The advancement of technology in hardware and software has brought premium content to the hands of the user. Everything from audio to video to images to sound has improved in quality. Better cameras have led to HD images and high-resolution videos. This coupled with the fact that these technologies have become more and more affordable and widely available, has inevitably led to high-quality content for the consumer.
With so much content available in the form of apps, games, videos and pictures, there’s a need for more storage space. Today anything less than 2 GB is considered inadequate. Heck, even smartphone manufacturers these days make at least 4GB smartphones. Thankfully most the Android smartphones and tablets offer a microSD card slot where you can insert a microSD card and expand your storage space.
These external storage options have become more and more important with the kind of data we have gotten used to storing on our devices. Micro SD cards can be very useful in keeping a user’s important data safe, they can speed up some of your device’s functions, they provide more space on a device to store more content, and lastly, they are easy to use. Therefore in this article, let’s take a look at the important features that you should look into before buying a good Micro SD card?
Find out the maximum capacity of MicroSD card that your device supports
The first thing that you would want to do is to find out if your smartphone or tablet supports Micro SD card. These days many smartphone makers have become very choosy in making Micro SD card slots for certain models. Once you find out about that, next you would like to look at the capacity of Micro SD card which your device supports. You will most likely find this information in the manual provided with the device or just do a simple Google search for your device. Taking a look at the capacity is very important since you do not want to end up with a card that your device doesn’t support.
Decide how much storage space you need
Every user has different needs in terms of storage capacity. However, we would like to point out that going for a Micro SD card less than 8 GB is probably not worth it. Good deals for 4 GB and 2 GB cards are harder to find and often you can get double space for the same price. So why settle for less?
Talking about internal storage space, then 16 GB internal memory is the norm these days for most devices, as mostly the operating systems take up storage space for around 4-5 GB in size. That is why it is recommended that the average user go for at least 16 GB. The options range from 2 GB to 256 GB presently available on the market. In the end, it is up to the user to decide what he needs.
Difference between Micro SDHC and Micro SDXC cards
You might have seen these symbols on a Micro SD card and wondered what they are ?
micro SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) : This means your card supports up to 32 GB. You can use this card in devices that support SDHC or SDXC.
Micro SDXC (Secure Digital Extended Capacity) : This has a capacity of 64 GB minimum all the way up to 2 TB. Only useable in SDXC supported devices.
These Micro SD card formats are not backward compatible. This means that you cannot use newer cards in devices that support older formats. SDHC cards are standard these days. Also, if you want to use your card to transfer files to your PC sometime in the future you must make sure your PC supports the file system the card is formatted with. Most Micro SDXC cards use an ex-FAT system by default which is supported by Windows and as of late MAC OS.
What does ‘class’ mean on a microSD card?
The speed class symbols simply show the Lowest read write speeds of the card in terms of Megabytes per second. There are 5 classes of MicroSD cards.
Class 2: At least 2 MB/s
Class 4: At least 4 MB/s
Class 6: At least 6 MB/s
Class 8: At least 8 MB/s
Class 10: At least 10 MB/s
So in short, a class 2 card reads and writes data at 2MB/s, whereas a class 10 card will read and write at 10MB/s, and that’s the minimum speed that the card will run at. It’s not that complicated, right.
If you want to transfer files regularly between devices, and want the transfer process to be speedy, then this Class feature is what you should be looking at. Some devices might not even work right if the speed class isn’t high enough. For example, if you have a video recorder that is built for a class 6 memory card and you insert a class 2 then you might get error messages or not work at all. Buying a high-class memory card will allow you to transfer data and files at higher speeds and eventually save time.
Don’t buy fake Micro SD cards
Sadly buying a fake SD card is very easy. Fake SD cards are configured to display the storage space that is on the packaging. There are ways to spot a fake SD card.
Ebay has an article for the safety of consumers. For more safety, before buying Take a look at the seller and his reviews. If a seller is non-reputed and he is giving a very good deal then there is a real risk that it might be a fake card. Also, you can use h2testw utility to verify your SD card.
Stick to proven brands
Go for reputed brands like SanDisk, Samsung, Toshiba, Kingston, and Toshiba among others. It doesn’t hurt to pay a little premium price. You will reap the rewards later. Some of these like SanDisk provides Lifetime limited warranty and waterproof and shock proof features which are very useful to have if you plan to use your memory card longer and do not want your data corrupted.
So that’s it. Hope this article helps you in choosing a perfect microSD card. Share us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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