Does memory card capacity affect either speed or battery life?

[jcatojr]

Title says it all.

I'm a new smartphone user (the Galaxy Centura is enroute as I type) - and trying to make decisions about accessories - particularly the SDHC card. As I understand, max size is 32GB -- which I'm leaning towards. Don't plan on using the device as much more than a phone, but would like to have the ability to load up with useful apps.

Is there any downside to a 32GB card? Speed? Battery life?

Help respectfully requested.

Also - for all you 'old-timers' out there, any other neat and/or useful accessories for the Centura?

Thanks in advance.

-- john.

 

[Rukbat]

Aside from the fact that the larger the card, the longer the media scan takes, the size of the card has nothing to do with the speed of the phone. The speed of the card has a lot to do with the speed of the phone. (Neither one has much to do with battery life.)

If you can afford it, get a SanDisk Extreme 32GB card. That's the fastest card available at this time. Their Ultra card is next in speed. Don't get anything less than a Class 10 card. (That's one step down from Ultra.)

You can also buy Samsung cards, but card-for-card they're usually more expensive than SanDisk - and since both are chip manufacturers (there are only 2 SD chip manufacturers, SanDisk/Toshiba [a joint venture] and Samsung). meaning that they get the good chips while everyone else gets what available, why spend more for first-class cards? (SanDisk is also a nicer company to deal with, as you'll find out if you ever have a problem with one of their cards.)

 

[jcatojr]

Thanks, Rukbat - phone has arrived and I'm getting used to it.

-- john.

 

[freakshow85]

Like said, capacity doesn't affect speed or battery life. But different cards do affect speed. I ended up getting a 32GB class 10 G.Skill SD card. No issues with it.

I will say... my new Galaxy S3 reads and writes to the same card multiple times faster, according to my benchmarks, than the Centura. So I wouldn't worry TOO much about getting the fastest SD card you can get because the Centura won't make use of the speed.

Btw, my class 10 G.Skill reads at 19-20 mb/s and writes around 14-16 mb/s in my S3... but was more around 12/8 mb/s read/write in my Centura. Food for thought.