Are all memory cards the same? SD Memory Card - Which is Best to Buy for Android Smartphone and Tablet

12.10.2019 Heaters

The internal storage of modern smartphones has grown significantly in volume, but the option of expanding memory using microSD cards is still in demand. There are a great variety of memory cards on the market, and choosing the right one is more difficult than it seems at first glance. Let's figure out which ones are best suited for a smartphone.

To choose the right memory card, you should focus on the following characteristics:

  • Manufacturer;
  • Volume;
  • Standard;
  • Class.

In addition, the technologies that your smartphone supports are also important: not every device will be able to recognize and use a microSD with a capacity of 64 GB or higher. Let's take a closer look at these features.

Memory card manufacturers

The rule “expensive does not always mean high quality” also applies to memory cards. However, as practice shows, purchasing an SD card from a reputable brand reduces the likelihood of running into defects or various kinds compatibility issues. The main players in this market are Samsung, SanDisk, Kingston and Transcend. Let's briefly look at their features.

Samsung
Korean corporation produces different types consumer electronics, including memory cards. It can be called a newcomer to this market (it has been producing SD cards since 2014), but despite this, its products are famous for their reliability and quality.

MicroSD from Samsung are available in series Standard, Evo And Pro(the last two have improved options with the index «+» ), for the convenience of users are marked different colors. Needless to say, options are available different classes, capacities and standards. The characteristics can be found on the official website.

There are also some drawbacks, and the main one is the price. Samsung memory cards cost 1.5 or even 2 times more than competitors. In addition, sometimes the cards of the Korean corporation are not recognized by some smartphones.

SanDisk
This company founded the SD and microSD standards, so everything latest developments in this area - the authorship of its employees. SanDisk is currently the leader in production volumes and available selection of cards.

SanDisk's range is truly extensive - from the now familiar memory cards with a capacity of 32 GB to the seemingly incredible cards of 400 GB. Naturally, there are different specifications for different needs.

As with Samsung, SanDisk cards may seem too expensive for the average user. However, this manufacturer has established itself as the most reliable of all existing ones.

Kingston
This American company (full name Kingston Technology) is the second in the world in the production of USB drives, and the third in memory cards. Kingston products are generally seen as a more affordable alternative to SanDisk solutions, and in some cases even superior to the latter.

The Kingston memory card lineup is constantly updated, offering new standards and capacities.

In terms of technology, however, Kingston is in a catching-up position, so this can be attributed to the disadvantages of this company’s cards.

Transcend
The Taiwanese giant produces a variety of digital storage solutions, and was one of the first Asian manufacturers to enter the memory card market. In addition, microSD from this manufacturer are very popular in the CIS due to their loyal pricing policy.

It’s interesting that Transcend provide a lifetime warranty on their products (with some caveats, of course). The selection of these products is very, very rich.

Alas, but main drawback memory cards from this manufacturer - low reliability in comparison with the brands mentioned above.

We also note that there are many other companies that produce microSDs on the market, however, when choosing their products, you should be careful: there is a risk of running into a product of dubious quality that will not last even a week.

Memory card capacity

The most common memory card sizes today are 16, 32 and 64 GB. Of course, cards of smaller capacity are also present, as well as the seemingly incredible 1 TB microSD, but the former are gradually losing relevance, and the latter are still too expensive and compatible only with some devices.

  • A 16 GB card is suitable for users whose smartphones have capacious internal memory, and microSD is needed only as an addition for important files.
  • A 32 GB memory card is enough for all needs: it can accommodate movies, a music library in lossy quality and photos, as well as cache from games or .
  • MicroSD with a capacity of 64 GB and higher is worth choosing for those who like to listen to music in lossless formats or record wide-screen video.

Note! Large storage drives also require support from your smartphone, so be sure to re-read the device specifications before purchasing!

