How Important is No Micro SDHC Expansion and Stylus to you?

[rinkeedink]

UPDATE 2: VOTE IN THE POLL in the PRE forum!

First, this is not a Pre-Bashing post! I am rooting for a huge success for Palm and I love my long heritage of Palm devices, Samsung i300, Treo 300, 600, 650, 700P {Ugh, reset hell}, and my beloved, stable Centro. Like many of us that frequent the netherworld of these forums, I've been watching the birth of the Treo Pre with childish exuberance. I have been mightily impressed with the panache of the device and how well thought out everything has been. Can you hear the "buts" coming?

But #1: No Micro SDHC expansion? This is not a deal breaker for me...but it comes close! My mp3 collection is around 7 gigabytes. There is about 7.4 GB available on the Pre. See my problem? I know that not everyone cares about carrying a music collection with room for adding anything else. But damn, I want it all! For me, it may come down to the deal I get from Sprint, and I have been with them FOREVER. If they try to cheeseball me with an SE Plan, which I suspect will be the case, there could be trouble in paradise because of the expansion issue.

So, I may have to wait for the next WebOS device that gets this right. I can see the boardroom discussion at Palm that ruled out on board expansion; "Yeah, we don't need the expense of adding that to this first device because the Iphone doesn't have it. We'll put in the Pre II after we've gotten some return on our investment in the Pre." Whaddyathink?

But #2: No stylus. This is a trick "but." Who cares! Goodbye stylus! This device is a quantum leap for Palm that doesn't need a stylus by design. Sorry, to the guy with the Grafitti sadness thread. My only use for my stylus on my Centro is to carry an ink pen with me all the time. Ok, sometimes I do have to use it on certain programs to reach a screen button, but that's only because the Centro screen is recessed. Good riddance to that.

UPDATE
This thread has gotten a lot of well thought out and spirited responses regarding the lack of Micro SD expansion and I thought I'd summarize the main pros and cons discussed below. I won't bother with the stylus comments, because most responders won't miss it, [except the ink pen!].

PROS for Having On Board Memory Expansion
1. Enough memory for all music, data, photo and video files without carrying other devices or compromising what data/content you choose to bring with you.
2. On board data Backup and restore that is secure and private
3. Existing treo devices create expectation of memory expansion [ok, that was mine.]

Cons for Including On Board Memory Expansion
1. 8GB is plenty- "fat middle" of consumers won't be concerned.
2. Data backup/restore remotely via the Internet already readily available
3. Micro USB port allows attachment of external memory USB hubs [with adapter]
4. Next devices will have more memory or Micro SD slot or both

Nice work Palm! Elegant, well thought out Iphone killa! Now, when's that next WebOS device coming out with the ginormous on board Micro SDHC Expansion?

[goalie30]

8GB internal is plenty for me. I prefer to use a separate audio/video player so I don't drain the phone's battery.

[bhtooefr]

I will say, I'm not even using a gig on my iPod, and I'm not using all of my Centro's RAM (I have a 2 gig microSD card in it to shuffle files back and forth between my PC and it without hotsyncing, but that's it.) So, the lack of microSD isn't a huge issue for me, but it's definitely a nice feature to have.

And, it depends on how small the features are on the Pre's screen. I occasionally bring out the stylus on my Centro, but it's USUALLY for software that isn't well designed for finger input. So, with a well-designed GUI (and I see no reason to say that the Pre doesn't have a well-designed GUI,) the lack of a stylus shouldn't be much of a problem.

[Hdhntr23]

Its a HUGE deal for me. Close to a deal breaker. I carry a 16GB card with me now with a combined 14 GBs of either MP3s and or pictures.

[m12x13adass]

Not important at all. Every icon, menu and etc... looks big enough for my thumb/finger to access. As for the memory slot, Palm purposely left it off for future expansion of the Pre. I can't blame them and it is a wise business decision to take that route. I mean whose going to buy the 16gb/32gb Pre is they can just add on a 16/32gb MicroSD card.

[rinkeedink]

Originally Posted by Hdhntr23

Its a HUGE deal for me. Close to a deal breaker. I carry a 16GB card with me now with a combined 14 GBs of either MP3s and or pictures.

