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If you've got $200 or less to spend on an Android phone , there's one spec line you should be checking before any other: the storage. No, not how much there is ( although it can be too easy to fill it up ), but how fast it is. That will depend on what type of memory is used and you'll want to look for UFS rather than eMMC.

The big advantage Universal Flash Storage has against the embedded MultiMedia Card format is the ability to read and write simultaneously. In fact, the performance gap is so vast that the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC), which is the caretaker for both standards, has effectively made UFS the successor to eMMC. The last major update to eMMC was made in 2015 (though the standard has been revised slightly on occasion) while UFS was updated to version 5.0 in February.

Budget Android phones sold in the U.S. have previously used eMMC storage, but major brands including Samsung and Motorola have moved up to UFS, though an older version at times.…