On Android, you can usually plug flash drives into the phone's USB port (either USB-C drives or using the correct dongles/adapters). They might insist you format them first so make sure you start by plugging them in and formatting on the phone before adding media. I think there's some apps that can read, for instance, NTFS (although I remember it being a little flakey)

I never heard about that before, but if that works it'd be amazing! Now I just have to dig up an adapter...

A feature to look for is OTG (USB On The Go) connectors and devices.

This allows storage, peripherals (wired headphones!) to connect to the USB-C port:

<https://www.minitool.com/news/what-is-otg.html>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go>

You can also do this with iOS/iPadOS devices, although it won’t write NTFS.

You get what you pay for, iPhones, for example, top out at 1TB.

If the tiny built in storage is to "force people" to do things, what are the models with lots of storage for?

Or, if that's your thing, feel free to cheap out on the phone and make up for it with a microSD card, that's why they still sell those models. I'm sure it'll get lots of security updates too, right?

Point being VLC doesn't care whether your phone has a headphone jack. Sorry, I meant SD slot.