Google Pixel and Pixel XL come in 32 GB and 128 GB internal storage options. The difference between the 32 GB and 128 GB variants is quite a lot. The base variant seems much cheaper than the 128 GB one. Spending extra 100 bucks just to get 64 gigs of additional space makes no sense. The 32 GB variant will be easily in reach and that’s probably the one most of the users will get.
Suppose you have the 32 GB variant and now you want to expand its storage, you will go out of luck since there’s no microSD card slot on these phones. Your options in such a case are cloud storage, USB OTG, and a microSD card through an SD card adapter. The WiFi Streaming Drives are new in the industry. These drives can stream videos on your mobile device. This happens to be one more option to make the use of external storage and get the data inside your Google Pixel or Pixel XL. All the aforementioned options are explained below, you go through them to expand Google Pixel and Pixel XL storage.
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Expand Google Pixel and Pixel XL storage: USB Type-C OTG
Pixel and Pixel XL both have a USB Type-C port at the bottom. OTG: On the go, devices aren’t new. They have been around for quite a while. Gone are the days when OTG devices used to have 16 or 32 GB storage only. Now you can easily get a 64 GB or even a 256 GB USB OTG device for your smartphone. Since you have a Pixel, you will have to get one with a USB Type-C connector. There are standalone connectors available which can be used to connect any ordinary USB drive with the smartphone. You know that you cannot increase the physical storage of your phone, but this is how you can use the external storage as an add-on.
Expand Google Pixel and Pixel XL storage: MicroSD Adapter
Pixel phones do not have a built-in microSD card slot. What you can do is to get an SD card adapter with a USB Type-C connector. Insert your microSD card into this adapter and then connect it to your phone. This way, you can get the external storage in use, but the drawback is definitely there. This will be done through an additional accessory connected with your phone.
Expand Google Pixel and Pixel XL storage: Cloud Storage
Cloud computing is something blooming at the moment. Cloud Storage, a part of cloud computing, is becoming more of a necessity in our everyday life. There are options like Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, Amazon Driver and many others. With all these cloud storage platforms, you get a few GBs for free and if you consume those free GBs, you can go premium and purchase more storage. To store extra files on your Pixel phone, you can shift your existing data to the cloud storage and then bring more data on the internal storage of your phone. The drawback here is the internet connectivity requirement all the time to keep the Cloud Storage synced and upload your files continuously.
Expand Google Pixel and Pixel XL storage: WiFi Streaming Drives
Seagate and other players in the hard disk industry now offer portable drives with WiFi streaming services. These devices can connect to the WiFi that your device is using and then these can be used to stream data to your smartphone or through the laptop. WiFi streaming drives are relatively new, but these are great components to carry along HD movies which are of more than 10 or 20 GB in size. You can get portable hard disks in up to 2 TB or more.
Conclusion
Basically, it’s impossible to increase the internal storage of your phone. For this reason, all the options listed above just give you the add-on storage by all external means. These are the only options you can make the use of at the moment. If you have something that can add up to this list, drop that in the comments section below. If you need any help with your Google Pixel smartphone, feel free to ask us.
