Full Circle? Rising Memory Costs May Force Smartphones to Bring Back the microSD Slot

Sunday, 07 December 2025 at 13:58

Picture this: You get a new phone, and it actually has a spot for a tiny storage card. Sounds like 2017, right? Well, a crazy rumor is flying around the tech world. It says some big smartphone companies are actually thinking about bringing back the microSD card slot. This is happening after they spent years removing expandable storage from almost all high-end phones.

Why the sudden change of heart? It’s not about nostalgia. It’s all about cold, hard cash. Memory prices are soaring. The cost of internal storage chips is going up fast. This hike means a phone with bigger storage costs way more money for you, the user.

Memory Shortages are Real (And Costly)

According to the respected tipster, @Jukan05, some major smartphone makers are talking about options. They need a way to help buyers save money on storage. Bringing back that little SD card slot is now a very serious option on their list.

If the microSD slot really returns, the benefit for you is totally clear:

You Save Cash: Don't want to pay a huge premium for a 512GB model? Don't! You can buy the cheaper, base-storage phone instead. Then, just add an affordable, high-capacity microSD card later.
Storage Control: Upgrading your storage becomes easy and budget-friendly. You get control over your own storage space, not the manufacturer.

(Note: Recent reports confirm a severe global memory chip shortage, driven largely by AI demand. Prices for DRAM and NAND have skyrocketed $50\% - 100\%$ in recent months, forcing brands like Xiaomi and Samsung to consider price hikes of up to $30\%$ in 2026. This financial pressure is the central reason behind the rumored change.)

How They’ll Make It Fit

Manufacturers removed the card slot for a few practical reasons: making phones thinner, improving water resistance, and relying on faster internal memory.

To get around these old issues, the rumor suggests a clever solution:

The SIM/SD Combo: Companies are exploring a single, unified slot. This tray would hold both your SIM card and the microSD card, just like many older budget models. This means they don’t need to change the phone’s outer design or add another opening, keeping that water resistance intact.

Right now, this is still only a strong rumor, pushed by the unbelievable rise in memory component costs. But the possibility of getting flexible, cheap storage back is generating huge excitement. We should all keep watching to see if this big shift happens in 2026.