Memory card standard

Most modern memory cards operate according to the SDHC and SDXC standards, which stands for SD High Capacity and SD Extended Capacity, respectively. In the first standard, the maximum capacity of cards is 32 GB, in the second – 2 TB. Finding out what microSD standard is very simple - it is marked on its body.


The SDHC standard has been and remains dominant on most smartphones. SDXC is now supported mainly by expensive flagship devices, although there is a tendency for this technology to appear on devices in the middle and lower price ranges.

As we have already mentioned, optimal for modern use are cards with a capacity of 32 GB, which corresponds to the upper limit of SDHC. If you want to purchase a larger capacity drive, make sure that your device is compatible with SDXC.

Memory card class

The available speed of reading and writing data depends on the class of the memory card. Like the standard, the class of the SD card is indicated on the case.


Relevant today among them are:

  • Class 4 (4 Mb/s);
  • Class 6 (6 Mb/s);
  • Class 10 (10 Mb/s);
  • Class 16 (16 Mb/s).

The newest classes – UHS 1 and 3 – stand out, but so far only a few smartphones support them, and we will not dwell on them in detail.

In practice, this parameter means that the memory card is suitable for quickly recording data - for example, when shooting video in FullHD resolution and higher. The class of the memory card is also important for those interested - Class 10 is preferred for this purpose.

conclusions

Summarizing the above, we can draw the following conclusion. The best option today for everyday use would be a microSD with a capacity of 16 or 32 GB of the SDHC Class 10 standard, preferably from a large manufacturer with a good reputation. For specific tasks, select drives of suitable capacity or data transfer speed.

Ilya 962

Almost every owner of a mobile device wants to buy a memory card for a smartphone. After all, for storage large quantity photos, videos and important documents, internal memory the device is not enough.

In this material you will find out which flash drive is better to buy for your smartphone. You don’t have to think that it’s simple: choose the required volume, optimal cost and manufacturer. There are also such important characteristics as card class and speed.

Prices in online stores:

Bright Photomarket 490 R




Electrozon RUB 1,490
More offers

Which memory card to buy for a smartphone

The first step is to look at the characteristics mobile phone and clarify the slot's capabilities. Thus, budget devices cannot accommodate a card larger than 32 GB, while some flagships (Samsung XA Ultra, etc.) can accommodate flash cards of 200 GB or even higher. A drive with a smaller amount of memory can be inserted, but a drive with a larger one cannot. It won't work. Also, we should not forget that some smartphones do not have such a slot at all. For example, the slot is often missing in many Lenovo models. But they compensate for the disadvantage with a large amount of internal memory. Sometimes the connector for a flash drive is combined with a slot for a second SIM card. As, for example, in Xiaomi Redmi 3. You can put a 128 GB card in this smartphone, but you will have to first remove the SIM card.

Manufacturers produce cards of three standards:

Micro SD – has a small volume, up to 2 GB, is almost out of production;

Micro SD HC – exceeds the capabilities of regular SD several times. In this standard, manufacturers produce products with capacities from 4 to 64 GB.

Micro SD XC is a technology that allows the production of very large capacity cards. In theory, their capacity can reach up to 2 TB, but in practice, manufacturers have not yet produced such volumes.

SD XC memory card for smartphone, the price of which is much higher than SD HC, may not be supported by your phone, be careful.

Prices in online stores:

compyou.ru 830 R

Electrozon 470 R
Euroset RUB 3,680

More offers

You can buy flash drives for smartphones with different data transfer speeds. And this is very important. Cards are available in five different classes: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. These numbers indicate the lowest operating speed. Thus, a second class flash card will exchange data at a speed of 2 Mb/s, and a tenth class device will exchange data at a speed of 10 Mb/s. Remember that this is a minimum figure, and a good memory card can exchange data at speeds of up to 100 MB/s. For comfortable work, choose a tenth class card. Moreover, the class has practically no effect on the cost. Information about this parameter is indicated in the characteristics and description of the product; you can clarify this parameter with the store consultants.

