Database Users

MicroSD Question

Hi, sorry if this is a double post. I did look around but could not find much info.
I'm interested to know how well the new 16GB MicroSD cards work on the Xperia. Anyone using one of these? My main concern is that they all seem to only be class 2 atm. Is this too slow to run apps and my videos stored on it etc?
Should I wait till a class 4 16GB card comes out?
Thanks
Edit: I also noticed that SanDisk has a “Mobile Ultra” memory card range. Only up to 8GB though. Anyone using one of these? Is there a big difference in speeds?

i don't think it matters in a phone.

I ordered the eact same Mobile Ultra card today. Should be here saturday, so I will tell when I get it. But assuming it's Class 6 card, it should be fast. I wouldn't go with Class 2, since it's slow. But as Jabe says, it might not matter on the phone.

So as at now no one's using a 16GB yet?

Give me a week or 2. I'm planning on ordering the Sandisk one.

Sandisk Mobile Ultra is good, and it's what I am using for X1. Since it's class 6, the read/write speed is about 20/16 mb/s, which is much faster than class 2. If you wanna watch video storaged in card, this one is your first choice.

wdq30 said:
Sandisk Mobile Ultra is good, and it's what I am using for X1. Since it's class 6, the read/write speed is about 20/16 mb/s, which is much faster than class 2. If you wanna watch video storaged in card, this one is your first choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note that the speed in the end is depending on the host itself. If the host is slow, even if you use class 6 memory card, it's not going to make any difference. Personally I believe the phone itself would be the bottleneck and not the memory card.
I know it's not totally relevant but just for reference, take a look at the link below. As you can see the speed of class 2 and 6 are pretty identical as it's limited by the host. This is even with a dedicated memory card reader. Compare the 2nd and 4th entries from the bottom.
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/reader_report_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9438

VaThInK said:
Note that the speed in the end is depending on the host itself. If the host is slow, even if you use class 6 memory card, it's not going to make any difference. Personally I believe the phone itself would be the bottleneck and not the memory card.
I know it's not totally relevant but just for reference, take a look at the link below. As you can see the speed of class 2 and 6 are pretty identical as it's limited by the host. This is even with a dedicated memory card reader. Compare the 2nd and 4th entries from the bottom.
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/reader_report_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9438
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that's the case, what's the optimal speed supported by X1?

So anyone able to compare the 2 classes

ipporek said:
So as at now no one's using a 16GB yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using a 16GB Class 2 at the moment. No probs with apps or music. But I have no videos on the card...

with normal sd cards the pdas were mostly not able to transfer as fast as the sd card supported
as the sd interface in onchip and not that fast
would like to see some tests if the same hold true with newer pda's and class X microSD cards

anyone able to follow this up yet?

I'm using a Sandisk 8gb Class 4 HC. No problems with speed or data read/write (on the phone itself).
Using the phone as a disk drive though (not activesync) is noticeably slower than using a USB adapter, *suggesting* the phone itself is the bottleneck?

I'm using a SanDisk 8GB Class II Card and I had no problems with photos, videos or music so far.
Don't think a Class 4 or 6 is worth the price in a mobile phone.

I got my 16GB Microsdhc today. And everything works. Sad thing is it only shows 15GB.

I find no difference in speed between my 8G class 6 and 16G class 2 (both from Sandisk)
xmoo said:
I got my 16GB Microsdhc today. And everything works. Sad thing is it only shows 15GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's 15G probably because of the way how "G" is being calculated. 16,000,000,000 = 16,000,000,000/(1024*1024*1024) = 14.9GB

im using a 8g class 4 card, music, apps and vids work great.
just a quick question, the x1 has a sd card limit of 32g, when a larger card comes out like the 128gb card that sandisk has said will come out, could windows mobile have a update so that it can read it or is limited to the reader hardware inside the x1

I have 2 cards: Sandisk 16GB Class 2 and Kingston 8GB class 4.
I use Sandisk in Xperia, and the speed is more than sufficient. It reaches 12-15 MB/s writing on USB adapter. Reading - it's no problem reaching even more. So it's ok, speed wise.
I don't think you would need more speed in Xperia )
There's no HD video recording option in there )

one can use pocket mechanics to benchmark the sdcard speed
if the results are lower i would suspect it show the bottleneck speed
of the sd interface of the qualcomm cpu in x1

I have a 16gb micro sdhc and some .avi videos lag (highish quality). Specifically, top gear season 12 episodes from finalgear.com. it might be the divx client though, Im using the WM 6 Pro version available on the divx website.

