In the modern world of smartphones, storage space is a precious commodity. As we continue to use our phones to take photos and videos, download apps, stream music and movies, and more, that internal storage tends to fill up fast. This is why many phones support the use of external SD cards – to provide additional storage capacity so you don’t have to worry about running out of room.
Quick Answers
Here are some quick answers to common questions about why you need an SD card for your phone:
- Store more photos and videos – Phones often have limited internal storage, SD cards give you lots more room for media.
- Keep more music on your phone – An SD card lets you store a huge music library and take it all with you.
- Download more apps and games – Apps and games take up storage space quickly, an SD card gives you more room for downloads.
- View and store more files – You can keep documents, ebooks, presentations and other files on an SD card.
- Make room for software updates – Updates can take up storage over time, so moving files to an SD card frees up internal space.
- Backup files from your phone – SD cards make it easy to backup your phone’s data and media.
- Transfer files between devices – It’s simple to move files between phones, cameras and computers with a removable SD card.
- Increase available storage – SD cards can give you hundreds of extra gigabytes of storage for all your phone’s needs.
- Add storage for older phones – Older phones often have very limited built-in storage that can be expanded with an SD card.
Store More Photos and Videos
One of the main benefits of having an SD card for your phone is being able to store substantially more photos and videos. The cameras on smartphones keep improving, with some high-end models now offering 50MP, 108MP or even 200MP sensors. At the same time, phones are now capable of recording video in high resolutions like 4K and even 8K. All of those huge photo and video files quickly eat up your internal storage.
Let’s break down some numbers. On average, a 12MP photo from your phone’s camera will take up 3-6MB of space per image. A 1 minute 4K video clip takes up about 375MB. So if you snapped just 100 photos and recorded 10 minutes of 4K footage on a trip, you’d already need around 4.25GB of free space. With a 128GB SD card, you’d have room for tens of thousands of photos and hours of ultra HD video.
Having an external SD card slot on your phone lets you save all those memories without compromising your internal storage for apps and system files. You can set the camera app to automatically store new photos and videos on the SD card by default. And you can manually move the folders containing your existing media over to the card when you start to run low on built-in space. An SD card essentially provides unlimited capacity so you never have to worry about filling up your phone’s storage when capturing important life moments.
Keep More Music On Your Phone
In addition to photos and videos, music is another type of media file that can quickly eat up internal phone storage. Streaming music services have become popular, but there are downsides to relying entirely on streaming. One is you must maintain an active internet data connection to listen, which isn’t always possible or convenient. Streaming also involves recurring monthly subscription fees. For these reasons, many users still prefer to keep an offline music library stored directly on their device.
A few quick numbers again illustrate how an SD card helps with keeping more music on your phone. The average 4-minute MP3 song is about 4-5MB. Let’s say you want room for 1,000 songs, which would require at least 5GB. But for higher quality lossless files or downloads from platforms like Bandcamp, the files range from 25-75MB per song. Now 1,000 tracks would need 25-75GB. You can see how even a modest music library doesn’t fit in many phones’ built-in 64GB or 128GB capacity, especially if you also take lots of photos and videos.
The good news is most modern phones with SD card slots allow you to store and play music files from the external storage. Pop in a 512GB or 1TB card and you’ve got more than enough space for your whole music collection, no matter the size. You can add songs on your computer and then insert the card, or directly download tunes to the SD card from services like Spotify for offline listening. Free up your phone’s internal storage while carrying your entire library in your pocket!
Download More Apps and Games
In addition to media files like photos, videos and music, mobile apps and games also quickly consume internal storage space on your phone. Apps and games continue to become more advanced and feature-rich, with high resolution graphics, textures, animations, sound effects and more. For example, a recent AAA game title like Call of Duty Mobile takes up over 4.5GB of storage. Even smaller puzzle or arcade games can easily be 100MB to 500MB each.
It adds up fast if you have just a few of the most popular apps and games. Let’s say you’ve got 5 big games at an average 3GB each – that’s 15GB used up already. Then add another 10 smaller apps at 100MB each – 1GB more. You can see how even with a handful of apps and games, built-in phone storage gets eaten up. But moving these apps to an SD card frees up that space for other files like photos and music. On most Android phones, you can choose to install new apps on the SD card by default. And existing apps can often be migrated over to the external storage through the phone’s settings.
So if the latest must-have game is a massive 2GB download, you won’t have to sacrifice photos or songs to install it if your phone supports SD cards. With apps and games only getting bigger over time, being able to supplement the built-in storage with a 512GB or 1TB SD card is becoming almost mandatory for many users.
View and Store More Files
Beyond just media like photos, videos and music, an SD card also provides expanded ability to store general data files on your phone. This is useful for accessing files you use regularly without needing an internet connection. Some examples include:
- Ebooks – Load up an e-reader app with entire libraries of reading material.
- Presentations – Keep handy work presentation files to review or edit on the go.
- Documents – Access word processing files, spreadsheets and more without an internet connection.
- Offline maps – Download offline Google or Apple Maps data so you can navigate without cell service.
As file sizes continue to increase with things like high-res PDF documents or massive offline map data, SD card storage becomes more necessary. And if you ever need to transfer work files from a computer to your phone, it’s easy to just copy them over to the SD card. Add a 512GB or 1TB card and you’ve instantly got room for every work, ebook, map, document, and other file you could need on your phone for productivity and organization.
