The Windows Phone family includes a few devices that are rather impressive but lose some of their appeal due to lower storage space and RAM memory.
Fortunately, most of these low storage Windows Phones have expansion card slots and with the release of Windows Phone 8.1 some relief is in sight that may make these entry level Windows Phones more attractive.
Two of the more popular, entry level Windows Phones is the Nokia Lumia 520/521 and the Lumia 720.
The Nokia Lumia 520 is an attractive, economical option to consider if you need a back-up phone or an entry level Windows Phone for your child. The Nokia Lumia 720 is equally as impressive entry level Windows Phone but slightly more expensive than the Lumia 520.
While impressive Windows Phones, both the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720 only have 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of on-board storage memory. While Windows Phone 8.1 won’t offer any relief for the low RAM memory, it will help with the on-board storage issues.
One of the many features of Windows Phone 8.1 is the option to install apps and games to your expansion card. We have had the ability to store photos, videos and music files to the expansion card and this new feature will help tremendously towards lightening the load on the internal storage of the low storage phones.
Having apps and games installed to your micro SD card is simple. Go to your Storage Sense app in the App List and just below the available memory display, you will find options for your microSD card.
The Storage Sense app breaks down the options into four categories.
- Music, videos and podcasts
- New Photos
- New Apps (or games)
- New Downloads
Each category has the option to store these items to your phone’s memory or the micro SD card.
Thirty-two Gigabyte micro SD cards are running in the neighborhood of $20 and when combined with the on-board storage, the Lumia 520 or 720 will have 40GB of storage, which should be ample for anyone’s games, apps, music, videos and other assorted items.
Having the ability to install apps to your expansion card will benefit all the members of the Windows Phone family that have the expansion slot. But does Windows Phone 8.1 shine a brighter light on those low-storage Windows Phones?
Windows Phone 8.1 may not be able to cure the low memory on these phones but I think the update will do wonders for these lower priced, quality Windows Phones.
Need more? Learn how to manage your apps and games, including multiple un-installations or moving them to an SD card in our new guide!
