price of 16 more to =32 couldn’t have been that much?
meh.
my Nexus 1 had 512 MB of internal storage, that was difficult to manage, and I got used to using a svelte amount of space on my phone. my gnex has about 11GB free. that’s with over 70apps installed.
no need for SD card on my phone, I stream everything through tmo.
tablet though… I’m getting the 32gb N10, but I wish I could spend $100 more for 64GB.
Different people, different wants/needs. My Galaxy Nexus is currently sitting at 496 MB, and I want to put more on.
LTE, Non Removable Battery, No Removable SD = Fail Nexus is supposed to be the apex of tech, not its ugly stepchild.
If Google has good reasons to exclude an SD card – and I believe they do – then they NEED to stop this bullshit of charging $100 for 8GB or 16GB of additional storage. It COSTS them about $15 (or less) for every 16GB of storage, so $30 seems completely reasonable for every storage bump. And offer 64GB phones. Storage takes up very little physical space inside the phone, so there’s no reason a 64GB phone should be a problem.
I commend Google for the ridiculously low margins on the price of this phone, but if they’re going to do that AND not allow an SD card, then stop acting like it’s some act of God to cram 32GB of storage into a phone.
Actually, the profit margin for the new Nexus is negative, I think. Google is selling the device for cheaper than they paid for, if I recall correctly.
But still, they either need to release a 32GB version (which I think we’ll see in the future), or one with an microSD card slot for it to be a viable purchase for a lot of people.
Doubtful, the iPhone 5 only costs $199 in parts and $8 to build. The cost difference for the S4 pro over the S4 SoC is not significant, wireless charging may add some cost, but overall I can guarantee it doesn’t cost more than $250 to make the 16GB nexus 4. Google is most definitely making a profit selling directly. However they are not making ridiculous apple levels of profit, but still a pretty penny for each phone sold.
Actually, Hadi is probably right because you’re forgetting one middle-man: LG. They might be motivated to be a Google partner for a Nexus phone, but they’re going to absolutely demand SOME profit on this. Also, Apple gets a lot of price cuts because they buy the exact same parts in massive quantities. That cuts the cost of their parts and labor.
LG clearly has a desperate desire to be a bigger Android player, but I doubt it’s at the expense of ALL profit on this particular phone. I of course could be wrong.
Apple may pay a bit less, but overall costs of materials wholesale only go so low buying in bulk and I’m sure LG is buying in sufficient quantities to be paying a comparable price. Now LG may be making most of the profit on it, but I very much doubt they would charge google more than google sells the phone for. They probably worked out a deal that essentially gives LG all of the profit, and google just sells the phone and focuses on the ad revenue, search, etc profit that comes from people using the phones. Android as a whole isn’t a huge money maker for google, but it is part of their overall plans to make sure they have a large presence in the growing mobile space.
Everything in the first part of your statement is true except that it applies to Apple and not Google. Google is only charging $50 to double the storage. Apples charges $100.
I’ve never owned an Apple device of any kind, and still I didn’t realize this. You’re absolutely right. I find new reasons to hate Apple every day.
I am more bothered by the lack of LTE
Just get me 32gb or 64gb and let me pay for it, i don’t care…. just tired of having to separate apps over my galaxy nexus and nexus 7 because i cant fit them all on my phone… The apple have 64gb for yeaaaaars now and we still stuck with 16gb on our nexus phone…
We go through this argument every time a new nexus device comes out. Its boring and so inconsequential for most users. You hear lots of whining about it pre release and then for a few weeks after release. Then nobody talks about it…because its not an issue. I haven’t even used 8gigs out of my 32gigs on my GN. Do people in quantity rail about the GN not having an SD card anymore?
Stop the digital hoarding. You don’t need every single MP3s that you ever own and maybe never have even listened to on your device. Having 90 hours of music on your phone is not exactly necessary. Just because you can fill up 32gigs doesn’t mean you must fill up 32 gigs or somehow you lose.
“Then nobody talks about it…because its not an issue.”
I think you mean “then nobody talks about it because it’s not an issue for those who went ahead and bought the device, meanwhile everyone who DID take issue with it has moved onto another device that supports it.”
There are plenty of use-cases for expandable storage.
The real question is “does leaving it out provide anything positive to consumers?”
I don’t agree with Rubin’s answer to that question at all.
How can he sit there and try to convince us that consumers don’t get confused when you sell them a device marketed as 8GB when they really only have ~5GB to use, yet somehow giving them the option to add extra storage is confusing? REALLY?
If he would have told us “the price would have gone up by $25 just to put in a microSD card slot”, then I’d say that the price difference is a positive outcome for a lot of consumers. But if the actual cost would have been closer to $5, then it’s difficult to see the upside of leaving out the option.
we don’t all have the same needs or the same kind of operator (In canada, 4G is slow sometime and not everywhere). I use my phone to record my courses at the university and it take a lot of space, something i want to watch movies while i’m on the subway (need more spaces). Sure people don’t whine no more about an old phone what the point…
All I say, is Android gain popularity because they offer a variety of device to support many kind of users. But the flag ship device does not respect that principle…
Thanks for letting me know what I need on my device. And here I’ve been relying on myself for that info.
I finally bought a 64 gb sd card so yes its a deal breaker for me.
It’s not a deal breaker but more worried why there’s no 32gb version or removable battery.
Until theres a 96Gb phone available….(like my 32gb GS3 with 64gb sd) I want expandable storage
I really don’t care about SD card slots as much as removable battery!! Having a non-removable battery is a deal breaker for me.
When travelling, or long days out. I like to carry a battery or two just in case. Quite a few times I’ve needed to swap batteries, especially when travelling (flying and doing some driving navigation).
Storage hasn’t been a deal breaker so far with my galaxy nexus I just had to give up the option of carrying 720p 1080p movies on my phone, which I rarely ever would have the time/chance to watch. I usually just end up streaming my slingbox on my phone over 3G or wifi if I want to watch something.
Not having a MicroSD card slot is a major minus point for me but with everything else on the phone being perfect for me including the price. It would be hard for me to call it a deal breaker. If the phone wasn’t as cheap then it would be easy to call the MicroSD card a deal breaker. I can live with 16GB of built-in storage but it would cause a bit of an inconvenience. May be it’s time I embrace the cloud storage more and get an unlimited data plan.
Makes more sense than spending $20 bucks on an sd card, for sure.
I can deal without an SD Card but can’t go without 4G.
I want a device with a SD Card but the larger issues is lack of LTE. Doesn’t make sense to move backwards there.
This, if anything, will push me to root other phones now such as the Galaxy note 2. I’ll get a removable battery, (so i can put in an extended), extra storage AND a stock experience.
If the iPhone is any indication, the general population doesn’t give a crap whether or not a phone has a removable battery or storage.
Plus, if you lock the battery down it’ll give manufacturers and Google more incentive to squeeze a bigger battery in that you are less likely to need to swap out.
The only thing that bothers me about the Nexus 4 is the fact that they decided it would be a good idea to stick with 8GB/16GB storage options. That is unacceptable. 32GB or go home.
I agree, I have the gsm galaxy nexus 16gb and the 16gb size is somewhat constraining, though it is livable for me, I’m going to hold out for a little while to see if they introduce a 32gb version hopefully but I’m not holding my breath. Luckily the galaxy nexus really doesn’t need to be upgraded yet anyway.
I’d definitely prefer a 32 gig version, but I don’t mind losing the micro SD card slot. Currently using an Galaxy S 2 (Sprint version) and adding an SD card to it caused almost all of the problems I ever had with it. Apps would become “uninstalled” and eventually the whole thing crapped out, causing me to factory reset the phone. Didn’t put the SD card back in since.
Some 1080p video and 8 megapixel images will chew that 16 GB right up. Not to mention apps, music and also that you really don’t get a full 16GB. Yeah I want the SD slot. Getting an S III this weekend.
The last one made me lol, it’s sad that a lot of clueless people probably will still pick an iPhone 3GS over the Nexus 4 in this price range.