Many users use flash drives to store not just multimedia content, but important data. In this case, you need to pay close attention to the choice of manufacturer. After all, when buying a drive from little-known brands, you risk losing the necessary information. The most popular and reliable manufacturers of flash drives are Samsung, Sun Disk, Silicon Power, Kingston.

tell friends

Greetings, dear visitors of my blog. I’m in touch with you, Timur Mustaev. Recently I became interested in whether smartphone owners think about how accurately the purchased memory card fits their gadget.

Modern phones are equipped with a wide variety of functions. In addition to standard calls and SMS, users have long been able to access the Internet, sit in in social networks, view the news feed, download applications for every taste, take photos and videos in the highest quality.

At the same time, not everyone knows that an incorrectly selected flash card can not only significantly degrade the capabilities of a smartphone, but also fail in inopportune moment, which is fraught with the loss of all saved data.

Types of memory cards

How to determine which memory card is best for the smartphone you use? It's not that difficult. What do you need to know first? Of course, all flash cards come in three sizes:

  1. – widely used for working with DVRs, cameras and other large equipment;
  2. miniSD – such cards were also used in phones produced between 2006 and 2008; today these cards are less popular;
  3. microSD – this is the format used in phones, tablets and MP3 players. That's what we need.

Is it possible to view the contents of a card intended for a phone on a computer? No problem. For more convenient work with the last two types, there are special adapters, otherwise known as adapters.

Variety by volume

Now let's talk about memory capacity. If you carefully study the information contained on the surface of the card, you will find that each of them contains a certain combination of letters: microSD, microSD HC or microSD XC. Everything is simple here:

  • Designation microSD(short for “Secure Digital”) means that the card supports a storage capacity of 128 megabytes to 4 gigabytes. Such flash cards are perfect for budget smartphones, for example, from Fly or Nokia, or older model gadgets.
  • microSD HC– here the additional letters are abbreviated from “High Capacity”, which translates as “high capacity”. The name speaks for itself. This type allows you to save data up to 64 gigabytes. The average option, therefore suitable for most phones.
  • microSD XC(Extended Capacity, which means “extended capacity”) - up to 2 terabytes. If you have a modern smartphone Sony, you can safely buy a flash card of this type - it will definitely meet your requirements.

But you should not select a product based on the principle “the more, the better.” Even if your device can handle all types listed, first check to see if your phone supports larger volumes external memory. For example, the LG G4 H818 released in 2015 interacts with SDXC cards with a stated maximum flash card capacity of up to 128 gigabytes.

What can happen to the phone when using a device whose volume is not supported? IN best case scenario, your phone simply will not “see” the accessory. This is not a terrible consequence, but quite unpleasant - as the card’s capacity increases, its cost also increases.

Classes are no less important

Few people know that cards are divided into speed classes: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. The number of each type corresponds to the speed with which the flash card is capable of recording data. What does this mean? For example, a card of the minimum class is capable of transmitting data at a speed of 2 megabits per second. Accordingly, the highest is from 10 Mbit/sec.

Why is this division most important when choosing a memory card? The selection of a particular class should be based on the stated capabilities of the device and your personal requirements.

If you only occasionally shoot low-quality photos and videos and use a small number of apps, the low grades are the way to go.

But for phones that support high quality For photo and video shooting (such as the well-known Lenovo VIBE Shot, which allows you to take professional photos), it is better to choose a higher class. At the same time, you can be sure that there will be no slowdowns when shooting.

Cheapness or quality?

Should you trust cards that are underpriced or from unknown manufacturers? I will say right away that it is undesirable. Companies that have long established themselves in the market produce high-quality flash cards, for example, Samsung, Sony, Scan Disk, Transcend, etc.

By trusting well-known brands, you minimize the risk of purchasing a counterfeit or low-quality product.

In conclusion, I would like to summarize that with the correct selection of accessories, you get the opportunity to use all the declared and personally necessary functions of your smartphone without any problems.

