A long time ago, in smartphones that looked very different, there were SD card slots for expanding storage. That’s a long-lost feature, but it’s still surprisingly easy to use external physical storage with your iPhone or Android phone.

The iPhone has never included a microSD card slot, but it was a staple in Android phones for many years. One of the last flagship Android phones with an SD card slot was the Samsung Galaxy S20 series in 2020. The feature hasn’t completely vanished from Android phones, but, by and large, it’s been abandoned.

Thanks to the wide adoption of USB-C, however, it’s now very easy to use portable external storage drives with phones. Obviously, you’re not going to keep a flash drive sticking out of the bottom of your phone 24/7 like you could with a microSD card, but these storage drives are very easy to keep with you.

The Decline of the SD Card Slot

Let’s rewind a bit and talk about why SD card slots fell out of fashion. It’s not something we talk about as much as the removal of the headphone jack, but there are some similarities.

First and foremost, it’s about manufacturing. Phone makers claimed getting rid of the SD card slot allowed for streamlined designs with more internal space and better water resistance. In reality, though, it was most likely for cutting costs. There have certainly been phones with IP68 ratings that feature SD card slots, but it's cheaper to ditch it completely.

The other reasons have to do with how people use their phones. Manufacturers claimed people rarely used microSD cards with their phones, especially as cloud storage became more common. They said the same thing about wired headphones, but it probably was more true in the case of external storage. It’s not something most people need, at least not all the time.

The Rise of USB-C Storage Drives

The ability to use a USB flash drive with your phone is not new, of course. As long as you had the right adapter, you could do it when phones had micro USB ports. But USB-C has greatly simplified the experience. You don’t need an awkward adapter anymore.

Portable storage drives have gotten ridiculously cheap over the last 10 years and more. You can get a three-pack of regular ‘ol USB-A 32GB flash drives for less than $20. And since devices with USB-C ports are so common now, USB-C flash drives have become prevalent and cheap, too.

Beyond price, the last point in the section above is another reason why USB-C flash drives are a great option. You probably don’t need an extra 32GB or more of storage in your phone all the time. If you did, you probably would have bought a phone with more storage built-in. For around $10, you can plop 32GB of storage on your key ring or in your daily go bag, and it’s there when you need it.

• 

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  SanDisk 256GB Ultra Dual USB Type-C Flash Drive

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What To Do With a USB Flash Drive in Your Phone

All of this is well and good, but you may still be wondering why and how you would actually use a flash drive with your phone. After all, unlike an SD card, a flash drive won’t be on your phone all the time. That changes how you can use it.

Data Backup

Think of a flash drive for a phone in the same way you would a portable hard drive for a computer. You can backup photos, videos, downloaded files, and anything else you might want to keep safely.

File Transfers

And once you have some files on the drive, it’s much easier to transfer them to another device. Wireless file transfers can be slow and unreliable, and you might not always be within cable’s reach for a wired transfer.

Media Consumption

Speaking of file transfers, it goes in the other direction, too. You can transfer music or movies to the flash drive from your computer. Now, you have media that would normally take up too much space on your phone to enjoy when you’re offline.

Professional Use and Editing

Maybe your phone is a camera for photography and video content creation. Whether it’s a hobby or your job, a flash drive makes it much easier to get those large files off your phone and onto your primary editing machine.

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So, while SD card slots aren’t really a thing anymore, USB-C drives are a worthy replacement. They’re inexpensive and easy to carry around, and you can use them to back up data, transfer files, and consume media. If you need a little extra storage for your phone, a USB-C drive is a great option.

Related

How to Use a USB Flash Drive With Your Android Phone or Tablet

Move files and save data from your phone.

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