Yep, that’s the official party line. Apparently, some Asian variants of HTC’s flagship device — the HTC One — do have SD card slots, and when questioned about this, HTC’s Senior Global Online Communications Manager Jeff Gordon told Techradar that Chinese radio bands are smaller, which meant that they had additional space inside to fit a micro SD card slot:
Because the Chinese version of the One is designed specifically for the smaller Chinese radio bands, we do have additional space inside the device we were able to use for the microSD slot. That space isn’t available to us in the global version
If an SD card was something that HTC wanted to include, they probably should have designed the phone with that in mind. But hey, what would I know?
Would your preferred choice in mobile phones be different if the One had an SD card? Let us know in the comments.
If it was only 16gb’s then it might have been a problem. With 32gb’s it’s a non issue. Have the phone and love it!
Personally, I don’t understand what people’s hang-up about a lack of MicroSD is. The HTC One has OTG support out of the box (I have tested it). Buy a $3 OTG cable from eBay, a USB3 Flash Drive (for speed) and, like they say, Bob’s your uncle. Or you could support Andy & Rich at Kickstarter with their mini MicroSD Card Reader. The non replaceable battery may prove to be an issue in the long run, though.
Because carrying around a usb drive is the same as expandable internal memory.
First problem with the lack of microSD is, who actually likes having a USB cable and thumb drive hanging off their phone when they’re on the move? Secondly, what happens when you run out of internal storage for apps? With an internal microSD, you can root, then set up a second partition on the microSD, and use Link2SD to keep going.
@JeniSkunk:disqus .. Firstly, as pointed out by @a2f56decfd5deb247aa273146d2ab507:disqus, carrying around a USB flash drive is the same as expanable memory. And since the HTC One supports OTG out of the box, I can attach any size USB flash drive and not be limited to just 32GB. Secondly, when I need to create more room on my internal storage, I usually remove things like videos that I no longer need or music for that matter. If I need more room, I remove Apps that I either have not need for or haven’t used for a long time. Currently, I have approx.… Read more »
MicroSD is available in 64GB.
Geesh! I wonder how all the other manufacturers pulled it off .. Lamest excuse on the planet!
The lack of microSD gave me pause, but didn’t prevent me buying one and being very happy with it.
The lack of changeable battery however… It makes me nervous as to how my device will function in 1yr+…
If it helps, I still get a full day of heavy use, two of moderate use out of my year old HTC One XL.
The difference won’t be that noticeable. In about three years, your original battery capacity will have dropped to about 85% or so, still enough to get you through the day. In about three years, you may not even own the same phone and if you did, you won’t notice the difference because the change in capacity happened over about 1000 days, not on the first day of the year three years later.
32GB and a competitive price is enough to forgo the lack of the SD card. If it was priced on par with the Galaxy S4/iPhone 5 and only had 16GB and no SD card slot, then I’d have an issue.
The iPhone can get away with selling 16GB with no additional storage, so we shouldn’t really complain about a 32GB device as a base model. Lets also not forget that the base model Galaxy S4 leaves us with around ~9GB of storage out of the box unless you expand storage, which from experience, the average Joe simply doesn’t do.
Cheers
I was a bit disappointed there was no SD slot on the One, but it didn’t stop me purchasing. Having lived with it since launch day I can honestly say it’s no a deal breaker for me in future. As long as there’s plenty of on board memory it’s not a concern in my purchasing decision. 32gb is heaps.
That is a laughable excuse, at least they could spend the time to dream up a plausible argument. Or even better, just the truth. China is a very competitive market so they have to max the specs out, everywhere else they gouge the market by upselling based on flash memory size. Following in Apple’s footsteps …
I dont know why so many people are so passionate about uSDs. They fail quite often and its not like it extends your storage it just give you a place to dump files. You are still stuck with the 16gb that they supply you for apps (unless you root)
I get its easy a little easier to swap data between devices but I generally use usb for that anyway.
Maybe im missing something but id prefer larger internal storage any day over uSD (as long as they dont charge a fortune for it (apple style))
If it had a microsd card slot + 32gb, I would have gotten it in a heartbeat. As it is, I went with the S4.
I would say that having expandable storage would be a deal breaker for the HTC Pro accreditation.
As long as the phone has more than 32GB internal memory I really don’t care much about the SD Card. However this excuse is so lame. So basically the hardware part for the rest of the World radio bands is bigger than the Chinese one by 1 SD card and 1 sim slot? (Chinese HTC One version has dual sim and SD card.)
If i buy an Asian variant with dual sim and an SD slot, would that work in australia as a dual sim phone with sd card slot?
Probably not. The frequencies over there are generally different and you may not have reception in some areas in Australia if not most areas if you import it.
I suspect Jeff Gordon just made up a reason personally.. Chinese always get these dual sim / hacky type devices. I’m not into it…
Well its the reason why I haven’t and won’t buy one.
yes it makes a big difference. No uSD No Deal
I would prefer a removable battery personally – number of times I have thought “if only this One X had a SD card” in the past year?
0 times.
It was almost a dealbreaker when I got it, found the local storage more than ample. In fact, given the extra space, I would prefer expanded internal storage over an SD card!
There have been many times when I have wanted uSD in my Nexus 4. Pretty much every time I’m deciding what music to put on it.
Well the Nexus 4 only has 16GB (probably less due to system firmware). Naturally you’d want expandable storage.
With the 32GB/64GB in the HTC One, it’s not nearly as much of an issue.
Actually makes me wonder what samsung does with the extra space in global Galaxy phones without the DMB module and the pull-out antenna in Korean versions?
i would not buy a phone without a slot. I would buy a phone without a radio. Simple.
by radio, he is referring to mobile / cell connectivity… not to am/fm radio..
Umm.. I think u mean the other way around.. A phone without mobile/cell connectivity definitely WOULD NOT be a phone.. lol
But… a phone without radio wouldn’t be a phone?