Beyond the Alphabet
Beyond the Alphabet is a weekly column that focuses on the tech world both inside and out of the confines of Mountain View.
As the days go by and my beard gets gray, I also seem to accumulate more ways to store my digital things. I have more hard drives, SSDs, and microSD cards than I can keep track of. While it’s nothing compared to what my colleague and Android Central senior editor Harish Jonnalagadda has, it’s still enough to make my head spin.
Part of the problem is that I’ve become a digital hoarder, but I didn’t always use to be like this. It ended up happening after I started getting deeper into emulation, only to find myself left scouring the web for traces of Yuzu and Ryujinx after Nintendo came knocking. It’s not just limited to emulators, as I also have backups of backups (of backups) for my collection of games, both retro and modern.
But my need for more storage has started to become a problem when it comes to using my favorite Android phones, and here’s why.
Once upon a time, I would leave most of my files just on my phone, backing some things up to the cloud and transferring everything else when I got a new one. However, one tiny loophole in the mix was being able to keep all of the files that I cared about on a microSD card. Then, I could just pop it out of my old phone into the new one and be ready to go without skipping a beat.
Slowly but surely, many companies started following in Apple’s footsteps, removing the microSD card slot. The reasons for the decision being made varied from company to company. These ranged from fear-mongering over potential data loss to microSD cards just not being quite fast enough. Oh, and my favorite, “There’s not enough space.”
All malarkey.
There was a point in time when I took a company’s word at face value. Thankfully, I’ve mostly) grown out of being that naive, so I have a pretty good idea that it has nothing to do with anything other than money.
I miss the days of being able to pop my microSD card out of one phone and popping right into a new one.
If a company ships a phone with different storage tiers but also includes a microSD card slot, most will probably opt for the cheapest of the tiers. Then, they’ll either buy a new microSD card or they’ll just re-use the one they already have. That’s a problem for these companies because they can’t extract more money from your wallet. So, instead, we’re left paying more money at ridiculous margins just so that we have enough storage.
As I mentioned before, none of this used to bother me. Retro emulation is only one of the reasons why it annoys the ever-living you-know-what out of me now. The other reason is that I’m now a dad, which means taking boatloads of pictures and videos of the little one as he grows like a weed.
By themselves, ROM file sizes can get pretty darn huge, especially now that PS3 emulation on Android is seemingly taking off. Combine that with taking a bunch of pictures and recording video, and before you know it, you don’t have enough space to install an update.
Yes, I’m fully aware that I can back everything up, and I do, but I also live in a semi-rural area with pockets of spotty cell service. It’s beyond annoying and frustrating when I’m out golfing with some buddies from out of town, and ask to see pictures, only to end up not being able to because everything’s in the cloud.
Cloud storage is great until you don’t have enough cell service to show off pictures of your son to your golfing buddies.
So, what other options do I have left? Well, as it turns out, there are a few. If a company isn’t going to include expandable storage, I’ll just do it myself.
Earlier, I mentioned that I’ve become a storage hoarder, but it’s not just with stocking up on hard drives for my desktop or NAS. I’ve also, for lack of a better phrase, started collecting portable SSDs of various shapes and sizes. These include some from Samsung, Crucial, and SanDisk, and I even have a nifty NVMe enclosure from ASUS.
Unfortunately, those still are a bit too big to use comfortably, not to mention that they can basically just end up dangling at the end of your phone. However, seeing as I’m a huge advocate for MagSafe, I was intrigued by some of the portable SSDs that just snap onto the back of a compatible phone or case.
So, after having a quick conversation with Harish to get his thoughts, he suggested I check out what ORICO has to offer. As it turns out, the ORICO K20 Mini has turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It’s super small and lightweight, has fast transfer speeds, can come with up to 2TB of storage, and, most importantly, can attach magnetically to my phone.
ORICO includes a magnetic ring in the box, which I promptly put on the back of the RedMagic 10 Pro case. Just about every other phone in my arsenal is already equipped with a Fiberborne case which has MagSafe built-in. Even still, I didn’t actually expect to find an attachment in the box.
For the most part, this has solved my growing annoyance with the lack of a microSD card on my various devices. I’ve put a bunch of the larger games on there, including Switch, PS3, and x86 games for Winlator. And with the 2TB model, I still have plenty of space for if I want to add more, or if I need a quick and easy way to transfer anything else.
I say “for the most part” because ultimately, it’s still an inconvenience. Since it has to be plugged in whenever I want to fire up some emulation, it introduces other limitations. For example, I can’t use certain phone controllers like the Razer Kishi Ultra or GameSir G8 Galileo, since those connect via the USB-C port.
However, even with other controllers like the GameSir G8 Plus, there was still another problem, albeit a solvable one. ORICO includes a short USB-C to USB-C cable, but that won’t work when using a detachable controller. So, instead, I had to dig in my bottomless pit of cables and dongles to find either a right-angle cable or an adapter. Thankfully, my cable hoarding came in the clutch, as I found both.
Trust me, it’s not something that leaves me feeling very confident, but hey, it’ll work for now. Then there’s another problem, which, again, can be solved as long as you’re okay with more compromise.
What happens if I need to charge my phone while I’m playing? Well, you had better hope that it’s not like the RedMagic 10 Pro or OnePlus Open, which lack wireless charging. Otherwise, I guess your next best bet is to create some kind of over-engineered docking solution so that you can use the K20 Mini and keep your phone charged at the same time.
Ultimately, it just underlines the original problem even more since you’ll jump through a bunch of hoops. But these are the cards we’ve been dealt, and last time I checked, OEMs don’t really care all that much when there’s more money to be made.
If you’re tired or worried about running out of storage on your phone, then the ORICO K20 Mini might be the accessory you need. It’s lightweight, attaches via MagSafe, and comes with up to 2TB of storage, while also offering super-fast transfer speeds.