See you again, dear readers! I hope that the information above helped you figure out which memory card your smartphone needs. If you found the article interesting or useful, share it on social networks with your friends. Thank you for your attention!

All the best to you, Timur Mustaev.

If you have gadgets, then you are probably faced with the fact that you need to choose a memory card for a tablet, camera, video recorder, or smartphone. Most likely, the device already has some kind of memory built in, but if you want to upload and use photos and videos, it won’t be enough. If you look at the cards, you might think that they are not that different, but this is a completely wrong idea. Now we will tell you how to choose an inexpensive, but good memory card, specifically for your device. Then all your data will be securely stored. And for those who are short on time, video instructions from experts are attached.

The devices presented in various stores are divided into several types. Usually, its characteristics are written on the card and indicate where it can be used. So for example, if you have a camera, then most likely you will need SD.

Photos of memory cards

But this type is divided into subtypes according to capacity: large and extra-large. And if your camera is 10 years old, then you won’t be able to use a large capacity. And if it’s even larger, then the extra-large one won’t do.

The camera, intended for professionals, is equipped with a memory card of a type called CF. This abbreviation stands for “CompactFlash” and means that this card can also be used as a flash drive. It has a large volume and high-speed recording. But not every camera can handle high-speed transmission. You should consider this before choosing a good memory card.

It is best to have direct access to memory. Compact smartphones and tablets use microSD. The same card can be applied to some cameras and video recorders.

But despite the name, this memory card for gadgets is as functional as the others. Some manufacturers come up with their own flash drives. Then the device should have a combo slot or two.

Each memory card has its own capacity. It means that a certain amount of information will fit on it. The larger the volume, the more information, and the higher the price. So how much memory do you need? A lot depends on your device. For example, 2-4 GB is enough for phones, some support 8, but you need to find out whether the device will “glitch”. But for a video recorder or camera you will need at least 16.

In addition, the volume is directly affected by the resolution of the image. The larger it is, the greater the volume required. The best is 128, but remember to check that the mechanism can support such a large volume and does not “glitch” during use. This is important because many beginners then encounter this problem and think that the problem is in the gadget, but it turns out that the memory card was selected incorrectly.

The more different small details there are in the picture, the better quality it is, and the more space it needs. The same can be said about video. Let's give an example. Let's say you have a video clip in RAW format. One frame of it will take 30 MB. Imagine you're taking pictures of a wonderful winter landscape or a beach holiday, and suddenly you find that you're running out of space on your memory card. Therefore, if you are thinking about how to choose a memory card, then purchase 32 GB.

Below in the photo you can see a sign that tells you how many videos and pictures can be recorded on a specific card.

Memory table

A person buys a memory card and often doesn’t even know that it has speed. Nevertheless, it is very important. If you are recording Full HD video, then the low speed will mean that the recording will be interrupted every now and then. If you shoot a series of frames, the camera will freeze. It is very uncomfortable. Therefore, you need to know which card is slow and which is fast.

The most common cards are SD. The speed is always indicated on them.

CD card speed parameters

Which class of memory card is better? The table above shows that what less class, the lower the speed. Let's say the second class is selected. This means the speed will be 2 MB. In this case, the actual speed is indicated.

How to choose the right class? For example, you are shooting Full HD video. The minimum grade required is sixth, but 10 is better. If the memory card is fast, then you can shoot at least every day and take a series of pictures. As long as a slow card records photos, you'll miss out on great shots.

Let's say you take pictures of people, animals or machines that move quickly. Then you need more speed - from 30 to 45 MB/s. The first is minimal, the intervals between a series of pictures will be small when the pictures taken are recorded on the card. If you are a professional photographer, how to choose a memory card? Of course, high-speed - at least 100 Mbps.

But reading speed is not so important. It is similar to or higher than the write speed. Therefore, when you buy a memory card that has a high write speed, then know that the write speed will also be high.