One GREAT WAY to speed HD2 PERFORMANCE

I created videos showing the dramatic difference (before vs. after) but then realized this site does not allow me to upload videos (and I am too lazy to set up a utube account).
The 16GB Micro SDHC card that comes with the T-Mobile HTC HD2 is only Class 2 and is a very SLOOOOOWWW card (also class 2 cards are CHEAP, that is why it is INCLUDED FREE). If you watch the Transformer movies installed on that card you will discover there are a few times during the movies where the screen momentarily freezes. Also if you have alot of songs on the card, when you scroll over to the media player you will see it takes forever for the media player tab (about 45 seconds) to display anything. Even a game that comes with the unit repeatedly freezes and is not playable because of the speed of the card - under games, try the game called "Ferrari GT Evolution". It is a great game but it is unplayable on that card.
I purchased a 16GB Class 6 Micro SDHC Card and it came today. I copied everything from the old card to the new card. WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE! It is about $60 but is makes a VERY big difference in performance for everything mentioned above. For instance, the Ferrari game mentioned above does not freeze at all (and loads much faster) and also when I scroll over to the media play tab the delay before that tab becomes useable is only about 3 seconds.
If you want a SAFE great way to really improve the performance of your unit, replace the old crappy Class 2 Micro SDHC card with a Class 6 version. WOW.
(BTW, my main reason for getting this card was also that it took too long to take a photo and then to be able to take another one immediately afterwards. Now that is MUCH faster as well. A workaround would be to not use the card for picture storage but I prefer to put them on the card.)

I have been using a 4GB class 6 card I had laying around and I have seen a difference as well. I copied all the data from the 16GB card to my computer then copied it to the 4GB card to start out with. I saw a big improvement in the momentary freezes that occur when navigating the UI, music indexing and video playback. After using that card for a couple weeks I copied everything back to the 16GB card after formatting it and popped it back in to see if it was a placebo effect. Things were noticeably different, it just felt more sluggish at times. The Class 2 card isn't bad and it isn't the whole problem but getting a better card does change things a bit.
I did pick up a couple 8GB class 6 Sandisk cards for about $10 not to long ago for my camera. The 16GB and 32GB cards aren't as economical yet. The improvement is worth $10-$20 dollars to me but not $60.

how can i tell if my other card is a class 4 or not

sherlockpwnz said:
how can i tell if my other card is a class 4 or not
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It'll be printed right on the front of the card...a little number inside of a circle. If you dont see one there, odds are it's a class-2

Panasonic makes a Class 10...that's what I use lolol...
~Jasecloud4

Class 6 vs 2 Photo... (Micro SDHC Card)
There is no such thing as a Class 10
Look at the photo (CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT AND SEE THE DIFFERENCE) FOR THE Speed Class Designation. I guess the standard spec does not say which way is right-side up for printed labels!
Class 6 is the highest speed currently. There are 32GB cards out there (which the unit can support) but they are VERY expensive. The Class 6 card I bought was somehyting like $60 with the shipping from Newegg.com.
Also notice that it is such a damned nightmare to be able to read these ever so tinier labels on everything out there! (Or maybe it's also because of my age.)
It is true, also, that those without the class specification are much older - and slower, I guess they should all be lumped in presumably with class 2

KruseLudsMobile said:
There is no such thing as a Class 10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to have a look at THIS and THIS...class-10 16GB cards do exist and are currently available. Jase doesn't usually just make crap up either

Wow Class 10 - !
Sorry, my bad, I guess there is Class 10 now! YIKES! My apologies

PWND!
sweet I didin't know there were class 10 either.
Guess I am going to pick one up soon.

scrizz said:
PWND!
sweet I didin't know there were class 10 either.
Guess I am going to pick one up soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one is pwning anyone.
Just merely stating the fact.

$100...Hope they become cheaper!

thanks for this thread... i totally didn't realize there were speed diffs on microSD cards.
so a few questions then:
1. the new 32GB sandisk microSD is only class 2... i assume no other manufactures are out yet, especially with a class 6 or 10. this is the very end of the SDHC standard. the next upgrade will be all SDXCs.
2. will a class10 be better than a class 6? i always thought that there are spec. limitations to SD card readers itself. does anyone know what the max limit of the HD2 SD card reader is? class 6 or 10? because if it's class 6, then buying a class 10 would be useless.
i remember that older SD card readers can't read the SDHCs.

