micro SD cards...class levels?...acceptable brands?

Orionalias

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Location
Seattle
SD cards...we all need one, but man there are a number of variations. i was hoping for a little help in narrowing down which one to buy.

i've pretty much settled on a 16 gig card. a 32 gig is too large for my needs as i won't be using my phone for regular music or video playback/storage. largely because of that i can't justify paying the $100+, in most cases, for a 32 gig card that would have, at best, a class 2 transfer speed.

i would also like my SD card to have a speed class of at least 4, preferrably class 6.

that brings me to brand names. does anyone think i HAVE to use a SanDisk or PNY? can i use a lesser known brand name as long as the specs are good? has anyone had any experience with brands Kingston Tech, A-DATA, RITEK, or Transcend?

this newegg page...
Newegg.com - Cameras & Camcorders,Digital Camera Accessories,Flash Memory,Micro SDHC,16GB
...lists all of their 16 gig microSD cards; anyone able to vouch for one over the others?

paying up to $60 for a 16 gig class 6 cards seems pretty reasonable to me, i just don't know about the brands that offer the product at that price. any thoughts? other deals you know of?

MODS..this may belong in, and be better suited to, a different subforum...please move if so.
 

dezymond

Tech Support Mod
Staff member
Premium Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2009
Messages
12,049
Reaction score
1,479
Location
Bay Area, California
Current Phone Model
Google Pixel
any sd card should work, but i recommend you stay away from those ebay cards.

in terms of speed class, you shouldn't notice too much of a difference, and with the difference in price between say a class 4 and 6, it's not worth it.

just my .02
 
OP
O

Orionalias

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Location
Seattle
any sd card should work, but i recommend you stay away from those ebay cards.

in terms of speed class, you shouldn't notice too much of a difference, and with the difference in price between say a class 4 and 6, it's not worth it.

just my .02

agreed, i'm def avoiding the ebay scams.

as for the difference in noticeable speeds...you've experienced this first hand? by the numbers, a class 4 should see write speeds of 4 MB/second and a class 6 should see 6 MB/second...is that not that big of a difference? espeically to human perception?

because if you're right than i agree, i should just go with the class 4 card and save the money.
 

HarvesterX™

Member
Joined
May 13, 2010
Messages
557
Reaction score
9
Location
Virginia, USA
If you are going to be buying a microSD card for a Droid 1 then you might want to consider sticking to just class 2. The Droid 1 can't handle the faster speeds of the higher class cards and will max out at class 2 speeds.

Now if this is also the case with the Droid 2 or X, I have absolutely no idea. Just trying to save you some money if you are using a Droid 1 :)
 

dezymond

Tech Support Mod
Staff member
Premium Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2009
Messages
12,049
Reaction score
1,479
Location
Bay Area, California
Current Phone Model
Google Pixel
any sd card should work, but i recommend you stay away from those ebay cards.

in terms of speed class, you shouldn't notice too much of a difference, and with the difference in price between say a class 4 and 6, it's not worth it.

just my .02

agreed, i'm def avoiding the ebay scams.

as for the difference in noticeable speeds...you've experienced this first hand? by the numbers, a class 4 should see write speeds of 4 MB/second and a class 6 should see 6 MB/second...is that not that big of a difference? espeically to human perception?

because if you're right than i agree, i should just go with the class 4 card and save the money.

even in just regular SD cards I don't notice the difference that much.

I mean sure a class 6 will be a bit faster, but for price the difference? definitely not worth the money in my opinion.

the only way I can see you getting your money's worth for a class 6 is if you're constantly changing files in your SD card, and not just any files, but big files like movies.

I'm not here to tell you how to spend your money, but class 6 isn't worth it imho. I mean if it's like $10 than a class 4, go for it, but if it's from the price difference i see that can go as high as $40, i would just buy two class 4 sd cards
 

takeshi

Silver Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2009
Messages
4,572
Reaction score
0
does anyone think i HAVE to use a SanDisk or PNY? can i use a lesser known brand name as long as the specs are good?
I tend to stick with Sandisk based on my own experience. It's your call to make.
 
OP
O

Orionalias

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Location
Seattle
harvesterx...my bad, i should have specified this will be for a droid incredible. i posted in the "droid" section because i didn't realize different models could handle different classes and it seemed like a general "droid" question. thanks for the info though.

dezymond...you're freaking golden! we def share a similiar mindset. thanks for the reassurance.

takeshi...i hear what you're saying, i'm a big sandisk fan myself and i usually only go with them, but i worry i may be doing that out of silly paranoia and unfounded brand loyalty when i could be getting the same product at a much better price.
 

mauiblue

Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2010
Messages
101
Reaction score
0
Bought a Sandisk16 gb card off the Verizon Wireless website and all is well. I'm not too concerned about getting the fastest card as just need storage space for my photos that I want to have access to locally. Majority of my photos are uploaded to Picasa, Photobucket, or Flickr. All my music files play back well enough without any problems. I can see getting fast cards if you are always writing to the card like with a high end digital camera

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk
 
OP
O

Orionalias

Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Location
Seattle
mauiblue...i'm thinking of the quicker speed cards for video playback mostly. i'm not going to use my andriod to watch stored video a whole lot, but i wouldn't mind throwing a season or two of a favorite show onto the card for whenever i've got downtime.
 
Top