Richard Goodwin 28/02/2017 - 12:12pm

SanDisk has made some pretty significant announcements at MWC, but perhaps the most important is an expandable storage solution for iPhone

Apple’s iPhones do not and will not ever (probably) feature expandable storage. When you buy an iPhone you pick a size and a storage capacity – that’s it.

Once you’ve pulled the plug on an iPhone you’re stuck with whatever internal storage model you picked. You can supplement with iCloud, of course, and a host of other cloud services.

But you cannot insert microSD cards like you can on some Android phones.

Well, this will change in 2017, thanks to SanDisk. The memory company just announced a host of new storage solutions at MWC 2017, but the most novel is its iExpand Flash Drive, which let’s you add 256GB of expandable storage to an iPhone via its lightning port.

Obviously, this isn’t as good as having a microSD card inserted inside the handset itself, but for serial photographers and those craving more room inside their iPhones it is definitely an interesting development.

You will have to pay a pretty hefty premium for it however; prices start at $279.99 for the iExpand Flash Drive. The device features both Lightning and USB 3.0 support.

256GB SanDisk Extreme microSD

If you’re using Android, however, things are a lot easier. SanDisk announced its new 256GB SanDisk Extreme microSD at the expo, confirming read/write speeds of 100MB/s.

The 256GB SanDisk Extreme microSD is also A1 certified.

The 256GB SanDisk Extreme microSD will be available globally from March 2017 and will retail for $199.99.

Check out my personal picks for the best microSD cards for 2017.