JediFonger said:
thanks for this thread... i totally didn't realize there were speed diffs on microSD cards.
so a few questions then:
1. the new 32GB sandisk microSD is only class 2... i assume no other manufactures are out yet, especially with a class 6 or 10. this is the very end of the SDHC standard. the next upgrade will be all SDXCs.
2. will a class10 be better than a class 6? i always thought that there are spec. limitations to SD card readers itself. does anyone know what the max limit of the HD2 SD card reader is? class 6 or 10? because if it's class 6, then buying a class 10 would be useless.
i remember that older SD card readers can't read the SDHCs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I haven't seen any class 6 32gig cards but there will be some eventually.
2. Technically class 10 is faster than class 6 but unless you run everything off your sdcard and have a ton of music/video I doubt it would be worth it. If you were going to be using a 32gig card then a class 10 would probably be worth it, though I don't know if the HD2 supports that speed.

sirphunkee said:
You might want to have a look at THIS and THIS...class-10 16GB cards do exist and are currently available. Jase doesn't usually just make crap up either
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the "usual" lolol...
To be honest I've got the class 10 Panasonic, and a class 6 Kingston, (both 16gb [32gb models are ridiculously expensive]) and when you run them side-by-side in a phone, there really isn't a difference in everyday use that I can tell. Class 6 is plenty fast for a phone. But there's always people like me in the world who aren't afraid to fork over the extra money to see if the latest tech will get me a little extra speed.
For those on the ropes as to what to get: if your just listening to music, Class 2 is good; for video, class 4 is good; if your non-stop music and video all day everyday work and play, and have some extra cash Class 6 rocks.
For all of you nut jobs like me who care about the extra microseconds of speed, lolololol, and have the money to spend...get the Class 10...
~Jasecloud4

the first thing i did for my hd2 was upgrade to a class 6 from previous experience with rooted android handsets (where upgrade to class 6 is always recommended

would a class 10 or a class 6 improve battery life?

Thanks for the thread and the informative posts, I guess I will make sure to get at least a class 6 for my media heavy device.

Also, if I were to buy one, which companies are reliable? Or are they all pretty much the same? I've only heard of SanDisk and Kingston because I've met the co owner of Kingston and he gave me some free stuff before.

jas0nw0ng said:
Also, if I were to buy one, which companies are reliable? Or are they all pretty much the same? I've only heard of SanDisk and Kingston because I've met the co owner of Kingston and he gave me some free stuff before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would just stick with sandisk or kingston anyway, they're both as reliable as any, and usually priced right along the lesser-known maufacturers.

So for anyone who has used both a class 6 and class 10 card IN THE HD2, is there a speed difference? I have a paypal coupon code that is good for 25% off, and am eyeing some of the class 10 kingston cards on ebay which would come out to about $74 with this coupon code. Not very much more than a class 6, course i could just use the coupon code for a class 6 off ebay too. I would like to go the 32gb route, but seems everything 32gb is class 2 =(

microSD 32Gb class 6 and Galaxy S

I am thinking about purchasing a 32Gb microSD for use with my galaxy S.
My concern is that, is this too large? Are there any bad side effect like it being too slow to display picture/start up scann/run applications?

Which brand? That's probably more important for the speed than class (a class 2 Sandisk is often as fast or faster than a class 6 from a lesser brand).
The capacity of the card shouldn't affect the speed during most situations. However the phone does scan for media each time it is turned on or after disconnecting from USB connection (Kies or mass storage), the amount of time this takes depends on:
-the amount of media stored on the card and
-(probably) the read speed of the card.
Note that class rating is minimum write speed - so it's not a great indicator of real-life performance.
Also note that some too-cheap-to-be-true cards are actually smaller capacity cards that report larger capacities to fool the customer.
BTW where are you getting the card from (I want one as well ).

Hi flamingpitofhell,
I am looking at Sandisk as well and most likely get it from their online store. I am trying to find more information whether it is worth the trouble.

I don't think Sandisk sell class 6 cards (yet). Buying from their online store's also more expensive than online retailers (I can get one in Australia for AUD155, which is ~USD137, cf their RRP of USD200).

thanks for the pointer. will look around for local stores here in Thailand.
Which city in Australia are you in? I studied in Perth more than a decaded back.