Does this mean you are contemplating waiting to the next WebOS device or going to a different device?

[Hdhntr23]

It means that I have to play with it before I make those decisions. I also want to hold out a bit longer to hear what else Palm is going to announce.

[rinkeedink]

Originally Posted by m12x13adass

Not important at all. Every icon, menu and etc... looks big enough for my thumb/finger to access. As for the memory slot, Palm purposely left it off for future expansion of the Pre. I can't blame them and it is a wise business decision to take that route. I mean whose going to buy the 16gb/32gb Pre is they can just add on a 16/32gb MicroSD card.

Well, they can't add it to the Pre; there is no MicroSd expansion slot on board. So, the wisdom of that business decision is up for debate here.

[bhtooefr]

He means that Palm will be able to have an easier time selling versions of the Pre with larger flash built into the phone.

[jhoff80]

Originally Posted by rinkeedink

But #1: No Micro SDHC expansion? This is not a deal breaker for me...but it comes close! My mp3 collection is around 7 gigabytes. There is about 7.4 GB available on the Pre. See my problem? I know that not everyone cares about carrying a music collection with room for adding anything else. But damn, I want it all! For me, it may come down to the deal I get from Sprint, and I have been with them FOREVER. If they try to cheeseball me with an SE Plan, which I suspect will be the case, there could be trouble in paradise because of the expansion issue.

I don't care at all about no stylus but I agree that this comes pretty close to being a dealbreaker for me. The only other thing that could even be close to a dealbreaker is battery life.

[rinkeedink]

Originally Posted by Hdhntr23

It means that I have to play with it before I make those decisions. I also want to hold out a bit longer to hear what else Palm is going to announce.

That's pretty much what I am thinking. I am really excited about the Pre, but maybe not pulling the trigger too quick would be good.

[rinkeedink]

Originally Posted by bhtooefr

He means that Palm will be able to have an easier time selling versions of the Pre with larger flash built into the phone.

I am not sure he means that, but assuming, that why not just give at least 16 out of the gate, and REALLY crush the iphone? The other posts in this thread indicate that would be quite a big deal.

[solar_plexus]

Originally Posted by rinkeedink

First, this is not a Pre-Bashing post! I am rooting for a huge success for Palm and I love my long heritage of Palm devices, Samsung i300, Treo 300, 600, 650, 700P {Ugh, reset hell}, and my beloved, stable Centro. Like many of us that frequent the netherworld of these forums, I've been watching the birth of the Treo Pre with childish exuberance. I have been mightily impressed with the panache of the device and how well thought out everything has been. Can you hear the "buts" coming?

But #1: No Micro SDHC expansion? This is not a deal breaker for me...but it comes close! My mp3 collection is around 7 gigabytes. There is about 7.4 GB available on the Pre. See my problem? I know that not everyone cares about carrying a music collection with room for adding anything else. But damn, I want it all! For me, it may come down to the deal I get from Sprint, and I have been with them FOREVER. If they try to cheeseball me with an SE Plan, which I suspect will be the case, there could be trouble in paradise because of the expansion issue.

So, I may have to wait for the next WebOS device that gets this right. I can see the boardroom discussion at Palm that ruled out on board expansion; "Yeah, we don't need the expense of adding that to this first device because the Iphone doesn't have it. We'll put in the Pre II after we've gotten some return on our investment in the Pre." Whaddyathink?

But #2: No stylus. This is a trick "but." Who cares! Goodbye stylus! This device is a quantum leap for Palm that doesn't need a stylus by design. Sorry, to the guy with the Grafitti sadness post. My only use for my stylus on my Centro is to carry an ink pen with me all the time. Ok, sometimes I do have to use it on certain programs to reach a screen button, but that's only because the Centro screen is recessed. Good riddance to that.

Nice work Palm! Elegant, well thought out Iphone killa! Now, when's that next WebOS device coming out with the ginormous on board Micro SDHC Expansion?

I couldn't care less about either to be honest.

[nathanb131]

I also prefer to have my music collection on a different device after using my first Treo as a music player. I guess after trying total convergence I decided it was just too much trouble to sync small parts of my library when I now sync all music to my 32gb Zen.

