[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] KWKSLVR:
But, be honest with yourself, can you really hear a difference between say 192kbps and 320kbps bitrates? People say they can, you really can't (to a degree). It depends on how you're listening, how the music was recorded in the first place and really, what type of music you're listening to. Don't get me wrong, I can "tell a difference", especially with music that is really punchy in it's highs, but in general I hear no difference between the two on my Vibrant and I'm listening through a Bose speaker system in my vehicle. I have over 600GB of music. I'm not upset because I don't have some form of MP3 player that can't hold the entire collection.

I've never tried Google Music. I don't have a real need to. I'd imagine I spend a heck of a lot more time without Cell Reception/WiFi than most. Google "only" offering 32GB of on board storage has NOTHING to do with trying to push their services. My god, that's asinine. Name one thing Google charges for anyway?

It's whiny, "I don't want to change what's on my phone every day". Again, why would you HAVE to? Silly. No one listens to 10GB's of music in one day. How many movies are people watching? Are you guys watching the same 12 movies over and over again? I have a WDLive box for my movie content, I'd never imagine using my cell phone for it.

That's all personal preference. Here's the reality. Never mind the fact that the presence of microSD sure as hell can slow down your device. It certainly did on virtually every Blackberry I've ever owned (a bunch) with any microSD card (a bunch) including my Vibrant, especially when it comes to browsing through file manager. That's neither here nor there.

This is no different than when the Nexus S hit the streets and Google decided to leave the MicroSD off of it. It's for all of the same reasons. It's the same discussion we had about the Nexus S months ago. It's simple, this is a Dev phone. First and foremost, this is a Developer phone. The average end user doesn't WANT a Nexus. It's ugly, it's bland, it's boring in comparison to most everything else. Google knows some serious developers are going to want to be able to use virtual sd card compartments. The same work with app compatibility that we saw with Froyo's apps to sd I'm sure we'll need to see with ICS. Sure, they wanted to cut costs. When you look at the other stuff crammed in the phone like NFC, Barometer, screen (size, etc) at some point there is a price break where no one will buy it.

You guys that are whining over no microSD and that carry 4 64GB microSD cards in your wallet are what we call "the minority". Google wants to take Android to new places. Google wants to see what developers can do with features like NFC and a barometer. The Nexus is designed to fit the need that GOOGLE has to supply a devices to DEVELOPERS to best develop for the Android platform. PERIOD. Anything that possibly hinders that process is unacceptable.

Most people are always in contact with the cloud...hence the reason for owning a smart phone. The necessity for localized storage for MOST people is on the decline (and believe me, I'm a data whore, I understand the arguments). There is a data/hardware reliability component to the discussion when it comes to leaving microSD off of a device. No microSD allows for faster data access. No microSD means that there are fewer places where your device can be attacked/hacked from. No microSD makes the Android experience smoother. If you don't like that, it's fine, buy another device because the Galaxy Nexus isn't for you.

At the end of the day, it is what it is. The device is what it is. The device's features are set. Whining and moaning on XDA over it doesn't change the fact that Google aims a Nexus device specifically at Developers.

/rant off ;)