microSD card suggestions

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bobinatcat

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

The only reason for a class 10 card would be if you were recording high definition video onto it. That's pretty much the only usage which need the high data transfer rates that class 10 supports.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by bobinatcat

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

Not really. If you've got a fast card reader though, higher write speeds sure make copying multi-gigabyte file copies much easier. I really only use microSD cards on tablets for video and manga. There are times I'd copy 50GB worth of content in one go so you can imagine how long that'll take on a card with slow write speeds.

[Glorfindel]

and if you are using a usb card reader on a slow computer with USB 2.0 the data wouldn't be supplied fast enough for the card to write at full speed. Not sure if the same goes for intigrated readers but I'd assume so.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

and if you are using a usb card reader on a slow computer with USB 2.0 the data wouldn't be supplied fast enough for the card to write at full speed. Not sure if the same goes for intigrated readers but I'd assume so.

The different classes denote the following minimum sequential write speed:

Class 2: 2MB/s write
Class 4: 4MB/s write
Class 6: 6MB/s write
Class 10: 10MB/s write

I don't think USB 2.0 is going to be a bottleneck when it comes to writes. For UHS-I capable cards and readers, then yeah, it can be a bottleneck. Unfortunately, the different classes for UHS only pertains to read speed and have no bearing on write speed.

Mind, Amazon's running a sale on micro/SD cards. The Sony 64GB microSDXC is $35.99 and that's another good brand from my experience. Performance is in between SanDisk Ultra and Samsung Pro (Samsung being the best I've used so far). I think the SanDisk Extreme might perform better but the price tag is significantly higher.

[Chapstickman]

I use a 16GB Sandisk on my phones its only class 4, but that will work. The class information as i know it is in relation to how fast the card will read/write. For my phone speed is not relevent. For my Gopro camera however I was basically forced into buying a class ten or EXTREME as its called. I always go with Sandisk or Samsung as the names are very reputable and trusted. I've also heard some horror stories about the cheaper brands.

[Feher]

In my opinion Toshiba Exceria Cards are the best. My 32GB class 10 card is extremely fast and it gets detected by all the devices. I have rooted 2 devices using this card, where it was advised to use class 4 only but exceria card worked

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by FinancialWar

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

Unfortunately, I can confirm this.
I've had about 10 Micro SD cards 64GB from SanDisk over the last 2 years.
Basically, it's my first add-on for each new tablet/reader.
I've used SanDisk for at least 4 years and in general was happy.
But within the last 18 months or so, at least 3 of those 64GB Micro SDs died on me.
Usually, when preparing them for a new gadget and formatting them on my MacBook Air.
I didn't think much of it. But now that I've read your comment, maybe it wasn't me (maybe ejecting from the Mac after formatting too quickly or something like that) but a general flaw of those Micro SD cards...

[Jinz]

Not the first time I've heard about quality problems with Sandisk cards recently. In Europe the warranty can be pointless as they want you to mail it in to their Czech Republic offices, at your own cost... I just got a Transcend one and it's fine so far.

General considerations for SD cards are the type of memory used (MLC, SLC, TLC) which will limit the number of write cycles. MLC is most expensive and best. The other thing to check in the data sheet is whether the card does internal ECC error correction. Apart from that the consumer warranty service may also matter

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Jinz

General considerations for SD cards are the type of memory used (MLC, SLC, TLC) which will limit the number of write cycles. MLC is most expensive and best. The other thing to check in the data sheet is whether the card does internal ECC error correction. Apart from that the consumer warranty service may also matter

Actually, Single Level Cell (SLC) is most expensive and best followed by Multi-Level Cell (MLC) then Tri-Level Cell (TLC or 3-bit MLC as Samsung puts it). That said, I reckon majority of flash drives and storage (bar SSD's) for the past 3 years or so (likely longer) use TLC.