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Nokia Claims a Memory Card Slot Would Have "Defiled" New Phone
nk497 writes "Nokia unveiled its flagship Lumia 920 Windows Phone 8 handset today, but it doesn't feature an SD card slot. There's a reason why: Nokia's designers didn't want to 'defile' the design. 'We started with the premise that we wanted an uncompromised physical form,' executive vice president Kevin Shields, said. 'To put an SD card slot in it would have defiled it.' He said most people don't use the storage in their phone, although the Nokia Lumia 820, which has only 8GB of storage, does include a micro-SD card slot behind its removable cover, which Shields claims doesn't compromise the design."
Surely Apple has a patent on undefiled designs?
I mean, you are doing so well you should definitively make-against the-grain decisions for your customers. I mean, no one uses storage, right? Why would you want to put more memory in there. I'm sure it had NOTHING to do with saving a few bucks.
Defile, in this case, means "make useful for longer than the two years of the carrier subsidy". Nokia doesn't want to kill sales of their next phone with this one. Just like Apple.
Except that Apple will be here two years from now. We can't be that sure about Nokia.
I still have my n900. Gee, what could have been, if they hadn't been such cowards!
Bruce Perens.
No thanks, the lack of an SD slot is NOT one of its good features.
You might try reading the summary before you post next time. The phone that includes a micro-SD slot is not the phone that does not include an SD slot.
TL;DR: RTFS.
I can't wait until their next phone that will have no speaker or microphone since that would compromise the physical form and most people don't talk on a Smartphone anyway.
How come a SIM card is blended perfectly with the case but a Micro SD card -which is smaller- "defiles" the design?
The phone with a MicroSD slot is the Nokia 820. The phone without a SD slot, Micro- or otherwise, is the 920. It's been a while since any phones had full-size SD card slots.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Not having a micro-SD slot on a phone is quite stupid these days. Heck, my last 3 "dumbphones" have had SD card slots (though I think one was mini-SD) and all of my smartphones have had one. On my current phone (Samsung Captivate Glide) I've got a 32 GB one in so I can take my reasonably sized music library (~25 GB) with me without having to lug around yet another device. 8 GB is pathetic for a smartphone, sure, you might be able to get all of your applications on there, but not much else. To put this in perspective, 8 GB is the same amount of memory the lowest-end version of the iPod touch which came out back in 2007.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
The story says that only the 8GB version does. The flagship 32G phone is non-expandable.
I wonder if a SIM card slot would also defile the phone?
Microsoft? Nokia? Do you really think people will buy this excuse? Do you really think people will buy this excuse of a phone?
As I understand it.
has a microSD slot on the side under a cover next to the SIM card. Ingenious design.
IMHO, the only thing that could defile a phone these days would be the name Nokia on it. Or Blackberry.
Couldn't consumers just take their defiled phones to a priest and get them blessed?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
:-)
Bruce Perens.
I have a 16 GB phone that lacks expandable storage and I bump up against the limit often enough. I have no films and only a couple GB worth of songs. Not even that many apps. What fills it are 8 MP photos and 1080p recorded video. If a phone has good "data creation" hardware (i.e., a good camera) it really needs a lot of, or expandable, storage.
Note: "the cloud" is not the answer.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! Right?
Yup, that lack of SD slot sure killed the iPhone. And the iPod.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Sorry, this is yet another example of why the tastes of slashdot readers are basically irrelevant for any manufacturer today. Users don't care about MicroSD slots, the lack of one does not hurt sales and most people who have MicroSD slots in their phones have no idea what to do with them. Yes you can get cheap 64GB SDXC cards for $60 or so, and it's criminally stupid to not have MicroSD slots (or just offer large storage at a reasonable cost). But users don't care. Google realized that, so did Nokia.
'We started with the premise that we wanted an uncompromised physical form,' executive vice president Kevin Shields, said. 'To put an SD card slot in it would have defiled it.'
Hmm, Kevin: If you're trying to channel Apple, you have the order wrong. First you build a strong following among artistic folks by consistently bringing pretty technology to market. Then you talk like an effete douchebag. If you get the order backwards it sounds pretentious.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
I started with Nokia, a 5190 in 98. It was a great phone in it's day. Then I bought a Nokia 500. Big mistake. When I wake it up random apps start, well, randomly. It crashes, it hangs, it's slow, very slow, the OS is virtually incomprehensible. It's the worst phone I have ever owned. I hate its guts, I hate it so much, that I will never buy another Nokia phone, with an SD slot, without an SD slot - I don't care. What garbage. I do have a micro SD slot inside though. It's the only part of the phone that works properly.
Nokia, It's too late to worry about defiling the device! You've already loaded Windows Phone onto it and ruined an otherwise acceptable cell phone.
32GB of flash is super cheap, I got a Sandisk 32GB microSD (more packaging than an OEM chip) delivered for $18. The fact that so many OEM's want to tier phones based on internal flash just proves why we need standard removable storage, they're ripping off every customer who buys the higher end model for $50-100 more.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Yup, that lack of SD slot sure killed the iPhone. And the iPod.
Apple get away with EVERYTHING; proprietary connectors; proprietary software; proprietary protocols. Other companies can get away with a lot less.
I think the Lumia 920 and Windows 8 finally shows what Microsoft had in mind when they underhandedly planted Elop as Nokia's CEO. You can't just destroy a company obviously and not have stockholder suits. SO, if a devious and nefarious evil company such as Microsoft wanted to destroy Nokia's stock price and then buy it's patent portfolio cheap to be used to bully Apple, RIM, and Android makers into paying Microsoft royalties ( which I believe is M$'s actual goal ) You have to pretend you are making an effort to compete. At least falsely. So, you destroy all of the work Nokia has done, fire anyone creative or innovative, tie Nokia up with contracts so there is no escape, then come out with a complete piece of shit like the Lumia 920. Nokia stock drops below it's cash reserves, and Microsoft can claim, we really tried. We don't know why it failed. This useless cell phone is the poison pill in a pretty yellow package to kill off Nokia.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Stock price has little to do with actual performance or quality these days...or even reality.
Form follows function. You build your visual and aesthetic design around the functionality you want, and work from there, not the other way around. That's pretty much the first rule of designing anything. Form follows function.
If you're going to put apps on it a class 4 is actually preferable, class 10 devices are optimized for large streaming reads but suck at random small reads and especially writes. This was information collected by the Windows Phone enthusiast community at XDA interestingly enough. They collected the information because the Windows Phone 7 devices basically do a RAID0 across internal and external storage so it becomes very apparent if the storage is not performing well.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.