My SD card died on me and i lost a ton of pictures. So now i find the need for an SD card expansion on the phone not important anymore. I will just use cloud services like google drive and drop box as extra storage. As for music, i will try to integrate google play and iTunes on Mac to solve the need of music storage.
Well the lack of an expandable sd slot saves the oem Microsoft’s fat32 licensing fee…i do agree that they should at least offer a 32gb version though
SD cards don’t have to be formatted fat32…
The vast majority of people, including myself, don’t take their SD card out of their phone and stick it in a SDcard reader attached to Windoze, so it doesn’t HAVE to be fat32 or exfat. Samsung should take the lead by defaulting to a free ext4 filesystem.
(What’s sad is that CyanogenMod currently doesn’t support an ext4-formatted sdcard ootb, but TWRP recovery does)
SD card slots and removable batteries are the past. I thoroughly enjoy reading people cry about features they refuse to support when they’ve never tried it for themselves. As long as manufacturers supply us with enough storage in-device there is simply no need (the onus is on them). When it comes to batteries technology is advancing, capacities are going up, and consumption is being reduced. Battery pulls are no longer necessary, the only argument is heavy-use, and for that they have external power packs.
I prefer the external solution as you can simply remove it without changing battery cover and or investing in additional cases. Personally though my phone even with my heavy use lasts all day long without issue.
It’s odd to me…the relatively tiny storage options on the n4 kind of imply that you should rely on the cloud for your media…on a device without LTE. *shrug*
I dunno, all around this phone is a solid pass for me. I’ve got my 32gb LTE capable gnex and even if the Nexus 4 did match it in storage and network speed, it’d take some other pretty serious upgrades to make me get rid of my current phone. Hopefully next year we’ll see the fabled Motorola Nexus or something as generally impressive as the n1 and gnex were at their respective launches. I waited and waited for the pefect device to replace my OG with and I’ll wait and wait again on the perfect device to succeed my gnex.
Agreed. Sticking to an 18-24 month upgrade cycle is still the smartest decision, regardless of make/os .
The gnex was not impressive at its launch and you’re crazy if you think the n4 isn’t an improvement over it.
The Galaxy Nexus was probably the most anticipated device launch in Android history. I can’t think of another phone that generated so much buzz among Android enthusiasts. The phone was gorgeous, HD, dual core with a gig of ram, and running ICS, which was Android reinvented, and has remained the standard by which other phones are measured since it’s launch. I’m surprised we didn’t all drown in the sudden outpouring of drool from the fanboy collective once we all got a good look at that phone. It wasn’t the fastest phone out there, but it still made you say “wow,” when you picked it up.
Sure, the n4’s faster and has more RAM, but on the other hand has worse network support and the base model has 25% of the storage space my gnex has. I have no idea what people might be doing with their phones that’d make the gnex not fast enough for them, but whatever that fringe case is, it’s not something I do, so the CPU and RAM bump mean nothing to me in a practical sense.
For something to be impressive it has to offer something that you haven’t seen before, or something that if you have seen, you’ve never seen it done so well, and the n4 just doesn’t do that in my opinion. It’s one true standout feature – inductive charging – isn’t something that I’d really make much use of, and if I did, I’d use it while I slept, so I may as well just use the microusb cable. Is it a nice phone? Hell yeah, it is, but to me it is not the right phone to replace the one I have with and in some ways would feel like a step back.
If speed is the most important thing to you then yes, n4 > gnex, of course, but if that’s not really that big of a deal, then the n4 doesn’t offer much of anything that the gnex doesn’t already have. It’s the 4S to the gnex’s 4.
Totally agree. The Nexus 4 doesn’t seem like an upgrade at all.
Not a dealbreaker for me, i ll probably get one but still its ridiculous. All the comments about limited data and all that are on the spot, not to mention the apps themselves. Some games may require up to 2 gigs. Thats almost a third of the available memory on the 8Gb model !!!
half, it’s pretty safe to assume 8GB on paper=4GB storage.
my note 2 loses a whole 6GB to system files and HDD-manufacturer-math.
you don’t lose that much on a nexus. remember this is a pure google device and their isn’t. I lose about 2.6GB on my gsm galaxy nexus having 13.33 GB available for use. so the 8gb model is probably close to or a little over 6gb of usable storage.
they should give us the option of 32GB/64GB or sd slots
I don’t mind not having expandable memory… Agree with Matias…
However WTF is 8/16gb only. You can say no expandable if you offer say 8,16,32 and 64gb on board…
8GB shouldn’t even be available.
a few games can be enough to eat all that’s not reserved for system files.
There has always been a bunch of confusing stuff going on with SD cards. From the beginning, you guys remember the whole saving apps to SD and all? That was a mess. I have been using the Galaxy Nexus for a while, and it was my first phone without an SD card slot.
I have to say life is much simpler now, but I DO have 32 GB of internal storage. I can definitely see how 16 GB or 8 GB of storage would be too little for some of you. I use the cloud and streaming like no other, so I am actually considering the 8 GB Nexus 4. As of now, I am using only a bit over 3 GB of storage. I really don’t need that much, but I’ll probably go 16 GB just to make sure.
The lack sd card was the reason I went with the SGSII over the gsm nexus.
Its useful as supplementary memory! Thats the whole idea, its a file system, i use it on a computer all day, why should it seem more complicated? if i’m losing the ability to add extra space, i should be compensated with at least 64gb – 120gb, 32gb is the new 8gb
Where is this poll you speak of? I’m using Opera Mobile and its not showing :(
With a lack of LTE and storage capacities rivaling an iPhone from 2008, that’s 2 compromises too many.
I got used to no additional memory with the gnex…its inconvenient but not a deal breaker…however, no 4G is definitely a deal breaker…I’ve actually talked about getting an iPhone I’m so disappointed in Google
The options in the poll is not very accurate to thoughts of the issue. The current phone has 8GB of integrated storage. I use that for the OS, and apps. I have a 16GB micro-SD card (with the option to go to 32GB), And yes, there is little need to remove it. I use a wifi syncing tool to transfer music.
While I will be planning on getting the Nexus 4, this does not mean I am happy with Google’s decision to remove the SD card slot. The problem is ever since iPhone came into the picture, OEMs have been obsessed with thin as if they were some obsessed anorexic. While thin is all nice and dandy, when it comes to sacrificing customer’s desires, it is not.
I will be happy to give up a little thin for the ability to replace the battery or add memory. Now, I must cut my music library by more than half, and that is if I get the 16GB model. Another option is to carry a dedicated player which lessens the value of the phone as an all purpose device.
If all of these OEMs are going the way of integrated storage, then they need to start at 16GB. About the only way I can say yes – an SD card is not needed is when there is a 64GB phone that isn’t $850USD. However, it will seem as if the OEMs are determined to have the planned obsolesce in their phones such as killing the removable battery and removable storage. And if Google is so concerned that the SD card confuses the consumers, then build two versions, or maybe those people need to go to OEMs like HTC and Apple who are pushing for this.
Just my 2 cents,
Frank
http://fsp.tel
I could deal with no sd slot if there were 32GB internal. Not being able to remove the battery is hurting me, too. (I root and mod, so, yeah I need that.)
As it stands right now, it’s 50/50 between this and the Note 2. If the dev community REALLY gets behind the Note 2 like I think they will, then that 50/50 is going to shift drastically.
No SD card no buy!
Duarte is just talking out of his ass about the sdcard issue, in today’s technology sd cards are very popular almost every gadget that have built-in memory have sdcards, from cameras to videos recorders to car stereos you name it, how is it too confusing? the thing is Google like to go on the cheap side cut corners.
I said the same thing. SD cards confusing? GTFO of here…..Duarte has lost my respect. They should instead be asking for input from customers. Why don’t these companies ever hold forums to take suggestions from customers?
Because companies tell customers what they want, not the other way around. It works great for Apple.
Google was supposed to be better than Apple, and now they are lowering themselves to their level.
It’s a stupid argument. If SD cards are confusing no one is forcing you to use it.
Besides, with millions of people with Androids with sd cards, it’s second nature by now. Nobody wants to see features removed.
