Originally Posted by
mandolino
Fair enough, then you'll pay a lot more extra than the $3 for a USB adaptor. The Nexus 7 is really a "play and display" device, rather than a "create and store" device. (although you can do that)
Actually that's probably true of most small tablets. It probably costs them (and ultimately, you) more than it's worth to put in full-size USB and card ports.
More local memory, whether on a card or built in, is very useful for a media consumption device (your "play and display") when you're away from the internet (like on a lot of planes), or when you're on a capped data plan away from home, or when the wifi is flakey (as at my gym), slow (lots of places), or where streaming sources are blocked for being overseas.
Full-size card ports aren't on any tablet except some of the biggest converged ones like the surface, and the cash cost if putting a micro-SD card slot in is negligible (if sub-$40 prepaid dumbphones can do it, any tablet can.) The space used and design tradeoffs of a door or a visible prt are also minor.
Google has made a conscious choice to make their devices cloud-centric, just as Apple made a conscious choice -- whether it was mainly a design one or to make a profit on overpricing flash upgrades, or if those were both equal are unknown outside of Apple.
Most (although not all), non-Nexus, non-Apple tablets have an micro-SD card slot.