In addition to water resistance and the slew of hardware changes that the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge come with, one that stood out for us was the addition of a microSD card slot. However, a new revelation has found that both flagships are lacking ‘Adoptable Storage', which is a feature that was included by Google with Android 6.0.
This basically lets you merge the internal storage with the microSD storage, while encrypting the card so that it functions just like a native storage module, allowing users to install apps as well as store regular media. The downside to this is that users cannot use the microSD card with other devices as it is encrypted to work only with the source device. This is precisely why Samsung has left it out as well.
Here's what Samsung said when asked about the omission – “Samsung decided not to use the Android Marshmallow “adoptable storage” model. We believe that our users want a microSD card to transfer files between their phone and other devices (laptop, tablet, etc), especially the photos and videos they shoot with the camera.”
Unfortunately, Samsung has also decided to sell only the 32GB model in some major markets, so those who need a lot of internal storage for large games and apps might be a bit disappointed. It is important to note that fellow South Korean manufacturer LG has also left out this feature with its recent G5 flagship, so this could be an industry wide practice going forward. The Pure Edition Moto X however is an exception to this.
Do you think Samsung should have included this feature with the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge?
