Poll reveals just how popular this dying Android phone feature really is

We’ve seen plenty of novel smartphone ideas this year, from the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Screen to the upcoming Pixel 11 Pro’s “HiLight” notification LEDs. But there’s one thing thousands of consumers still want that few manufacturers are still providing.

My colleague Karandeep Singh recently touched on a feature that’s dead on most Android devices, but would solve the rising storage costs plaguing users: the microSD card slot.

He’s for them, I’m certainly for them, but what about our readers? Do you want to see the return of microSD card support on phones?

We published a poll on his article asking readers if they’d rather have expandable storage or fork out for higher storage tiers, as is the current trend. The results are in, and they’re overwhelmingly in favor of one option.

Readers want their microSD card slots back!

I can’t recall seeing a more one-sided poll on Android Authority. More than 4 in every 5 readers (82%) want to see the return of the microSD card slot. Notably, this poll garnered over 8,100 votes, indicating that thousands of readers support this particular move.

Commenter stevefh writes:

The number one reason why I want SD cards back is data safety. If your phone craps out then you can just pull the SD card out and put it in another phone or dump the data to a PC.

midlandscotterz agrees:

MicroSD cards are more of a safe way for storage especially if the phone develops a fault or dies all you’re internal storage is at risk and lost. Where as if you save everything on a SD you can back it up on PC or HDD. Why pay for the cloud when you got external HDD and risk free of any hacks to the cloud. I’ve got Sony Xperia phone each upgrade I had still kept the SD Card function also upgrade to 1TB for longer recording video and more photo’s to take.

Reader hineschr chimes in:

[I] Have 512 gb on my s20+ never need to delete anything. Have no intention of upgrading any time soon. SD cards should never have gone away. Headphone jacks either. Thanks Apple and Google.

Others don’t see the current storage situation on Android as a concern, but do see another smartphone component as a bigger problem. Per reader johnnydrama850:

Who cares about the storage….let’s talk about batteries. It really pisses me off that you can no longer replace batteries and they lose their capacity after a year and a half. Who wants to pay $1,300 every two years becuase the battery will no longer hold a charge.

There are a slew of additional comments on our original article, but the vast majority support the idea of microSD cards’ grand return.

15% of respondents would like to see a hybrid approach: more storage options and a microSD card slot.

Finally, it’s worth highlighting just how few readers are in the opposing camp. 1% of the vote, or just 82 readers, “don’t care” about microSD card slots, while 149 voters, or 1.8% of the vote, would “rather pay for more onboard storage.”

Where do you stand on this debate? Do you want to see the broad return of microSD card slots on flagship phones? Are you happy with the current status quo? Let’s discuss in the comments below.