Lack of SD is definitely not a problem. 16 GB is plenty for me. Most of my music is stored on Google Music. I don’t store that much video on my phone, and the apps I install usually don’t take up that much space. Lack of LTE is a little concerning, on the other hand my experience with Verizon LTE in Boston hasn’t been all that great. In some places it works well but there are many places in the city and surrounding towns where there is no 4G. Heck, even 3G is spotty in places… Once the coverage is better, then I will care more about LTE.
I got Galaxy Nexus 16GB and often running out of space, like to keep music on it, get some videos, just GTA 3+Max Payne is nearly 1.5-2GB. I wanted to instal gemRB to play Baldur’s Gate 1+2, two games merged into one game, takes 5GB, wanted to play Bard’s Tale? Another 5 GB …. yes of course I could be juggling files by every day connecting to my PC and moving thousand files (which kills memory life and takes ages with so many files) …. I want, I need at least 32GB
I’m used to phones with 8gb sd stock out of the box, (OG evo and Evo3d) but i kind of wished it had 32gb, i’m just fine with 16, but something tells me that they are going to release a 32gb version down the road like they did with the Nexus 7
I just plug in my OTG cable w/32gb flash drive and I’m good to go.
Who cares about this when the S3 and Note 2 are available
LMFAO
Sold two unopened Note 2’s so I can get two LG Nexus 4’s. People in the know (aka people who know the S3 and Note 2 will be lucky to even see Key Lime Pie) would rather have a Nexus.
Wow, makes me wonder why you bought them in the first place. Anyhow, Jellybean works just fine and most aren’t so anal that they need to upgrade the os the first day its available.
I used my carrier subsidies for the Note 2’s and am going to use the funds from their sale for my LG Nexus 4’s I’m going to be buying from the Play Store.
Also it’s not a matter of getting the upgrade on the first day. It’s getting the update at all. It would not surprise me to see the Note 3 announced within 6-8 months of the Note 2, and then you will never see another update on the Note 2.
It’s more important to get the better hardware (ie Note 2 and S3) because you can always change the software by downloading a custom ROM
People always say that but you CANNOT have completely stable roms without kernel source for new versions of Android for your specific phone. Yes people can port jellybean to your phone that is still officially on Gingerbread, but I bet you will have issues with graphic accelleration, camera, wireless, wifi calling, and other things that require proprietary code that is not in AOSP.
I will be buying the Nexus4 16GB version, but I wouldnt be surprised if they come out with a 32GB version during googles next I/O next summer. I would have prolly paid more to get the 32GB version if they had one.
with all the free cloud storage out now, no need for SD card. All my music is on google, photos on drop box, ect.
I hesitantly got the GNex to “upgrade” my Nexus One. While it is nice to play with the latest and greatest OS, it’s no match for my day in and day out need for more storage. The 16GB internal of the GNex and this soon to be LG just aren’t enough. I’m having to decide which apps and which music I should have on my device. Videos aren’t even a consideration. The cloud is useless to those of us who find ourselves w/o and connection when traveling.
So that’s why I went with the GNote2 this time. Doesn’t hurt that it has the radios in it for Tmo’s LTE network when it goes live next year versus the Nexus’s lack of them. (We don’t have 42 in our area do to the push to get us on LTE very soon.)
It doesn’t matter to me personally because I have been using under 8GB since I had the Nexus One. Some people just have to much data on their phone and they need to decide if they really need all that stuff because for me the Nexus 4 is worth it.
There needs to be a show for Data Hoarders.
I didn’t vote because I’m not getting the Nexus 4 but it has nothing to do with the lack of SD card. I have the Galaxy Nexus, and I’m fine with 16 gigs and no SD card. I just don’t need that much power in my phone yet. The GNex should get me by until the next Nexus phone. I am getting the Nexus 10 though! :)
Passing on it. I seriously do need my sd card. Unless they have a 64gb version.
Damn what do you have on your phone???
A lot of games now need a gig of space and I take a lot of pictures along with hd videos. And of course, porn.
I’d rather have LTE please
On it’s own it’s not a deal breaker, but put together with lack of removable battery put me off it.
Then they went and left off LTE.
FAIL for ME.
SD card? I don’t need no stinking SD card!
LTE is the deal breaker for me. I get why they didn’t include it, but I need it.
Don’t despair. I imagine that an LTE version of this device will be out, but don’t count on being able to install Google Wallet (at least from the Play Store). Carriers suck!!!
no. just provide enough internal space
Storage wise, not having an SD card hasn’t been that big a deal for me. Google should only be putting out 16,32, and 64GB versions of these phones. 8GB isn’t enough, unless you use your phone as just a phone.
I believe in CHOICE. Customers should have the CHOICE of selecting what type of storage they want. What is this, Apple land now? Where Google dictates what the customers want?
Your argument is ridiculous. You have choice. You can get many other Android devices that have SD card slots. Perhaps you should complain that the device doesn’t have a physical keyboard while you’re at it (since some users prefer that to the touch screen). Also, you should complain that it doesn’t come in different screen sizes. After all, it’s all about choice
And sorry, Google does get to dictate what they put in their own device. They aren’t telling Samsung, Sony, Motorola (which they could since they own them), and LG not to put SD card slots in their own devices. If you ask most consumers, they could care less whether there is a SD card slot or not. I would prefer one, but it isn’t a deal breaker. And you have the choice not to buy one if it is.
Google does NOT own Samsung and Sony. They own Motorola. You don’t like my opinion? too bad
Google does control Android and they do provide for SD card support. If Google wanted to remove SD card slots, they could.
Looks like I am one of the minority here.
Like Chris said I never had to do anything with SD card. It’s just here like a fixed storage.
I do try to keep only things I really need although I still have some 500 mp3 and a couple of movies on my phone. I can see that 32GB would do good for people take a lot of pictures or keep tons of MP3 on the phone. I am still fine with 16GB and very happy with the PRICE.
I never had to replace the battery either. I could charge the phone in the office or while I am driving if needed, but even that I rarely do. I rather charge the phone when I have a chance than carry an extra battery. I am on T-mobile, so I am fine with HSPA+ 42, which is actually upgrade from HSPA+ 21 (Gnex) and gives some balance between speed and battery life.
I can deal with no sd as well as lte since I’m just buying one for my wife. She’s not a power user that plays games and stuff on her phone.
She basically uses it as a pocket pc basically.
As for myself, I need at least 32gb so I’ll have to pass unless if they release a 32gb version soon.
I have 14gb of my internal 32 left and have used about 19gb of my 64gb memory card.
The Verge did an article with an excellent explanation as to why the Nexus 4 doesn’t have LTE: http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3569688/why-nexus-4-does-not-have-4g-lte.
The poll answers make no sense at all
Chris, I disagree with permanent non-removable storage. If Matias Duarte thinks having internal and external storage is too complicated, maybe he should work for Apple.
If I were designing a phone, I would make it simple. First off, nobody has anything against SD cards. They only make things easier and more convenient. So, with that said… there should be ONE model with 0 RAM internal storage. Then, give it an SD card slot and let the user choose what he/she wants as far as storage. This makes it simple for a multitude of reasons.
-There is one phone model. This would cut down on manufacturing costs and only one production line is actually needed.
-There is one price for the phone. No more $199, $249, $299, etc. I don’t know where you buy 8GB of storage for $50 either. If pricing was comparable to SD cards, it would be $199, $212, $236, etc.
-Moving files to your new phone is easier. All you would have to do to transfer your files to a new phone upgrade is pop it out of the old phone and pop it into the new phone. No cables needed. Cables are for iTunes users.
-Upgrade your phone storage at anytime! If your phone comes with an 8GB SD card to keep the cost low, you can choose to upgrade your storage at any time. This is a no brainer.
-Your files are almost always safe if your phone is damaged. This is by far the most advantageous feature. Let’s say you have a phone with non-removable storage that gets dropped in a swimming pool. What happens? Warranty takes your phone, gives you a new one, and you hope you have synced your files with some type of online service. But, if you use an SD card to hold all of your files, they are generally very safe on the SD card as they are pretty durable and hold data like no other.