I'm in glorious Melbourne mate, haven't been to Perth yet

the only LEGIT 32GB Sandisk available right now in the market is only Class 2
if you read anything else, it is FAKE, specially from eBay
wait until the other microSD manufactures start pushing out 32GB on class 4 or class 6 before buying.
i'm using 2x 16GB Class 6 until the 32GB class 6 becomes available.

I'm using Class 2 32GB card in mine, its fine.
Its slower when you're transferring to the card from your PC, but for most people thats only particularly problematic the first time (loading music collection), after that you'll not really notice a difference in the phone (the read speeds are basically the same, and the phone can neither read nor write to the card faster than a Class 2 card can cope with). You can see it in the benchmarks taken post-mimocans fix - Class 2 cards are no slower than any other Class within the phone.
Grab one now and be happy.

NZtechfreak said:
I'm using Class 2 32GB card in mine, its fine.
Grab one now and be happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you get yours from and how much for. I`m interested in getting one myself.
Thanks

my local stores already carry the real Sandisk 32GB class 2
too slow for my taste, i like to run Apps from the SD card, also use it as a SWAP partidion to prevent the LAG problem people complains about, it's a very easy fix
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=724251

i wonder what would be better a 16gb class 6 or 32gb class 2...
is it worth sacrifising double of the memory for the speed?

onbacardi said:
i wonder what would be better a 16gb class 6 or 32gb class 2...
is it worth sacrifising double of the memory for the speed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it depends what you are trying to do
if it's just to listen to mp3, then Class 2 is fine
if you want to run games, software, watch movies, use it for SWAP drive to have no lag, then minimum a Class 6

Class ratings don't really seem to have too much of an effect on real world performance: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1468705. Just discount the last result from the SGS (it's most likely mistaken for the internal SD).

i rather trust my experience coming from PalmOS + WinMb where real life situations using a class 4 or slower cards, made a huge word of difference when launching applications from SD and watching movies from SD
funny enough the numbers reported on that topic shows SGS i9000 to have the fastest speed even using the same card that got lower speed on the other phones.
which seems to point out it's directly proportional to the CPU speed, and the multitasking software running in the back end.
however as you see on those test itself, there are speed differences between class 2, class 4 and class 6
the same class # can not be compared to another class # of a different size,
if you imagine a hard drive, the bigger the hard drive the more layers/disk area it has to read, the same is true even for static SD cards.
however as pointed on those test Transcend usually has the fastest SD cards in the market, that's why i always buy that brand for performance, using a 16GB Transcend myself, waiting for the 32 GB class 6+ to come out
Adata has 2 lines, the performance line, and the standard line
if you want speed get the performance SD cards
Kingston and Sandisk are mostly standard speed, they don't release much performance level SD cards anymore, but they do have lots of those on USB sticks.

I tried my Brothers Sandisk Class 2 32GB and it worked perfectly.
Granted it's not as fast as my Sandisk Mobile Ultra Class 4 but that card flies anyway.
Certainly for recording your large movie files taken with the camera it's no different in speed than using the built in SDCard on the phone.

I have no problems watching 720P video on my phone. I have no problems launching applications either.
So much misinformation...

of course there is no problem, the issue here is getting the top performance, any SD card will work just fine.
it's just a matter of how fast/slow are you able to torelate

The only time you will notice any difference in speed is when transferring data to and from the card.
However, when you have double the space of other cards to consider speed should not be a deciding factor.
I'm already looking to get the Sandisk Class 2 32GB card. It will store all of my work files normally kept on my Laptop.
My Sandisk Class 4 Mobile Ultra 16GB will be my spare ~ should the larger card fail...

Thanks for the information s everyone.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I have the 32GB sandisk card and works perfect. I have a 720p mkv file and my music on there. Playback was superb for the video with no noticeable lag. Mind you the card isn't anywhere near full yet. From my limited knowledge of sd cards, they put data on the fastest part first so the fuller it gets the slower the card is likely to get..
My plan is to put movies and songs on the 32GB file and reserve the internal 13GB for capturing video and taking pictures on the phone.

[Q] Which sd card is better?

