concept Crazy Idea: Phones with standardized removable storage.

[JoyTheGeek]

So recently my ROG 1 was in a terrible accident, screen dead, back cracked to hell. The shit I've tried to get the data off this thing with no screen is short of obnoxious. I bought the Desktop Dock to see into the device and use my mouse, only to find that I can't transfer files through it or the phone when it's docked. Now I'm gonna basically have to get a usb to USB 3.0 hub and click blindly hoping to hit the confirm button. So, here's my crazy idea: MAKE A PHONE WITH M.2. OR ANYTHING STANDARD THAT WE CAN JUST REMOVE AND PLUG INTO A COMPUTER. CRAZY RIGHT??? And for those that are telling me I should've backed up, yeah sure I'll just find a spot for 145gbs of data no problem.

[pythonmegapixel]

A few years  phones were sold with small amounts of internal storage and it was expected that users who needed more would put their important data on a SD card? I really wish that was still the case....

 

But as much as I agree with you about removable storage -- yes, you should have backed up. No excuses. A 500GB hard drive is like $30 these days. You should NEVER rely on a portable device to store data of long term importance, for exactly the reason you describe. It's like writing a really important final essay and then just chucking it unprotected into the bottom of your bag until it's time to hand it in...

[DoctorNick]

It seem like it could be a thing. But with companies like apple.. Do you really think it will be a thing? 

[Speedbird]

1 minute ago, DoctorNick said:

It seem like it could be a thing. But with companies like apple.. Do you really think it will be a thing? 

Unlikely, even the Macs don't have replaceable storage now.

[DoctorNick]

Just now, Speedbird said:

Unlikely, even the Macs don't have replaceable storage now.

Exactly my point and it's so stupid, and wasteful 

[Mark Kaine]

11 minutes ago, Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

What is that unit? Garbages?

 

But for real, you bought a phone without a card slot. There is a microSD standard in existence that newer phones (and all iPhones) seem to abbandon.

So basically you want phones to have something that they already have but yours does not.

... while that's true and I would never buy a phone without removable storage, they all have internal storage also which you'd need to access... 

 

 

now I think that shouldn't be a problem if you've previously "paired" the phone to a pc (assuming the phone still works but not the screen) 

 

But some phones and especially newer Android versions can be very finicky about that so yeah (even removable storage isn't the perfect solution here) 

[Levent]

Well they sell devices with SD cards. I always look for SD card expansion in every phone I get. My current 128G sd card is on its third phone. Issue with storage and mobile devices is that internal storage on every single phone is now encrypted. You can remove the chip but you won't be able to recover its content easily. Due to shitty trends in the phones, to make thinner devices with bigger batteries, screens with as many cameras they can fit most of the devices can't even fit SD card slots. Instead of making "removable" storage, they need to implement a protocol to recover data from devices with cracked screens/inputs.

[WereCatf]

32 minutes ago, JoyTheGeek said:

So, here's my crazy idea: MAKE A PHONE WITH M.2. OR ANYTHING STANDARD THAT WE CAN JUST REMOVE AND PLUG INTO A COMPUTER.

Alas, you'd have to make compromises in speed and/or battery-capacity, then. MicroSD-cards are very small and even with the socket don't take that much space, but they don't perform as well and they also consume more power than fully-integrated eMMC-solutions. On the other hand, a full-blown M.2 would make the phone both thicker and you could only fit half the battery in there alongside it.

 

Then there's the fact that...most people just don't have the need for such.

[AndreiArgeanu]

40 minutes ago, JoyTheGeek said:

So, here's my crazy idea: MAKE A PHONE WITH M.2. OR ANYTHING STANDARD THAT WE CAN JUST REMOVE AND PLUG INTO A COMPUTER. CRAZY RIGHT???

Not very possible, with how thin phones are supposed and expected to be nowadays, removable storage can add unnecessary thickness to it. Also it would make stealing data from your phone, like bank details, saved passwords and other things really easily by just removing the storage before you get the chance to mark your phone as stolen so it locks itself. Also, you shouldn't keep large amounts of important data on your phone alone anyway, it's always good to have a backup, whether it's a hard drive, or in the cloud it's up to you, finding a place for 145gb's of data is pretty easy, a 256GB usb drive is like 20$, a 500GB hard drive new is like 17$, and a 1TB external hard drive is like 50$, 200GB of google drive storage is 25$ per year, finding a place for 200GB of data is really easy nowadays tbh.

[NineEyeRon]

It’s called the Cloud

[WereCatf]

1 hour ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Also it would make stealing data from your phone, like bank details, saved passwords and other things really easily by just removing the storage before you get the chance to mark your phone as stolen so it locks itself

All modern phones encrypt the filesystem by default, so no, unless OP's suggestion also includes disabling encryption by default, which would be idiotic.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Phones and Tablets

[Prodigy_Smit]

20 hours ago, WereCatf said:

All modern phones encrypt the filesystem by default, so no, unless OP's suggestion also includes disabling encryption by default, which would be idiotic.

If the data was encrypted then there would be no point to the removable storage if you cant get data off it. I am not disagreeing with you I still believe that removable storage on phones is pointless/

[Roswell]

On 12/24/2020 at 11:21 AM, WereCatf said:

All modern phones encrypt the filesystem by default, so no, unless OP's suggestion also includes disabling encryption by default, which would be idiotic.

Sure, and how would one go about recovering data from an encrypted drive tied to the original phone?