Using an SD Card ONLY would also help differentiate Android from iPhone even further, and keep Apple’s lawyers from sparking up some type of lawsuit. I can see it now “only we can have non-removable internal storage! we’ve patented it!!!!”
Anyway… I wouldn’t buy the Nexus 4 for the lack of removable components, lack of LTE, and it’s not even available on my carrier. Plus, you don’t exactly think “LG” when you hear “Android”. They have a LOT to prove. And if they can’t prove it with a Nexus device, they should stick to LCD panels and refrigerators.
I would stay out of the engineering business if I were you.
0 RAM storage? Where would your programs run? I believe you mean 0 internal storage not RAM (BTW 2GB RAM on Nexus 4 is a big plus). RAM is fast, volatile storage where programs including the operating system are loaded and executed. Without RAM, you have a brick.
How would you get Android on your device? Android is stored on the internal storage drive. Perhaps users will have to download it and install it themselves once they put their install their pre-formatted SD card. Or you could SD card slots with the operating system pre-installed, but there would have to be different ones for every Android device.
Using SD card would slow down your phone. Flash storage is much faster. If Project Butter was designed to speed up the UI, we could name your suggestion as Project Sticky because your device will get stuck more times than not.
Your idea of moving files to a new phone is not as simple as you suggest. What happens with the internal data stored on the phone. That data would have to be erased before switching phones or you could be corrupting the new phone.
Also, your upgrade of memory with a new SD card is flawed because you would have to copy the contents of the old SD card onto the new SD card before you could use it or you will lose all your content.
He obviously used the wrong terminology. Replace “ram” with internal storage.
Just because there is internal storage for the OS doesn’t mean there has to be enough to put user files on it. Flash storage is faster? What do you think a micro SD card is?
MicroSD (styled “microSD”) is a format for removable flash memory cards. SD is an abbreviation of Secure Digital. ….
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_SD_Card
No, it would not slow down your phone. As far as the internal data stored that has to be erased. It’s like that now. What’s the difference? You have to copy the contents from the old phone to computer to new phone without external storage.
Do you really know the difference between internal flash storage and an SD Card? Yes, they are both flash, but they are not the same, The difference is in how the data is accessed. Internal memory is accessed in parallel. An SD card connects serially to the device through the SPI (serial peripheral interface) bus. Parallel processing is magnitudes of order faster than serial processing. So yes, having an SD card as your only memory would slow down your phone immensely.
If your statement were true, why would you want an SSD drive on your computer when you get the same speeds from an SD card which many computers can already read? See, not all flash storage is the same.
Also, did you read the original post? I agree with you that internal storage doesn’t mean there is enough to put all your files on it; but the original poster wanted to eliminate internal storage entirely for SD cards.
No way in hell would I get any phone without an sdcard. Even if it had 1TB of memory, because if you drop that phone in water or brick your phone or even have a motherboard failure (happened with my old s2), then you can kiss your precious data goodbye. Not willing to deal with that. sdcards are portable , cheap, and very durable. Run your sdcard through the wash by accident and I’m almost positive it’d still function flawlessly. Plus the cloud sucks, data is an issue for some people, and your goose is cooked if you’re ever out in a no signal area and can’t access some important file or document . Idc if multiple user support is the new excuse there’s always a better way to handle the problem than to eliminate sdcards.
IMHO that reason doesn’t hold water at all. Putting an SD slot on the thing is not going to confuse anyone. If they do not know how to use SD cards they are not going to put one in, and they will probably never even know that the slot exists. If Google is so concerned about users being confused by it, they can put a plastic dummy card in the slot with a big red warning on it that using SD cards can lead to confusion. And put warnings in the users manual, whatever they feel is necessary.
Yes, 8/16 GB is ok for some people, but paying a few cents more to include a slot would lead to hundreds of thousands if not millions more people buying the N4. And would make no telling how many who are buying it anyway much happier with the device. And it would totally avoid this huge backlash of ill will…
Matias implies that SD cards are antiquated and useless nowadays, but the reality is that they are still by far the best/cheapest thing on the market for their intended use. Why does he think everyone wants them? Just because we are ignorant? No, it is because we currently have Android devices and we know exactly how useful SD cards are and how much storage we need. Google has introduced nothing in this latest version of Android to make it work better with less storage. No improvements to cloud solutions, bigger “sphere” photos, game and app sizes are continuing to rise, etc.
Well said, Nobody ever complains about to many options.
I’m on Verizon, I can’t have it even if I want it.
doesnt really bother me. I’ll gladly take a 16GB. I dont have an SD card in my sgs 3 right now. i rarely get to 16GB data and thats only because of having numerous roms on my phone. instant upload moves all my pictures to google+ and i can take the ones i dont need on my phone off. i carry about 4-5 albums of music on my phone just in case and a couple games. remember just about everywhere has a WiFi connection these days, and instead of using your mobile data, you will use WiFi and access anything and everything you want from the cloud if necessary.
I would prefer 32gb but can live with 16gb. I have 32gb on my current nexus and at first i used it but then after a recent wipe I don’t store as much on there anymore. Mostly songs and I sync most of them with Spotify now offline. I still have a little under 8gbs free so I’ve become accustomed to the 16gb way of life. It’s the same way on my Galaxy 10.1 and Nexus 7.
I could live with a 32GB version, but since it isn’t coming to verizon, at least not anytime soon, and has a super small built in battery and messed up screen aspect ratio, I really can’t consider it. The HTC Droid DNA will win my vote so long as it get a microsd card slot, 2500mah battery, and decent development support from the community.
If it’s anything like the one series phone, it won’t have microsd card slot. What messed up screen ratio are you talking about?
The J Butterfly which is Japan’s variant of the phone has a card slot, so hoping verizon pushed one on as well, or that HTC realized people want them, especially the power users who hold interest in such a phone.
As for the Nexus 4’s aspect ratio, it is 15:9. 16:9 is the norm for video. When you hold the phone horizontally it will have 48 pixels too many, making black bars on the top and bottom of all tv and any 16:9 aspect ratio movies. Plus since it is LCD, it will be grey bars. I could live with it on super amoled where blacks really are black and the bars would seem almost invisible, but on LCD it is annoying.
Lack of LTE.
If it were a another cheapo plastic phone and no SD card it might not appeal to me enough. I think this thing is gorgeous and I am lucky to be truly ulimited with T-Mo, so yes I am going for it!
Greater than 50% of this group (which I would think would be one of the core target groups) is not buying with the current storage options. Why Google, why!?
This is a real stupid poll. The last two iterations of Nexus phones have not had SD card slots. What is the big deal this time?
I used to be one of those people who wanted an SD card slot, but my experience over the last several years has changed my mind. I had a 32GB SD card in my Nexus One. At that time, an SD Card was imperative because of a lack of internal memory. Once Froyo came out, it was even more imperative because more apps could be added to the device. However, I had a faulty SD card. My Nexus One would just turn itself off for no reason. HTC support suggested resetting the phone. I did, but the problem persisted. HTC sent me a new phone. I decided to save the contents of the SD card and reformat it for the new phone. After about a month, the same issue happened. Again, HTC sent me a new phone. Again, the issue happened. Somehow, I removed the SD card and restarted the phone and it worked perfectly. It turned out that the SD card was the issue.
When I got the GNEX, it came with 32GB memory so I really didn’t mind not having an SD card slot. Also, Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player made it no longer necessary to have a lot of my music on my device.
I think the bigger fail with the Nexus 4 is to have an 8GB model and not a 32GB model, but I will probably get the 16GB model.
Exactly! People are acting like Google hasn’t done this before. But you know what the problem isn’t lack of SD really its the fact that they only give us so little I mean 8 and 16gb? 16gbs may be decent for some but I myself fill up my 8gb sd card on my HTC Sensation.
Who knows maybe next year Samsung can release that 128gb memory in time for the Nexus 5
Exactly. I had a top brand sd card fail on me too. It’s a really enticing way to get a lot of cheap storage, until something goes wrong and you lose your data. They’re not as reliable as eMMC.
