SD Cards in Windows Phone 7 Devices Not Swappable??

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- Published on 10-12-2010 11:04 PM Number of Views: 835

4 Comments

In the "Help and How To" section of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 website (link to it here) we learn that the SD cards in these smartphones are not to be removed or used in any other device - even other Win7 phones! To quote my neighbor (the sailor) What the Heck?!?

Apparently, the design of these phones requires internal memory and the SD card to be combined, so that they are both considered internal. Additionally, although not specified in the Microsoft notes, it appears that system files and applications can be or are stored on the SD also.

If the SD is removed, it will not work in another device, as mentioned above - and the phone itself will not operate correctly.

Dealbreaker? I don't know. There are plenty of ways to transfer and manipulate files and stay organized. But to me, not having a hot-swappable SD is sort of - backwards, I guess, and makes things just a little less convenient. I think I would have expected more from a modern OS and set of devices.

Source Microsoft

markstone@pinstack.com

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4 Comments

captain_tinker - 10-13-2010

Oh, c'mon... Would you really expect any less from a Windows Mobile device? My last Window Mobile device was an HP iPAQ, WM 6.5 or something. Very poor OS, I'm not really expecting much from OS 7, seriously. Disclaimer, I actually have not seen or read much at all about the new OS, so I guess I can't comment too much on it, except that I'm not expecting it to be that much better, not with Microsoft's history with mobile phone OS's. They do fine with desktop OS's, etc, but for some reason mobile devices have just not been their strong suit yet.

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ventz - 10-13-2010

So not to ask any strange questions -- but what happens when the card dies?
Is that the end of your phone?

Also, what happens if you want to put a larger card...again, new phone?

Wow, Microsoft really invented a good phone upgrade requirement here...

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Mark Stone - 10-13-2010

Very good points, Captain Tinker and Ventz . . .

An SD card dies, does that mean the phone is cooked?!?

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Capdot - 10-13-2010

I also heard that copy and paste wont he available on the phone for a while also. The closer we get to the release of this thing the more I start to think Microsoft should just give up.

Oh. It will play games though.

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