Poll results: You really miss removable batteries and expandable storage

Most smartphone models on the market lack expandable storage and removable batteries, but the Fairphone 5 notably bucks this trend.

Senior Features Editor Rita El-Khoury recently tried out the Fairphone 5 and realized that she missed microSD expansion and a removable battery in a smartphone. Do you feel the same way, though? We posted a poll inside our opinion article, and here’s what you told us.

Do you miss removable batteries and expandable storage?

Results

A little over 1,200 votes were counted in this poll, and a massive 75.6% of respondents said they indeed missed removable batteries and microSD slots in smartphones. Loads of readers seemed to share this sentiment in the comments too.

Meanwhile, 8.9% of surveyed readers said they only missed expandable storage. This was closely followed by 8% of respondents who only missed removable batteries in their phones.

Otherwise, 3.1% of polled readers said they’d made peace with these features being absent, 2.4% said their smartphone still had both features, and 2% said they never really needed them.

Comments

• Phonecard Mike: I miss both – removeable battery and micro SD slot. I own a Samsung Note 20 Ultra and it has the micro SD slot. I don’t understand why Samsung continues to market micro SD cards and omits the slot in their top tier phones. Sony Xperia 1 IV and V models have the slot.
• veesonic: Yes, I miss both 😭 I blame Apple for removing them, other manufacturers saw that they can get away with it and copied 😞 Last phone I owned with both was the LG V20. Nothing like going from 0% to 100% in seconds with a spare battery!
• south london teccy: I’d like both removable battery and sd card back! Getting rid of both is just a con to force you onto web based storage solutions and\or force you to buy the more expensive 256gb+ models. What’s the point of increasing photo\video capabilities, and a baseline storage 128gb storage? It’s outrageous!!!
• Tiuri Elvander: My current phone is the Galaxy S20 FE (the first Samsung with a Snapdragon in the EU) , which still has the SD card and I am having trouble deciding what to replace it with. I really want a phone with an SD card slot. There’s the Sony Xperia 5V and the Xperia 1V but they only get 2 years of updates, which is terrible (especially given the price of the 1V). I don’t know other flagship phones that still have the SD card slot.
• Farhan Tajuddin: My last phone with removable battery was the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I always love removable batteries for the fact that I can easily swap a depleted battery and put in a fully-charged ones in literal seconds without having to wait for the phone to get fully charged up. You can always use a battery charging adapter to charger the depleted battery to full capacity. As for microSD card slot, only Sony has the common sense to keep it on their phones in 2023. Previously, we had LG to choose as well. But since LG’s exit from the smartphone market, my eyes are keep looking at Sony more and more as my next new phone.
• Aravind Dnivara: I don’t use both of the options. But I would always prefer both to be present in the phone. No need to use subscription services to upload photos/videos in the cloud.
• Dummy Up Meathead: Just don’t see it. Everything is in the cloud for me. Don’t care about storage. Can ALWAYS use more battery life, but I do just fine without.