I wrote an article on this. It isn’t that bad ..http://www.reviewlagoon.com/?p=763
OK Google, here’s the deal:
I want to use google music but I need to cache a lot of songs locally because
1) Cloud is expensive.
2) Cloud is unreliable. Even in the SF bay area where it should arguably be the best in the world, it’s unreliable. Even on the carrier with the largest network, it’s unreliable. Drive anywhere and it gets worse. Get in a plane and there’s zero cloud.
3) Cloud is inconvenient. I have better things to do with my life than spending a bunch of time constantly managing a small number of locally cached songs. I’m not going to sit down and make a playlist every time I want to venture into an area that might have a poor data signal. I need a lot of songs stored locally so I can listen to whatever I want whenever I want.
If you keep pushing the platform away from local storage, people like me will have to go back to ipods and itunes. We don’t want to, but you’re forcing us in that direction.
Yeah, yeah, we know we can get storage by buying GS3 instead of Nexus. But we also know that Nexus represents the direction you intend to push the entire Android platform. It’s not a good direction for consumers.
Google should make a media player IMO, 120GB Nexus Q2 anybody?
id rather have 1gig with sd slot !
this si a deal breaker i can not get a phone w.o sd!
Then you have never owned a Nexus? Maybe a N1 but if you haven’t tried it don’t knock it.
no LTE is my issue.
Bottom line is that wireless data is not fast, or reliable or even cheap enough in most parts for “cloud” storage to be the norm. It pains me to see Google make the mistake over and over again. And the excuse of multiple file systems being confusing is rubbish. People work with cards of this nature with their digital cameras all the time.
Either they are getting paid off by carriers so consumers end up using more data (= paying more) or Google for some reason cannot leave their fantasy world that has not yet to come to fruition in the real world.
That said, I have a 16GB Galaxy Nexus after trying to wait out a 32GB GSM version to no avail. I’m mostly content but the one nagging issue is lack of storage. I can’t carry my apps and a decent portion of my music on internal storage – much less if I wanted to bring along some videos to watch. My wireless provider is unlimited data but speeds are slow and coverage is spotty and relatively small outside my area. I’ve resorted to OTG flash drive only to find that it drains the battery 3 times as fast, so I can’t even count on external storage.
Google needs to wake up and join us in the real world.
No, but LTE is.
The lack of SD card isn’t the issue. The issue is Google moving backwards on technology and not supporting CDMA/LTE which is used by over half of the US population on Verizon Wireless and Sprint.
Why would I want to buy a another non-Nexus Android phone? They NEVER receive updates, are covered in ugly carrier branding, use ridiculous/ugly skins, have questionable build quality across the board, are either too big (GS3), or have reduced features (RAZR M), or all of the above.
A certain competitor (yes, Apple) is happy to provide their product for ALL carriers and there is no reason why Google shouldn’t. This is a slap in the face to a long time Android and Linux user and I am now considering taking my business to them. You people will say “fine good riddance”, but this isn’t how a company that has a world class product should be doing business.
Google DOES provide their devices available for all carriers Non-Branded i.e. Unlocked its not Googles fault if your carrier doesn’t want to offer the device. The point of a Nexus is for mainly os/app development not for pure enjoyment, and CDMA is too controlling of a network. GSM/UMTS is widely spread across the world than LTE and CDMA. I laugh every time a company releases a Global CDMA device because there are so few of them compared to GSM/umts. And not forget everyone has absolutely different LTE bands.
Also GSM is totally SIM based so that as long as the GSM phone is unlocked, it will work across all GSM networks around the world.
So with Nexus 4 we have
a) Quadband Voice
b) Pentaband 3G WCDMA/UMTS
c) DC HSPA+ at 42Mbps (TMo specific in the US).
The old Galaxy Nexus was pentaband too but missing c) making it theoritically not capable of utlizing the 42Mbps technology to the fullest.
With CDMA there is no equivalent to SIM based portability. It is based on the devices ESN (Equipment Serial Number), which means at any 1 time only 1 device could be activated. So the carrier has all the control on you using the device.
Another thing is that with APQ8064 the Quadcore Krait, the baseband radio is available only as a separate chip. UMTS/WCDMA baseband chips are far cheaper than LTE capable baseband chips. Since the former can work on each and every HSPA network in the world, Google has most of the international mobile market in its sphere of influence. Add to it the GSM based pre-paid market from ST, SM, SV and even TMo pre-paid.
In USA where LTE is the new king, Google can allow its partners to worry about satisfying the carrier requirements. LG Optimus G will do the job. So do not look for “pure” Google device across Verizon, Sprint or ATT.
I’m still thinking about getting this. I currently have a Samsung SIII that I love, but, i’m also on Sprint and their 3g speeds are just plain embarrassing in my area. LTE is being worked on now, but, I’m tired of waiting. I would prefer a 32gb version of the Nexus 4, but I might just make the jump and try out AT&T and TMobiles HSPA speeds. They have to be better than Sprint’s 3g. Even if I only get a steady 2-4mbps, I could live with that over Sprints 400kbps. I have a Nexus 7 and will get a Nexus 10, so I can store my movies and music on that instead of my phone.
I think people are making too much of the SD card, and it ruins performance all-around.
I have more than 128GB of photos. I have more than 128GB of music. And I have more than 32GB of personal videos. Fitting all of your data locally on a single device was never a viable solution, with the exception of on your home server (formerly known as a desktop).
Does having more in a single device help? Of course, but that’s it. Help.
Get over it.
they dont even make SD cards big enough to fit your needs… your post is fail
Samsung already is… I’d reference the post but its a couple weeks old.
haha
Is it a Deal Breaker? People act like not having a SD card is new in a Google Nexus… Was it a deal breaker the last 2 times?
Yes
Point is don’t expect it to come back, if you buy a Nexus know that it isn’t going to have it. Have you even owned a N1?
When will people stop saying OMG it doesn’t have an SD card, the last 3 nexus’s haven’t had an SD slot, google’s decided a long time ago to omit sd card slots from nexus phones and push the whole google cloud experience, the whole point of the nexus phone is a pure google phone running on the google cloud. Just accept it nexus phones don’t have SD slots, period.
I carry 16GB of engineering drawings and files on my SD card. I am frequently in areas with with poor coverage, so the cloud is not an option. I could never own a device that did not allow large amounts of local storage.
You could just solve your problem by migrating to a better carrier
If there was a 64GB LTE version I wouldn’t care about the lack of an sdcard. As it stands however, yes, it IS a deal breaker.
I forgot to add ESPECIALLY in the Nexus 10 but also the Nexus 4.
N10 has 32gbs
I hate Apple but I don’t love Google. This is one reason why.
a 32gb version will push me to buy, but I’m leaning towards no right now :(
As usual, the good doesn’t outweigh the bad, anything that is the Nexus 4, will eventually make it to the rest, relying on the cloud for everything is not that great a thing. A scenario is, softbricking your phone through a mishap, it won’t turn on! You’ve used up your memory, and you haven’t been diligent in making backups. Not able to connect to your backup, which is on dropbox, plus a phone that can’t get past the first screen( dam, I shoulda brought my laptop), stuck in the country, no sd to pop in, and restore. Oh, and i forgot, it just so happens, there’s only 2g, in the country. What fun! And your car won’t start! I can see the tumbleweeds blowin by now!
Soft bricking your phone? A phone not being able to turn on is not a soft brick. Thats something that has to be replaced. There is no coming out of a brick if your phone won’t at least boot up and be able to be put into download mode or recovery of sorts. Sd card won’t save you then. A soft brick is more of a continuous Boot Loop on power up. That can simply be fixed by entering download mode and if you can’t do that XDA will show you how to fix it.
Majority of people 1.) aren’t constantly traveling 2.) Plan their trips 3.) Has a back up plan shall anything happen 4.) Don’t Rom their phone.
