Galaxy S21 Ditching The microSD Card Might Be OK This Time

In less than two weeks, Samsung will be unveiling its very early 2021 flagship, the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra. Thanks to all the equally very early leaks, we might already know everything there is to know about these three as well as some accessories that they might be coming with. It seems that there are still some last-minute leaks arriving, not all of them good. But while rumors of Samsung removing the microSD card slot are naturally disappointing, it might actually be less controversial these days than it was just a few years ago.

The microSD card slot is a source of pride for Android users and, at the same time, a source of headache for Google and some OEMs. iPhones, to date, still have no memory expansion options which was a sore point back when smartphones only had 32 to 64 GB of storage. At the same time, the presence of a storage device that can be suddenly removed and played by different rules can be a cause of security and integrity problems on Android.

For its part, Samsung once dared to follow Google's lead and remove the microSD card slot from the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5, a move that was met with harsh criticism. The Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 20 also launched with no storage expansions but didn't exactly ruffle as many feathers. It seems that Samsung has decided the time was right for it to do the same for its Galaxy S series.

According to Roland Quandt of WinFuture, the Galaxy S21's specs won't include a microSD card reader. While some users will probably miss having a back storage system to double or even triple what they're buying, its absence might not make much of a difference today for most consumers. Not only have storage sizes have become more than enough for most users, but the performance gap between internal UFS 2.0 storage and external eMMC cards have also become even wider than ever before.

Quandt does have a bit of good news, claiming that some markets will actually ship with a charger. Which markets those will be is still unknown at this point but it won't be much of a shock if the US and major European markets don't get that still-essential accessory.