Once upon a time, essentially every single smartphone released had a place where you could plug in your wired headphones (and most phones came with a set in the box too) and a place where you could slot in a microSD card to expand your smartphone’s storage. Those were good times.
However, at some point, these features ended up being peeled away from flagship smartphones, with Apple being the catalyst of the push to wireless headphones. These days, in the Android universe, you can still find SD card slots and 3.5mm jacks, but typically only on budget phones. Yet, flagships deserve these features as much as others.
Apple Has Never Had SD Card Slots And Removing The Headphone Jack Started A Wave
In all annoying trends that end up enveloping the smartphone world, there’s usually one company that you’ll find at the root of it all, and that’s Cupertino’s very own Apple. It is arguably the most influential trendsetter in the smartphone world.
Apple phones have never had SD card slots, with the internal storage that you get out of the box being what you have to make do with for as long as you have the device. That model has worked pretty well for them and I won’t say they were the reason behind modern Android flagships dropping expandable storage.
However, when it comes to the loss of the 3.5mm headphone jack, I can certainly point a very accusatory finger at the company. The iPhone 7 said goodbye to the headphone jack, and soon after that, Android makers began to mindlessly follow suit. It was said to be to make up internal space for other components but I am still convinced it was to sell more first-party wireless earbuds.
Budget Phones Don’t Have Enough Storage, But Flagships Fill Up Their Storage Faster
In the Android world, as much as flagships have abandoned the SD card slot (for the most part, rare options like the Sony Xperia 1 VI still have one), budget devices still seem to have the feature in abundance. But that begs the question: why? Why is it that lower-cost smartphones can somehow stick this feature in but the more expensive ones can’t?
Well, the argument could be made that some budget smartphones come with as little as 64GB or 128GB of storage and that simply isn’t enough. Having an SD card slot is a cheap way for manufacturers to let users get more for less. I understand that.
However, having used a 512GB phone for two years now, I realize that even flagships sometimes need to expand their storage. Options like 4K recording and 50MP photos make storage fill up quickly. The fact that modern flagships are treasured for content creation provides more of an excuse for SD card support. You’d be able to easily transfer a large batch of media to your PC for editing, just like you might with an actual camera.
If a flagship like the new Xperia can stick an SD card slot in without getting notably thicker or losing any features, I don’t see the excuse.
Wired Headphones Are Cheaper For Budget Users, But Flagship Users Probably Care About Sound More
Then, let’s talk about the headphone jack. I think I get why it sticks around on budget devices. They can afford to be a little thicker to accommodate a jack and if you’re concerned about how much you spend on your phone, you might not want to spend a lot on headphones either. You can get a pair of wired headphones for very cheap.
However, once again, I think that flagship users wouldn’t complain about having a 3.5mm jack. Speaking on the content creation side, it’d let you plug in a microphone (which would certainly have better quality than a wireless one).
Flagships tend to also have better audio processing hardware and when I buy an expensive phone, I’m going to listen to music on it and I would want it to sound as good as it can. I’m fine with how my Bluetooth headphones sound, but I know wired audio would have been better.
I know SD card slots and headphone jacks won’t become mainstream on flagships again, but it’s hard to make an argument that flagships don’t need these features. They certainly have scenarios where they can get used.