If you are that unlucky for all that to happen to you then you would also be unlucky in the regard that you had forgotten your back up SD card and you would be stranded in a desert with no food or water for miles, In which you’d already would be gone after 3 days without. So if all that happens to you then your fate was sealed from the start.
sd card becomes a deal breaker only because the thing has only an absurdly small amount of built in storage. most of the reasons for not including sd card slots are completely bogus, but no one would care if you had 64gb to start with.
i’m pretty sure they’re going to have a refresh with bigger storage space down the line like they did with the nexus 7
Well, the lack of an SD card slot *would* have been a deal-breaker, but frankly, the deal was broken long before the memory expansion came into it, simply because it has the “LG” warning label on the back.
With that said, here is why an SD card is nice to have:
1. The obvious reason: If you have a card slot, it doesn’t matter if a phone you really love in all other respects lacks enough memory for what you need. Just add your own and go.
2. A less obvious reason: Once you’ve bought the memory card at the size you want, you can save money on all future phone purchases. When I bought my GS3, I didn’t have to pay extra for the 32 GB version, I just reused my old SD card from the old G2x, stuck it in the base 16 GB GS3 model, and saved a chunk of change. Next phone I buy, I’ll do the same thing; just buy the phone with the minimum amount of storage, and use my SD card. This way, there’s no point paying for that extra memory over and over and over — just buy it once, and keep it.
3. Another nice perk of migrating your card to a new phone is that all your stuff automatically comes along with it. No need to spend time transferring your music, photos, etc. all over to the new device, and no worrying if you forgot something. It’s all there already.
4. Also, having all this stuff on the SD card allows you to remove it in case something goes wrong with the phone. I don’t know about you, but if I ever have to do a factory reset on a phone (something that happened very frequently with that POS G2x), I always pop my SD card out first. Maybe it’s paranoia, but it feels good knowing that your photos and music won’t be affected by whatever you do to the phone.
The missing SD card reader isn’t, the missing 4G LTE band however is a deal breaker.
+1 for 32/64gb at a reasonable price. 8 gb kills the playstore, it is simply not enough.
I have over 16GB of comics, pdfs, and music on my 32GB SD Card. It’s not confusing. They want you using cloud services. If they made a 32GB device I probably wouldn’t grit my teeth while buying.
I have a 16gb Galaxy Nexus, with NO music on it, and I’m running out of space. How in the world am I supposed to use an 8gb phone? Smh. Cmon man!
No 4g. No removable battery. Small storage and no expandable storage. Not on Verizon = deal breaker
I’m still rolling with the Nexus One. Got to say that I love having my videos and music loaded on the 32 GB SD card I installed in it. I think that cutting out the expandable memory would have been fine if there was a lot of memory in the phone to start with, but seeing as how I can double or quadruple the amount of memory with just a few bucks, it’ll be the reason why I’ll stick with the Ol’ Nexus One for another year.
well it seems t-mobile might be going verizons route with the new nexus here is a screenshot with me and t-mobile on g+ https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/WZucuRSvG96NviJm4PJoLmsk-B8Ndy_bviJLhxTpvSuLAyDrCxKqSBeYODPeDCBVFDHAIPNllg
Um… I have less than 2GB left on my Nexus 7. I need more space for apps. Games are getting pretty large. I have about 14GB of actually usable storage. Batman leaves me at 12GB. Spiderman drops me to about 11.5. I’ve only said 2 games. I want to get Most Wanted, but I don’t think I have enough space.
Yea, they need to make a larger size. An SD card would allow me to move some of those videos over. Friggin Gangnam Style 1080p taking up all that space. =.P
WIthout 64GB of storage, I need a micro SD card slot. Even then, not having one makes transferring app and rom backups, as well as any content on the device, a pain.
AirDroid. Also… most phones with SD slots have them under the battery cover. Isn’t removing it a pain?
No more so than removing the sim card to put it in a new phone. How in the world can that be considered a pain? Are people that lazy? Transferring stuff from phone to computer, or cloud, back to new phone is much more of a pain, and way more time consuming, than swapping a micro SD card ever could be.
But most people don’t take out their SIM card / swap phones very often. But if you are taking out your SD card to transfer files… then yes it is a pain. Just like Chris says… in my Android devices that have SD slots, I put in the card and just leave it there anyway and use the cable (or Airdroid). So… I don’t see the pain in phones with fixed memory… unless you need tons of space and the Nexus isn’t providing an option for it. I think Google should have offered a 32GB version for $399.
No, thats typical.
Lack of expandable storage is a deal breaker
Lack of replaceable battery is also a deal breaker
Not that I’m against using cloud storage, but the network isn’t always available and data on non-removable storage is far too vulnerable. I just posted a mini-rant about this on Google+ yesterday (https://plus.google.com/109847323153942071457/posts/T8gEm9ANLu5)
The lack of an SD card slot in a nexus phone is old news. A discussion about the lack of a removable battery would be more useful. IMHO, I don’t think the lack of the battery will be as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. The gnex shipped with a 1850mah battery, which was upgradable to 2150mah with the extended battery. The nexus 4 is shipping with a 2100mah battery, but I don’t think it will be as big of a deal since it doesn’t have LTE, and 2100 is as big as the extended battery was on the gnex.
Its not the fact that LTE needs a huge battery but 2100mAh isn’t going to get you too far and a lot of people swap the batteries for better performing batteries. Ever have your phone run out of charge? I have.. All I had to do was swap out in a matter of seconds with this method… Now with the Nexus 4 I would have to up and go buy some expensive battery extended and wait at least 10 minutes for the charge to take before turning it on. External batteries don’t won’t better. Its a hassle.
The last time I ran out of my battery had to be at least 9 months ago. I have a wall charger at home, a charger in my laptop, a charger at work, a charger in my car, and on top of all of this I have the extended battery. It’s very rare that I even get into a situation where my battery is going below 15%.
I could live with 16gb, but it would suck. I could definitely do with 32gb, it wouldn’t even be a problem for me. I honestly use my 12gb T-Mo GSII without an SD card, because it broke, and the only thing that annoys me is that I can’t download my videos to my device.
I would get a 16gb one ($350, those specs and no contract) but, I just got a Note 2 with Tmobile. I left my snail 3G and no 4g from Sprint.
$400 for 32gb would be great though.
If it wasn’t as cheap as dirt OFF contract, then I’d say pass.
since i use my current device as a portable music player, video player, mass storage device and high quality video recorder, it doesn’t make sense to replace it with a device that can never have more than 8 gb of storage.
guess that’s the new pure google experience: call, text, and use the search bar. awesome.
i need an SD card.
Lack of LTE is the real deal breaker…
Ditto.
An odd title for this post as well. Its like a new flagship car that comes out without an engine and a writer asking if the lack of leather seats is a deal breaker.
Just curious, what you guys need LTE for? Any of your standard apps, netflix, pandora, spotify, youtube, ect. play instantly on 3G.
and 4G through HSPA+
I have Sprint LTE in Chicagoland and it’s pretty nasty. I can email a dozen people great pictures and videos in a matter of seconds. These are files that would take a long time to send without LTE unless you lowered the quality. Just off the top of my head. Why wouldn’t someone want faster internet? It’s here now so no need to go backwards :-]
I understand wanting the fastest connection possible but it doesn’t seem like it should be a deal breaker. HSPA should be fast enough for most things and if you live in an LTE area, WiFi should be close by in most cases. LTE is faster than most peoples WiFi yet you don’t hear many complaints about that.
Sounds like a piece of junk to me.
The poll should have a “I’m not buying it because I’m a Verizon/Sprint customer” option
I USED TO THINK that I needed a tremendous amount of storage until a few months with my 16GB Galaxy Nexus. I take many photos, some videos in 1080p and carry about 500 songs. I still have about 7 GBs left. So in other words, I have no worries about the storage space.
Keep in mind that the 8MP camera is going to increase file sizes.
Urgent question.
I am buying a Nexus 7 to read books which I have downloaded on pdf. I just want to know if Nexus 7 is good. Will I have to zoom in and adjust everytime I move to the next page while reading?
How does a page with 2 columns work on the Nexus 7? Many of my pdfs are with 2 columns.
Please help.