Make Room for Software Updates
One challenge with limited internal phone storage that often catches people by surprise is how storage space can dwindle over time from operating system and app updates. As you continue to use your phone over months and years, the OS and apps you have installed receive ongoing updates that add new features and fix bugs and security issues. These updates are important to install, but they steadily eat away at that precious internal storage.
OS updates like iOS or Android can require over 5GB or more of free space for a major version jump, like iOS 14 to iOS 15. And remember those huge 2-3GB games we talked about earlier? A major update for just one of those games might be 500MB or more. Updates accumulate over time, and eventually you find you need to delete photos or apps simply to free up space for more updates.
With an SD card in your phone, you can set the default storage location for updates to save on the external card rather than internal storage. This keeps the vital updates coming without compromising your existing media, apps and files. You also have the option to move some apps entirely to the SD card, including their update data. Making intelligent use of external storage for updates helps ensure your phone continues running smoothly over years of use rather than slowly grinding to a halt.
Backup Files from Your Phone
Having removable SD card storage in your phone also provides an easy way to backup your data, media and other files. Backing up your phone to the cloud requires an internet connection and recurring storage fees. Connecting your phone to a computer for local backups takes cables and synchronization software. An SD card simplifies the whole process.
To backup your phone files using the external storage, first make sure you have a high-quality SD card with plenty of capacity – we recommend at least 128GB. Then simply connect your phone to a computer and copy/paste any files or folders you want to backup from the phone’s internal storage over to the SD card. Safely eject the card when done. This gives you a full backup of your important data that you can easily restore later.
The backup SD card also allows easy transfer of your files to a new phone. Simply insert the card in the new device and copy everything back into internal storage. Far quicker than re-downloading apps or syncing with a computer. And you can keep multiple backup SD cards to rotate for enhanced redundancy and security. The portability and convenience of an SD card makes on-device backup a breeze.
Transfer Files Between Devices
In addition to on-device backup and restore, SD cards make transferring files between various devices quick and simple. The most common example is moving photos and videos from your phone over to a computer. Just take the SD card out of your phone, pop it into the computer’s SD slot or a cheap adapter, and instantly access the files to copy over. Far simpler than connecting phone to computer with a cable and relying on sync software.
SD cards enable similar quick file transfer between your phone and other devices like dedicated cameras. If you take photos or video with a non-connected camera, swapping the SD card into your phone lets you access the media to share online or get backups. SD cards are the lightweight, pocketable intermediary between phones and other electronics. And of course you can use them to manually transfer any type of file between computers or devices.
Increase Available Storage
At the end of the day, the top reason you need an SD card for your phone is simple – more storage. Typically phone manufacturers offer internal storage options of 64GB, 128GB or 256GB. Some premium phones go higher with 512GB or 1TB. But even 1TB seems limited when modern photos, videos, apps and games can be GBs apiece. And most people don’t want to pay the high premiums charged by phone makers to upgrade internal storage.
Popping an SD card in your phone easily boosts your total storage without breaking the bank. A 512GB card costs around $60 these days, while a 1TB card is roughly $130. Compare that to paying $200 more to upgrade a new phone from 128GB to 512GB internal storage. And cards up to 2TB are also now available. There are even ruggedized SD cards designed specifically to withstand the rigors of everyday phone use.
Make sure to get a legitimate high speed SD card from a reputable brand to avoid issues. But going the SD card route allows you to customize your phone’s storage to exactly what you need for all your apps, photos, videos, music and files. Double or triple your phone’s out-of-the-box capacity for just the cost of another phone case. The affordable flexibility of supplemental SD storage is undeniable.
Add Storage for Older Phones
One final advantage of SD cards in phones is they can extend the usable lifespan of older devices that ship with very limited built-in storage. For example, flagship phones from just 5 years ago in 2017/2018 often had only 64GB or at most 128GB internally. With modern apps and media, that fills up fast by today’s standards.
Rather than scrapping an otherwise functional older device just because it’s constantly out of space, you can pop in a 512GB or 1TB SD card to quadruple or octuple(8x) its original capacity. This allows you to continue using an older paid-off phone and maximize your investment. Even if internal storage is full, SD card storage gives you room for updates and new downloads to keep things running smoothly.
SD card storage has become almost mandatory for older phones, especially if you take lots of photos or videos, play larger mobile games, or just need room for your music library. Don’t throw out that classic phone from a few years back just yet – give it a new lease on life with the external storage afforded by SD cards!
Conclusion
While modern smartphones continue improving with faster processors and better cameras each year, internal storage capacities haven’t increased enough to keep pace with our needs. We’re capturing more HD photos and videos, playing bigger immersive games, storing entire music collections, and relying on our phones as our primary computing devices. Built-in storage fills up quicker than ever.
Fortunately, SD card support allows you to customize your phone’s storage for all of your apps, photos, videos, music, files and more. Prices have dropped rapidly while capacities grow larger every year. There are few technology purchases that give you as much extra usable value for the money as upgrading your phone with a 500GB+ SD card.
So if you find yourself constantly running out of space on your phone, want room for your entire music or ebook library, need a place to store backups, or just want your phone to last longer – it’s undoubtedly time to get an SD card! Add some removable external storage and say goodbye to those pesky storage full notifications.