So Ive been using the 16gb Class 2 sd card that came with my HD2 for WP7 and I havent really had any problems with it. Occasionally it reboots for no reason, but aside from that, its perfect. However, my friend just gave me his 4gb Class 4 card. Should I keep using the 16gb or reset my phone with the faster 4gb?

simple test, all sd cards work differently
my Nokia 4GB Class 6 is better than may Sandisk 16GB Class 2
Xbox Live Installation: ( only the installation without download )
Nokia 4GB Class 6: 1:23 minutes
Sandisk 16GB Class 2: 9:41 minutes

peace warhead said:
So Ive been using the 16gb Class 2 sd card that came with my HD2 for WP7 and I havent really had any problems with it. Occasionally it reboots for no reason, but aside from that, its perfect. However, my friend just gave me his 4gb Class 4 card. Should I keep using the 16gb or reset my phone with the faster 4gb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Class 2 cards usually work better for wp7. Actually class means nothing when it comes to wp7... you want good random access speed for wp7 to run smooth. Many times, the tricks that manufacturers do to their cards to get higher sequential write speeds will actually reduce the random access speed. They don't keep the random access speed consistent on any of their cards as that speed isn't rated, so even cards of the same brand and class can differ greatly from batch to batch. A card made one day may run wp7 well while the same card made a month later may not. So far it seems class 2 sandisk are the most consistent in keeping good random access speed, so if you are going for a card for wp7, go for class 2 sandisk with model numbers ending in A11M. If you already have a card that works well, no reason to switch unless you want to change the size, because there's no way to guarantee a card will work well until it's tested.

SD Card Partitions

I have a Nook Color that is rooted running CyanogenMod 7.1.0 on internal memory. I have a 16GB Class 10 SD Card in it and was wondering what people are using for partitions on their SD Cards. I have pushed pretty much every app over to SD Card but some (not all) applications (Google Maps for instance) seem really sluggish and many times it force closes.
Is the Nook just not powerful enough to run Google Maps or is there something I need to adjust? Maybe a bigger swap partition? I set them up quite a while ago and don't recall what I set them to off the top of my head.
Using CyanogenMod I am overclocked to 1.2GHz with the Governor set to Performance.
VM heap size set to 48MB.
Thanks

class 10 cards are not as good as you'd think for any Android device. Android devices tend to write smaller files... a class 4 card (Sandisk recommended) is actually best for these devices.

DizzyDen said:
class 10 cards are not as good as you'd think for any Android device. Android devices tend to write smaller files... a class 4 card (Sandisk recommended) is actually best for these devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am mainly using Class 10 as that is what I had laying around in the Micro SD Card Format.
I have a 32 GB Class 4 in my Thunderbolt and it is fine. Do you really think it would slow it down much if it is Class 10? I could always toss it in an adapter and use it in my Canon T3i.

This thread here explains what the issue is and will tell you how to test your cards out to see if they'll work. Basically that Class10 card only gets Class 10 speeds when transferring large files and for small files (like an OS/app uses to write temp files) you get crap speed. it's not normally noticed in everyday use because the files are small and a little delay writing it isn't noticed by the user. Class 4 cards from SanDisk seem to be overall performers for files of all sizes.
- Aerlock

Aerlock said:
This thread here explains what the issue is and will tell you how to test your cards out to see if they'll work. Basically that Class10 card only gets Class 10 speeds when transferring large files and for small files (like an OS/app uses to write temp files) you get crap speed. it's not normally noticed in everyday use because the files are small and a little delay writing it isn't noticed by the user. Class 4 cards from SanDisk seem to be overall performers for files of all sizes.
- Aerlock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, that is interesting. Now does it matter that I am booting off internal memory? I am not dual booted and have CyanogenMod on internal memory. I am running Google Maps which is one of the programs that is really slow on internal memory. My guess is that what you are saying would apply because of the swap space being used on the SD card. I will say that my wife also has a Nook Color that I put my old 8GB Class 6 card from my old Nexus One in and hers seems to perform a little faster than mine. I haven't done the tweaks to VM heap size to hers that seems to have helped mine a little. So you may be on to something. I have a couple of these class 10 cards that I use on my Camera and have been happy with them. I think they are Samsung. The DSLR is 18MP so those files are pretty big so it might be just better to leave those cards for use there and get a couple of those SanDisk Class 4 cards for our Nooks.

Yeah, running apps from the sd would benefit from a fast sd card. When you get one, use CrystalDiskMark (pc) to check the 4k read/write speeds. I bought an 8gb and two 16gb Sandisk class 4 cards from Radio Shack that have reasonable speeds and work well. They're all in the .5 range for writes - not as good as some I've heard of, but they work well! Some (a Kingston and a knockoff Sandisk) I tested were as low as .006! I tried to use the Kingston before I tested its speed and got lots of instability and FCs. hth
Sent from my CM9 NookColor using Tapatalk