PDF format is not the best option to read books on any platform. You would have to zoom to the best text size for you no matter what app you use to read books. A PDF reader is a pdf reader on any platform, Android or IOS. 2 Column on a page are still one pdf page in size. A PDF file is nothing but a glorified jpg with some special features. If reading PDFs on a Nexus 7 is an issue for you then it will be an issue on any tablet you buy.
16gb is way too small. I would be sacrificing apps, photos and videos just to have stock jelly bean. I shouldn’t have to sacrifice usage to have he latest device. Doesn’t man sense.
The lack of SD card is not a deal breaker. The lack of LTE is however. I’ll keep my GNex and wait for the next Nexus…
If GOOGLE OR AT LEAST LG add a SD CARD SLOT i would buy the NEXUS 4 we NEED SD CARDS to expand our memory i mostly use my phone for pictures/videos/music 16GB isn’t enough storage plus i don’t want to spend lots of money using the cloud storage
Deal breaker. Cloud is beyond pointless on a plane when I want to listen to music. There is never a 64 gig nexus phone and the oems way overcharge for higher memory.
How much music can you listen to on a flight? Just stick on a handful of albums you might want to listen to then update it next time. I don’t see why everyone feels a need to have their entire music collection available all the time.
I’m a memory whore. i save tons of videos, music and games on my devices so i require an external memory card. i currently own 16gb note 2 with a 64gb card. i will not go with anything that has less memory available
Yes. I use 32GB SD card for music… better than relying on a consistent internet connection that drains my data and battery faster.
Let me see if I can understand this… Most people go with Android over iOS because of Rooting/Unlocking/Custom Roms. The people who get Nexus phones are an even more hardcore crowd regarding customization/development. “Its just confusing for users” you know whats confusing is what Google is doing here…Eliminate Unlimited Data Plans + No SD Card + Force Cloud Use = ButtRapeConsumer
Good Job Google way to listen to your customers….
Lack of LTE would be a bigger deal breaker for me! What is this early 2011?!?! LTE is a must nowadays!
I’m running a 2 year old HTC Aria on Ma Bell and I use my still perfect condition 32GB ZuneHD for music, so this will be an amazing upgrade that I really don’t care too much about the storage space and lack of LTE on. Definitely getting this as my next phone.
No SD slot, no LTE, no removable battery. What exactly is so great about this phone? Yeah it has some flashy specs. Yet it doesn’t have 3 thing’s that almost every standard Android phone has.
I’m not sure what device Chavez is using but my phone which has
16GB of internal storage and a 32GB microSD card never asks me where
I want to store things. Anything I download with the phone and
any pictures I take are automatically stored internally. The only
thing on my SD card are files, music, videos and roms I personally
transferred to it from my PC. It’s not confusing at all. The
only thing that makes SD cards confusing is the way manufacturers
implement them.
And if Google is worried about confusion they can make the microSD slot a latent feature. That way you’re not forcing anyone to use it.
i guess the Nexus line is now for people who were going to get an iPhone but are too poor…
here is my message:
Till OEMs (all of them) stop charging me $50 – $100 to go from 16 to 32 gigs, i want a MOFO SD card slot so i can add 32 gigs of storage. I WANT it, I can manage my goddamn files, I know where the settings are to drop my photos to the SD card, I know how to Bloody Copy/paste with different drives, I know how to make a directory on a drive. I know how to use my mofo hardware, because I take the mofo time to learn it. This is NOT (thank satan) an iPhone, made for idiots whose VCRs are still blinking 12:00.
A Mess? Then Don’t include a 2 gb card with every phone, just the slot. If people are too to incompetent buy one and use it, then it is their issue. I do not have Signal at my gym, I do not have signal in every location in CONNECTICUT, how do you expect someone in a less built up area to deal with “cloud storage”
Ya bro, I am mad and not gonna take it anymore ;)
I wish I could give you a hundred thumbs up.
so basically they think we’re all technologically retarded?
my music library alone equals 16gb, not counting the full series of daria i put on my SD. they could just come out with a 4GB version and provide an Sd slot. its what i have currently with my Lg motion.
as is, the nexus just wont work for me as 16Gb just isnt enough.
I thought you weren’t going to blabber on! ;)
Without at least 32GB of internal storage, yes definitely a deal breaker.
Matias Duarte from Google answers the question:
“Why don’t Nexus devices have SD cards?
Everybody likes the idea of having an SD card, but in reality it’s just confusing for users.
If
you’re saving photos, videos or music, where does it go? Is it on your
phone? Or on your card? Should there be a setting? Prompt everytime?
What happens to the experience when you swap out the card? It’s just too
complicated.
We take a different approach. Your Nexus has a
fixed amount of space and your apps just seamlessly use it for you
without you ever having to worry about files or volumes or any of that
techy nonsense left over from the paleolithic era of computing.
With
a Nexus you know exactly how much storage you get upfront and you can
decide what’s the right size for you. That’s simple and good for users.”
—
And I’ve decided that the size on a Nexus is not the right size for me.
Yes, it’s a deal-breaker.
I understand completely why google ditched micro sd. What i just cant seem to understand is why they would even consider an 8gb option. The 8gb should be extinct illegal in the tech world its stupid and pointless. Why not $350 16gb $400 32gb options. That is still far cheaper than all of the competition. That is still easily in the impulse buy territory.
The thing I have the issue with is not so much the SD Card, I mean yeah I’d like the option, but I would buy a phone with no SD Card, but with a caveat; I would need plenty of space. 8GB wouldn’t cut it for me, I would need a 16GB at least. 8GB sucks because first, you don’t even get a full 8GB to store stuff, the OS and other file goodness takes up space and leaves you with 5.something GB to use.
But one area where the SD Card slot killed internal memory only phones is price. You want to buy a sweet phone? Go for it. Need more space later? Just go get a 16GB or 32GB card. And you don’t have to pay the extra $50-$100 that upgrading to the higher capacity model usually means. Seriously, does adding 16GB or 32GB cost them that much more to add to the existing hardware? No, but they like to give a good enough price gap so that there is a distinction between models, and avoid consumer confusion. But it also means consumers pay more when they shouldn’t have to. So in my opinion, the SD Card slot is the great equalizer, it makes the battle over processing power, and RAM, and other value. But suddenly we’re being forced into deciding on storage space now too.
Yeah some things about SD Cards make it undesirable, and some of those things can be fixed and some can’t. But if they aren’t going to have SD Card slots in the future I dang well want enough storage standard that it won’t even be an issue to go non-SD Card.
But 32 gigs is minimum though
Using 16GB S3 since June, dont bother with an SD Cards. With Dropbox and loads of other online storage options from Google/Microsoft why bother with SD cards. I just hope the battery does its job – isn’t Android 4.2 codenamed Project Road Runner or something?
“Nexus The Playground is open”
Change “open” to “limited to 16 GB”.
Yup, I’m not looking to get into the streaming game just so carriers can gouge me for more money.
For me the deal breaker was not available for Verizon customers.
Deal breaker for me. I have a 32gb card in my GS3 and plan to get a 64gb microsd card soon.
The J Butterfly has my money as soon as it drops in NA.
Micro SD is a REQUIRED element. What happens when the phone fries, gets wet or the Micro USB slot gets damaged? What happens when the phone gets run over, dropped or otherwise destroyed?
You lose EVERYTHING, your photos, your videos, your backups, everything. You have no recourse, no auxiliary method to get your memories back, nothing. Just a shattered electronic brick that may or may not have your memories in it but you will never know because if the board is compromised you’re fucked.
I administer smart phones for a small company, I see accidents happen I see memories disappear when a phone malfunctions, I see when an entire catalog of data goes *fzzzt* because the waiter accidentally misses with the water pitcher. Secure Storage saves the day more often than you think.
As for your argument that it’s “Confusing” that is ridiculous It’s simple to write around. I’ve already seen a few apps that have to use this method because they work too quickly for an SD card. Fastburst camera for instance will write to internal RAM/Local storage first then will filter to the folder of your choice. It’s a simple operation.
