microSD card suggestions

[Shaleen77]

Hi All

I need a microSD card for my new phone (LG G Pro E988--manual mentions upto 64GB microsdhc). I'm considering 32GB or 64GB class 10. I can't decide between Samsung Plus class 10 (model MB-MPBGC) and Sandisk Ultra.

Any ideas anyone ?

Shaleen

[hapmas77]

Both are well known brands. Choose the cheaper one.

[Polyphemus]

I have been using a class 6 Sandisk 64 card in my Samsung Tab 7.0 Plus for the past 18 months or so. Before the class 6 card, i tried two class 10 Sandisk 64 cards and they were both unable to be read by the Tab. I tried to reformat them and they were completely unusable afterwards. I then got two Transcend 64 class 10 cards from Amazon and they worked fine. I've got those cards in both of my Samsung Galaxy Players (4.0 & 5.0).

[ilovejedd]

Assuming price is around the same, go with Samsung. I've found Samsung Class 6 microSD cards to be faster overall than SanDisk Ultra UHS-I Class 10 cards.

[FinancialWar]

Avoid SanDisk's 64GB class 10. They are infamous for dying after few months. Just check XDA threads about it.

[Teknikal]

Originally Posted by FinancialWar

Avoid SanDisk's 64GB class 10. They are infamous for dying after few months. Just check XDA threads about it.

I've been using mine for at least 3 years on a daily basis, second phone I've had it in and no problems at all.

128gb is available now so I might upgrade.

[Shaleen77]

Hi All,

Thanks for those inputs.

FinancialWar: Yes, I too have heard that there are a lot more Sandisk fakes than others.

Also, all the 64GB class10 cards seem to be sdxc. One forum post did mention that they have used sdxc with the LG G Pro with no issues. Some have mentioned Kingston cards having higher speeds. Anyone used Kingston microsd cards ?

I would also like to understand the diff between FAT32 and exFAT. Maybe that is why some cards don't work in dome devices. Could someone shed some light on this, please.

My G pro manual recommends SDHC and mentions that it uses FAT32 (4GB filesize limit).

Thanks

[FinancialWar]

@Shaleen77

The genuine SanDisks are dying, not fakes.

I had mine died a few weeks ago, had to get exchanged with Sandisk.

[Shaleen77]

Thanks FinancialWar

That's terrible that the card just dies. I mean Sandisk can replace the cards, but not the data you may have in there.

I hope you didn't lose any valuable data.

Shaleen

[bobinatcat]

Do phones actually need anything at class 6 or above? Or those are the only options available at those sizes?

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by Polyphemus

I have been using a class 6 Sandisk 64 card in my Samsung Tab 7.0 Plus for the past 18 months or so. Before the class 6 card, i tried two class 10 Sandisk 64 cards and they were both unable to be read by the Tab. I tried to reformat them and they were completely unusable afterwards. I then got two Transcend 64 class 10 cards from Amazon and they worked fine. I've got those cards in both of my Samsung Galaxy Players (4.0 & 5.0).

do you still have them?

[Glorfindel]

BTW if you have valuable data on 'em Diskdigger works pretty well... the trial does anyway...

[Adoby]

Originally Posted by Shaleen77

Hi All,
Also, all the 64GB class10 cards seem to be sdxc. One forum post did mention that they have used sdxc with the LG G Pro with no issues. Some have mentioned Kingston cards having higher speeds. Anyone used Kingston microsd cards ?

I would also like to understand the diff between FAT32 and exFAT. Maybe that is why some cards don't work in dome devices. Could someone shed some light on this, please.

(Whenever I mention SDXC or SDHC below, that applies to micro-SDXC/micro-SDHC as well.)

I have had reason to experiment with a 64GB SDXC card to my Motorola Xoom that only supports 32GB SDHC. And it is possible to use the card by only accessing the card from a computer using a simple card reader and reformatting it to FAT32, as long as you don't attempt to format the card using the standard Windows utilities.

More details:

The standard for SD-cards specify that the max size of a SDHC-card is 32GB. So if the specification for a device mention that is supports SDHC, then that means that you only can be certain that it supports 32GB. And typically formatted as FAT32.

The standard dictates that there can be no SDHC cards larger than 32GB. If you need bigger card you have to use a SDXC card instead. 64GB or 128GB for instance. They are typically formatted using exFAT.

Not all devices have support for SDXC and exFAT so they don't explicitly support cards larger than 32GB.

The standard is "enforced" by the formatting utilities in Windows and also often by the firmware in devices, when the card is mounted from a computer. You can't format a SD-card that is larger than 32GB as FAT32 using the Windows tools. Also the card will sometimes become corrupt if the card is bigger than 32GB, formatted as fat32 and is inserted in the device and the device is mounted in Windows over USB.

Some (most?) SDXC cards has the exact same contacts as the older SDHC cards. And it is *usually* possible to format those cards to use FAT32, as long as you don't us the Windows utilities, and then use them on older devices that don't explicitly support SDXC. So there really is no technical reason for limiting the size of SDHC-cards to 32GB. It is more a marketing and sales thing, than a technical limitation. However FAT32 is less efficient and more wasteful than exFAT on larger cards, so if you can use exFAT, then that should be used. Or anything but FAT32...

There are plenty of 3:rd party utilities to reformat a SDXC card from exFAT to FAT32, and after that many devices that only says they support SDHC will happily let you use the reformatted 64GB SDXC card.

But if you attempt to access the card from a computer while it is inserted in the device, the card may become corrupted. Actually it seems that the firmware "fix" the card by reducing it to 32GB. And you loose data.

I was very confused before I figured out what was happening. However it is still possible to access and write to the card from Windows as long as you use a simple SDHC or SDXC card reader. I say simple, because if it is some form of smart device, then the firmware may attempt to "fix" it by reducing the size to 32GB.

So even if your device only support 32GB SDHC, you may be able to use a reformatted bigger SDXC-card. As long as you don't access the card from a computer while it is in the device. I have no experience with anything but a 64GB SDXC-card. I have no idea if a 128GB SDXC-card can be used the same way. Please report if you have tested it.

I've successfully used a 64GB Sandisk Class 6 card in my XOOM for a few years now...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital

[Polyphemus]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

do you still have them?

Sandisk performed a warranty exchange and I now have two class 10 cards. They were able to be formatted in my GTab3 10.1 and the cards are recognized by all of my devices. I'm just not in the mood to transfer everything from the Transcend cards, so the new cards are just sitting quietly for the moment.

[Glorfindel]

well that's good