It is important to know

While the card is in the gadget, it is protected. But if you pull her out, then anything can happen to her. For example, she will fall. Or will be exposed sun rays. It may be very cold, and this also has an adverse effect on the memory card. There is nothing worse than soaking it in water. It is strictly forbidden to expose it to x-rays. Therefore, at airports you need to insert the card into the device.

It is important to know that cards are also sold that have protection against this impact. So check with the seller.

Best cards

Now you know the characteristics and can choose not expensive, but a good option for your gadget. The devices are different, and the parameters needed are also different, and each is important. Therefore, first decide on the type of device. There are top memory cards where they are presented best cards memory.

Don't forget to talk to customers to get opinions about the models and their features. It is better to choose a device that has already been tested in operation. It is important to remember about the price-quality ratio.

SD and SDHC:

  • The first is Sandisk, and the Extreme SDHC UHS Class 3 60MB/s model.
  • The second is Kingston and the SDA10 model.
  • And the third is Transcend, model TS*SDU1.

Micro - SD,SDHC and SDXC:

  • Our first one is Sandisk, and there are two models: Ultra microSDHC Class 10 UHS-I 48MB/s and Extreme microSDXC Class 10 UHS Class 3 60MB/s.
  • The second is Transcend, and model TS*USDHC10U1.

CompactFlash:

  • There are Silicon and the Power 400X Professional Compact Flash Card model.

Conclusion

Now you know a lot, and you won’t buy a bad thing. Check your finances and the required volume and feel free to go to the store.

The owner of any gadget sooner or later has a desire to increase its memory. Fortunately, most often this is possible thanks to memory cards. Tablets, smartphones, e-books, video cameras, cameras - far from full list devices, most models of which have a memory card slot.

A memory card may be needed not only to increase the memory capacity of the device - in some cases, copying a file to a memory card is the fastest and in a simple way exchange information with other devices.

The algorithm for choosing a memory card for specific equipment is clear and seemingly quite simple:
1. Decide on the form factor of the memory cards.
2. Determine the minimum speed required for the gadget to operate.
3. Select the memory capacity of the card based on your needs and financial capabilities.

Unfortunately, in reality everything may not be so simple, because the speed of the card can be described by as many as four different parameters. Therefore, before you start choosing a memory card, you should figure out what each parameter is responsible for.

Characteristics of memory cards


Form factor(card standard that describes its size, number, location and purpose of pins) is primarily determined by the gadget in which the card is supposed to be installed. There is usually a marking next to the memory card slot indicating which cards the slot is intended for. Well, of course, full list Supported memory cards will be listed in the gadget's instruction manual.

There are many form factors of memory cards, but the most common today are:
- microSD/microSDHC/microSDXC;
- SD/SDHC/SDXC;
- JetDrive Lite;
- MS Pro Duo:
- Compact Flash:
- XQD.


microSD/microSDHC/microSDXC And SD/SDHC/SDXC belong to one type of card – Secure Digital. They are presented in three formats (SD, SDHC, SDXC) and three form factors (SD, miniSD, microSD), although miniSD is practically not found today. SD cards of the same format and different form factors differ only in size, they have the same filling - many cards of the microSD form factor even come immediately complete with an adapter that allows them to be used as SD form factor cards.


The formats differ in the possible maximum volume:
- SD can have a capacity of up to 2 GB;
- SDHC – up to 32 GB;
- SDXC – up to 2 TB (currently the maximum capacity among cards produced is 1 TB; on sale there are capacities of up to 512 GB).
The formats are compatible from top to bottom, i.e., a device that supports SDHC cards will also support SD, but SDXC cards will not work on this device.


JetDrive Lite can also be classified as SD format. The JetDrive Lite card is an SD card with slightly different dimensions - it is shorter than the original one. The size of the card has been changed so that when installed in MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, it does not protrude beyond the dimensions of the laptop.
The card reader depth varies between MacBook models, so JetDrive Lite cards also come in different sizes:


Memory Stick is a memory card used in Sony devices; now the most common type is Memory Stick PRO Duo ( MS Pro Duo). The characteristics are similar to the SDHC format, but have a much higher price. Fortunately, in most cases, instead of an MS Pro Duo card, you can use microSD cards with the corresponding adapter.