BTW you do realize that phones that do not have a micro SD card for storage hide recently used data from your computer. In essence you have to reboot your phone if you want to download those photos or that video to your computer for further processing. This was a fact I learned the hard way, When the charge board of my first Galaxy Nexus failed I lost every single photo from the daughter’s first week of life because I hadn’t rebooted my phone in a week.
Honestly, after experiencing it on my Galaxy Nexus, I can’t go back to the other way that every other Android based OEM company makes their setup (certain amount of storage for apps/system and then separate for media storage), instead everything has shared space. You can install as many apps as you want as long as you are willing to use some of your media space, instead of having to “move to SD”, so just buy what you can afford and move on. Everytime you have a small specific amount available, I found many people running out of space very quickly. (like on the SG3, many people I know love the phone, but install a few larger apps and suddenly it doesn’t have enough space for email or MMS.)
You can buy a 64GB Class-10 microSDXC card for ~70 dollars. Why would I buy an 8/16GB compromise and why would I wait to pay what will probably be $100 more for a 32GB compromise? Have fun with the limited storage capacity….which will force you to rely on the cloud/remote storage…and have fun accessing your remote storage with no LTE when you’re mobile. Also, Anandtech’s benchmarks show that the phone has rather unimpressive battery life, overheats and throttles back under heavy use. So add non-removable battery to the list of reasons not to buy. I want Android 4.2 as bad as the next phandroid, but I don’t understand this phone at all and I’m not taking that compromised hardware just so I can get some awesome software.
Edit: And that glass back that allegedly fractures easily? why would a “developer” phone choose form over function?
No, but no LTE is.
I don’t remember nearly as much fuss about the entire HTC One family lacking sd cards.
no LTE OR SD NO GO I HAVE A GALAXY NEXUS 32 GB AND THAT’S NOT ENOUGH SPACE THERE SHOULD BE A SD SLOT ON BOTH DEVICES BUT ID RATHER STAY WITH MY GNEX AND MY 32 GB THE 8 OR 16 WASTE OF A POTENTIALLY GOOD PHONE ILL WAIT WANNA UPGRADE NOT DOWNGRADE LOL.
It GLASS backing instead of a kevlar like backing like the motorolla phones make me much sadder than it not having a MicroSD slot. I REALLY didnt want to buy a case for my phone
As long as data plans, battery time and other factors force me to have my Music and Movies as files with me, I need a phone with sufficient storage. I’m currently using a SGS3 with 16 GB internal and a 32 GB SD-card and those 48 GB are already almost full, so a phone with only 8/16 GB is simply not feasible at the moment. I know Google wants people to use the Cloud instead but they fail to take into account that for most of us that’s not yet a practical alternative.
lets not forget folks that the actual capacity you’ll be able to use wont be 16GB. it’ll be more like 12-13 of formatted storage.
google seriously needs to reconsider excluding an SD slot. i WANT this phone, but the lack of storage is irreconcilable.
can’t wait to buy the nexus4!!
I had the Galaxy Nexus without an SD card and I’d rather not go there again. I have the Galaxy S3 now and I’m looking forward to the Note II.
I won’t say never. I love pure Android…but right now I don’t plan on buying another phone without an SD card or a removable battery!!
No its not. I prefer the hardware performance.
The LG Nexus and Android 4.2 is a significant hardware downgrade for an insignificant software upgrade that can be overcome by rooting and flashing your device, so why should I buy a device that doesn’t have a removable battery, expandable storage or LTE compared to the LG Optimus G? If Google is going to cut corners in order to provide a Nexus phone at a cut rate price, i.e. only HSPA+ and 8gb of storage, then they need to let their users decide between using or not using expandable storage and not force feed us their decisions like Apple. The fact of the matter is that Android is already fragmented between expandable storage and no expandable storage anyway, so people are use to the option and its respective draw backs, And if they don’t like the respective draw backs then they can choose not to make use of their expandable storage slot. Frankly, the 8, or even a 4gb, Nexus would’ve been a much better product with a 64gb uSD option.
I never used more than 8gb on my Gnex, it’s enough for all my apps (a couple of ‘big’games I play at any one time), a few albums and enough space remaining to take photos and videos until I backup to my PC.
If the phone had an SD slot there’s no way they’d be able to sell the base model so cheap, if their business model can save me $100s on a phone I’ll gladly take it.
i totally agree with Chris. i’ve been waiting for the nexus 4 to be released. originally i was going to get the samsung gs3, but decided to hold out for google’s next big device. the fact that it does not have an SD card slot does not bother me. with my sensation 4g i had put in an 16gb sd card when i originally got it and have not removed it. if i needed to transfer files i would just plug my phone up to my computer and i’m done.
what really bothers me about this google nexus 4 is the fact that it only comes in a measly 8 gb and 16 gb version. 16 and 32 gb would have worked out much better. if there was a 32 gb available i would have been ordering on the day of release or pre-ordered by now. I’m just a little bit worried that google might do the same thing they did with the nexus 7 release a newer version with more storage a few months down the line and then i would be pissed at google. sometimes being an early technology adopter can have it’s drawbacks.
part of the reason i think a 32gb nexus 4 is not released or not released now is that it would mess up lg’s relationship with cell carriers. keep in mind the nexus 4 is the optimus g which is going to be available on sprint and at&t. the at&t version is an 8mp camera with 16 gb internal and sd card slot and the sprint version is the 13mp camera with 32 gb of ram, no sd card. if a nexus 4 would be released in a 32 gb it probably would cost less than both of those versions that are being offered by sprint and at&t, because both of the buy price is $549.99. or google could release a nexus 4 w/ 32gb for $549.99 too, but then that would have changed googles plan of making an affordable phone and keeping costs low. because think about it you are getting a top of the line phone for $350, no contract with what will be offered on november 13th. funny thing is i would pay the extra money for a 32gb nexus 4, and i think there are a lot of people that would too.
I’m going to wait a month or two and hope that by popular demand google realizes that they a 32gb nexus 4 would be in there best interest and have lg make one. don’t know if that would happen because i remember with the galaxy nexus there was supposed to be a 32gb gsm version which ended up being cancelled and the only 32 gb available was through verizon, but that may have been verizon’s bullying of wanting a 32 gb phone and not google’s plan when i think about it. although the 16gb nexus 4 would do fine for me, started using the cloud for music and storage since i am on tmobiles unlimited plan, just knowing that i have 32 gb would be more of a relief for me as the space is there if needed. the cloud is not available everywhere. sometimes you just have to store stuff on your phone.
wow we have 112 apple trolls lol
Meh, I learned a long time ago that I can easily live with 16 gigs. Even now, with almost 200 apps installed, music I haven’t listened to since high school, and hundreds of documents and pdf’s downloaded, I still have more than 4 gigs left on my galaxy nexus. What I would have loved to see is google leading the way on battery life. I really hope my next phone has a 3000 mAh battery. Maybe next years nexus will be for me.
At first when I heard the lack of expansion I thought, hells no I’m not buying one now. But when I think about it a bit more I only used my SD card for music, now I am using spotify I never listen to music natively on the device. I do however see both sides of the argument, I will be buying one but the SD expansion would have been nice to have
What i didnt hear or read in the comments is the real reason why! If you think Matias’ really means the confusing statement, your mildly confused. While he does have a point in regard to the average user, the lack of expandabme memory is based around the ECO SYSTEM!!! Google is selling advert’s via services. If you need to save your data and your running out of local space, use Drive, Google Music or one of the many other cloud based services the company offers. Personally i would not buy at this point i would not buy a peice of hardware that does not have expandable memory, i would fee like im getting hosed if i did…What i would expect and like to see in the later releases of Android is app computing from the cloud, once this concept is in full swing and buttery smooth, then and i think only then will expandable memory not be a concern of mine….2 cents provided…
I bought the original Samsung Galaxy Nexus (32GB), thinking the lack of a SD slot would bother me. Not at all! I have always had more then enough space and while using Google drive and streaming 95% of my music, I have had no issues. I agree that not having a 32GB model, would probably keep me from diving in. Google, how about offering 30GB free of Google Drive space? : )