Off topic, but syncing that Zen to WMP11 has been a huge let down in my life. It's actually got me considering Ipod/Itunes... and I hate Apple.

But with the Pre and the ability to shuffle live programs AND the ability to easily put it on and off it's magnetic charger and bluetooth stereo output.... I could see it becoming my media library remote interface. And I see it doing it through the cloud, not via onboard storage. With a 3G connection, couldn't you stream any of your pics, music and video (at 320x480) on demand from a home media server? I see most of that 8GB onboard memory as caching for when I travel off the grid.

Is this too optimistic? Are we still a few years away from being able to keep our library on a huge media server and not worry about syncing, just ubiquitous accessing?

[rinkeedink]

Originally Posted by nathanb131

But with the Pre and the ability to shuffle live programs AND the ability to easily put it on and off it's magnetic charger and bluetooth stereo output.... I could see it becoming my media library remote interface. And I see it doing it through the cloud, not via onboard storage. With a 3G connection, couldn't you stream any of your pics, music and video (at 320x480) on demand from a home media server? I see most of that 8GB onboard memory as caching for when I travel off the grid.

Is this too optimistic? Are we still a few years away from being able to keep our library on a huge media server and not worry about syncing, just ubiquitous accessing?

Great point Nathan! That may be a solution-looking forward. But out of the box..would be nice.

[ame]

Stylus is no biggie. I can count on one hand the number of times I have used it. My brother and husband both need it though to use this phone.

The Memory Card kind of IS a big deal. I want to be able to back everything up just in case I break it or it freaks out and I need a replacement.

[gideon213]

Lack of SD card support is a deal killer for me, but it's the kind where you go "I'll just wait till the next few models, no biggie" rather than the "Android here I come" variety. If SD card support doesn't show up in the next few models, then android here I come.

Whether or not I miss the stylus will depend on how good this device is to use with just fingers. By all accounts so far, I don't think I'll be missing it.

Are we still a few years away from being able to keep our library on a huge media server and not worry about syncing, just ubiquitous accessing?

so many links in that chain to break, reliability won't realistically even come close to having local removeable storage. I would love to be proven wrong though, that would be slick beyond belief.

[starlord II]

The stylus is not a big deal with me. I remember when Palm left Graffiti off I was disappointed and for a while used Graffiti anywhere. But with time I learned to do with out it. These days I mostly use it to play freecell.

The lack of a SD slot worries me more. Mostly as many others have stated for reasons of backing up the phone. I have a 4 Gig card in my 700p. And even with most of my music, a few videos, some books and such I rarely have it more that half full.

But on the gripping hand I am sure that many remember when Bill Gates said he did not know why anyone would need more then 640K RAM and an 80 Meg HD was considered big. With say 20 open cards how much of that 8 Gig is used up by the OS?

[tli415]

Originally Posted by ame

The Memory Card kind of IS a big deal. I want to be able to back everything up just in case I break it or it freaks out and I need a replacement.

Yep. Im suprised you guys think it's okay to not have expandable memory on a phone. Phones get stolen/lost or break all the time.

This means that the only way to backup the phone would be to regularly sync everything you want to keep onto your computer and then resync back onto your phone when you reset or get a replacement. This completely defeats the purpose of wireless charging as syncing several gigabytes worth of data over bluetooth can take a while; you will likely prefer to have a cable instead if this is the case.

[theog]

I'm not sure yet...

To put simply, I LOVE Microsoft's Mesh ( http://www.mesh.com )... maybe the most useful (business?) application launched in 2008 for me.

With that said, you can upload as much data as you have room for with the application. I'm sure it will not work out the gate with Palm Pre, but I'm sure within 2009 it will. Having a 16 gb (or larger) card with that software makes any phone better... music, files, or whatever... always with you... that is what a mobile phone is!!! A small computer... Since switching my business to my mobile phone, I do the majority of support through my windows cell phone... and most of the day to day business files (gas, expenses, etc).

Having "limited" storage will work great for most... maybe not for me... I'm not sure.

I like what I see so far... but then I LOVED the 800w until I got it home. (My sly remark for the night.)