>Seems trivial to give these all 256 or 512 gb but they are stubbornly kneecapped on space and hard to expand. Fast, durable storage is a lot more expensive th

>Seems trivial to give these all 256 or 512 gb but they are stubbornly kneecapped on space and hard to expand. Fast, durable storage is a lot more expensive than an SD card with dismal random performance a few thousand cycles of endurance. The big-name manufacturers do use storage as a segmentation feature, but many new manufacturers are happy to offer you reasonably-priced storage and microSD expansion. >When do we get a dozen low cost Shenzhen competitors to diversify the market? We've already got them - Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Elephone, Ulefone, UMIDIGI, Cubot, Oukitel, Blackview and a whole bunch of others. Only the first three are likely to be competitive on the western market, but Xiaomi are already taking big bites of market share in many European markets. They'll sell you a perfectly serviceable mid-ranger for $150 and a flagship killer for $300.