Compact Flash- an old-timer among modern memory cards, produced since 1994. Despite such a respectable age, CompactFlash cards are still popular in video and photographic equipment due to their high write/read speed and large capacity: the latest edition of the standard limits the speed to 167 MB/s, and volume – a completely unrealistic 128 Petabytes. In addition, the card data exchange standard (ATA) does not change, and in cameras fifteen years ago you can use modern maps(if the volume is supported), as well as vice versa - insert ancient CF cards into modern cameras (if they are “fast enough”).


XQD– the memory card format developed by SanDisk, Sony and Nikon is intended for devices that are particularly demanding in terms of write/read speed. Today it is considered the most promising format for modern high-resolution video and photo cameras.


Speed ​​class memory card determines its speed performance. Most often, you can find out the minimum recording speed from the class - this indicator is very important for cards on which real-time video is recorded. Speed ​​class mismatch can result in frame loss and recording errors. There are several speed class designation standards.

SD (microSD) cards have four speed levels Class2, Class4, Class6 And Class10. The class is indicated by a number inside the letter “C” and corresponds to the minimum write speed (in MB/s) - a Class6 card will have a minimum write speed of 6 MB/s.
SDHC and SDXC cards can support the UHS (Ultra High Speed) protocol. UHS speed class is indicated inside the letter “U” and corresponds to the minimum write speed in tens of MB/s. A card with a UHS U3 speed class will have a minimum write speed of 30 MB/s. There are also speed specifications for Video Speed ​​Class - (the minimum speed in MB/s is indicated after the letter "V") and Application Performance Class, indicated by the letter "A" and has a minimum write speed of 10 MB/s.


Latest modification SDHC cards/SDXC with support for the UHS-II protocol has an additional row of contacts on the body and read/write speeds of up to 300 MB/s. But such cards are still widespread have not received.

Cards MS PRO DUO provide a minimum write speed of 4 MB/s.

Cards JetDrive Lite provide a minimum write speed of 60 MB/s.

Cards XQD provide a minimum write speed of 125 MB/s.

When choosing a memory class, you should focus on the requirements of the device for which you are purchasing the memory card. If, for example, the device does not support the UHS protocol, there is no point in buying a card with the U3 class - it will not work faster than C10. If the card is intended to be used for various devices, when choosing a speed class, you can rely on the following table:

Since read speed is usually much faster than write speed, manufacturers sometimes indicate the read speed class as multiplier(similar to CD-ROM speeds), with 1x = 150 KB/s. That is, a card with a speed of 133x will have a read speed of 133*150/1024 ≈ 20 MB/s, and a 1067x card will have a read speed of 156 MB/s.

Often manufacturers also indicate maximum values write speed And reading– they can be many times greater than the corresponding values ​​obtained by the speed class of the card. But it should be understood that such speeds are achieved in ideal conditions, in reality the speed will always be lower, sometimes by several times. Therefore, when choosing a card, you should be guided by the minimum recording speed, and take other speeds as additional information.


Card volume determines how much information will fit on it. On the one hand, the more memory, the better. On the other hand, larger capacity cards are more expensive. In addition, the maximum capacity of memory cards on many devices is limited to a value less than the maximum capacity of a card of a given format. A device, for example, may support SDXC cards, but have a maximum memory card capacity of 128 GB. There is no point in buying a 256 GB SDXC card for such a device. Such subtleties should be clarified before purchasing in the device’s instruction manual.

Memory card options


If you need to increase the memory of your smartphone by 2-8 GB, first of all you should make sure that it has this option. If there is a memory card slot, most likely it is designed for microSD cards. Suitable for smartphone