Oh can’t you get sd cards for iPhones? 
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Is that a feature you find useful?
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That’s because it is intentional. I have a friend that works on this component of iCloud hand off. Essentially, it’s designed to only offload to the cloud and save on device storage space when it starts getting full, and will only keep low res device sized versions stored locally (essentially just a cached copy so you can still see what the photo is without it taking up too much space). It chooses your oldest and least recently viewed photos and videos first.
Im not particularly fond of the approach for my personal use, but Apple design their products with accessibility at the forefront, and this is the most accessible way to save on storage space as it doesn’t weaken the product for disadvantaged users, except perhaps those that don’t choose the storage capacity to meet their needs. There are also other options if you want cloud only photos. 90% of the photos I end up keeping go in shared iCloud libraries and deleted from my personal library once I’ve finished editing them.
I find their approach to offloading apps pretty sufficient though.
Small edit to add coverage for the usual rebuttal I get from explaining their approach to folks.
Accessibility is not just for the disabled. So consider instances where internet usage is capped or expensive, or where it’s unreliable or non-existent, and then how designing a system to better cater for those situations benefits the rest of us in that we don’t have to wait for our photos to download and render every time we want to look at them, they’re just there, instantly and always available. Apple’s approach is more accessible to more people in more situations.
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I’ve had many Android phones and I’d have to go back a long way to get to a time when I thought it was worth using an SD card.
There’s a fair few things I prefer about Android, but SD support wouldn’t make the list.
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Didn’t you also have iPhones? 
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Love the new body of the 12, but gonna stick with my 11 Pro Max for a couple of years. Come that time the notch might be smaller.
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I did and I like iPhones, they’re just out of my budget and I’m more of an android man these days
That last week has left a real impression!
I hadn’t used android in a long time so took some time getting used to it
Not questioning that, but I would’ve thought you’d know about the microSD situation having owned iPhones
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I find this logic really hard to grasp. You can afford to upgrade phones twice in the same 12 month period (a very expensive habbit), but can’t afford a single £700 iPhone every 3 or 4 years?
If you just like new stuff regularly but can’t afford iPhones at that pace then fair enough I suppose. Buying mew tech to play with can be exciting and addicting I know. But I would encourage anyone that doesn’t need the latest and greatest (I define need as being something that supports your income) to try and break the upgrade culture habit for the sake of the planet.
My iPhone 7 lasted me a good 3 years, and iPhone 11 was an affordable interim step to carry me an extra year or two until I could upgrade to a pro that I will now be keeping for another 3 years or so until I upgrade again.
I’m only diving in this year instead of next year for two primary reasons. Apple seem to now be firmly on a 3 year design refresh cycle, which is when I’m most tempted to upgrade, and because of iPhone 11 I’ve fallen in love with mobile photography, and now want the complete pro camera system. £999 every 3 years is far more affordable than £300 every 6 months.
Most of my old devices trickle down to my family members most in need of a device, and my old iPhone 6s from 2015 is still alive and kicking and has served that family member well since 2016 and still received the latest iOS update this year.
A £540 device lasting 5+ years is incredible value and very affordable long term, if you look after it.
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Hate to be that guy but that’s not strictly true:
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Was just a bit of banter dude. I know iPhones dont have sd capabilities but they are still good phones
All good. Reading Reddit threads simultaneously has me a bit jumpy as there are lots of inflammatory comments there highlighting well-known facts to try and insinuate how Android is objectively better than iPhones
Same here.
That’s the part that grinds my gears though.
I did venture down one Reddit wormhole though which lead me to a YouTube video, to a tweet, to a blog, back to a tweet and then finally to this tweet; the dream:
Oh reading the Apple threads just after an event is enough to ask your doctor for a Xanax prescription
People blindly defending Apple and misinterpreting arguments and people who just come to poke fun at Apple for obvious and well known things from the past like SD cards or headphone jack. It’s been years, love, time to move on.
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The one argument I don’t get is “Oh I wish it was USB-C!!!”
Why?
I don’t want that, at all. I have lightning cables everywhere, I don’t want them obsolete because they’ve changed the port.
I think it’s more likely that the next design refresh has no port at all.
And the Samsung crowd going on about a power plug, just wait, Samsung will do exactly the same soon enough.
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Every time you mention you don’t like USB C you get downvoted. I mean my 2 month old work laptop charges via USB C and the port wobbles so much already that I worry what it’ll be like after 2 years. The lightning port on my iPad which I haven’t babied at all is still firm as anything 3 years on.
Yesterday I dared mention that the charging brick removal is not for the environment but courage. And lots jumped to tell me how it isn’t and you can just use the 5W brick. Except no one cared to read and realise that I was talking about the new MagSafe charger and not the phones… the charger that doesn’t actually come with a wall plug and isn’t compatible with the existing ones.
I do tend to agree about the plug being taken away, I have loads dotted around. But then to add a USB-C negates what they’re saying, you’re right on that one!
I have one on my laptop so I’ll probably put the cable in my laptop bag and never touch it again.
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I wouldn’t mind about the plug being taken away if they had supplied USB C plugs for the past couple of years. But no, they suddenly make the cable you get incompatible with the charging accessories you’re supposed to use.
Not to mention my pet peeve, the £40 charger that’s useless unless you buy a separate £20 wall plug for it. I will still buy it because I’m a sucker for magnets though
Oh, and their environmental claims would make sense if they didn’t then ship all the existing iPhone SE, XR and 11 stock back to factories to be repackaged without chargers. Chargers that were already in the boxes in warehouses/stores.