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Expanding Micro SD Storage (?)

apollomaker

apollomaker

Well-Known Member
Looking at greatly expanding my SD storage. It is clear that the Sprint Hero requires an SD device that meets the SD 2.0 specification. That is a given.

The question I have is about SD speed (class) and size (up to 32GB max).

I am wondering if there is noticable speed difference between Class 2 and Class 6 cards on internal or external transfers? Where do we see any difference? Internal - such as photo or file transfers between folders on the card? External - file transfers to and from the SD card set up as a USB device?

Then the possible variable (if it is) of card size? I am still running the stock 2GB card that came with my Hero. I want to go to 16GB. Does "size matter"? ;) ---

So, what say folks? Anybody run any experiments to measure speed and function? Photos, files, etc??

Thanks --- Bob :D
 
in my experience the cheapest place to buy a card is on eBay. i don't have an upgraded SD card yet though i imagine it makes quite a difference. the classes for SD cards stand for the mb/second...see below:

Class 2: 16 Mbit/s (2 MByte/s)
Class 4: 32 Mbit/s (4 MByte/s)
Class 6: 48 Mbit/s (6 MByte/s)
Class 10: 80 Mbit/s (10 MByte/s)
 
jeffreynothing43 said:
in my experience the cheapest place to buy a card is on eBay. i don't have an upgraded SD card yet though i imagine it makes quite a difference. the classes for SD cards stand for the mb/second...see below:

Class 2: 16 Mbit/s (2 MByte/s)
Class 4: 32 Mbit/s (4 MByte/s)
Class 6: 48 Mbit/s (6 MByte/s)
Class 10: 80 Mbit/s (10 MByte/s)
Click to expand...
Be EXTREMELY cautious when buying memory cards from eBay. FAKE cards are prevelent, and not worth the savings. It is so bad that eBay even has a whole series of write-ups on how to spot fake cards. I was stung when I bought a couple of cheap memory stick pro duo cards for my Sony camera. However, eBay eventualy did the right thing and refunded my money, but it was a hassle. The China based seller had 99.9% positive feedback, a large number of "satisfied" comments and thousands of sales. Just days after I "won" the bid, he became a "non registered seller". When the products arrived, they would freeze up my computer and wouldn't be recognized by the camera, but they looked perfect to the casual buyer (me).

Just not worth the savings.

Here are just two of eBay's guides to fake cards I found doing a quick search. These apply to Memory Sticks and full size SD cards, but you get the idea... it's better to not have to look at your new card and find out that it is a fake.

1
eBay Guide Fake Memory Sticks

1
1
eBay Guide Fake SD cards

I hope this helps someone from the hassle and possible money loss.
 
Howdy All --- and thanks for the comments especially from JB on the eBay risks. Yes, I never buy ANYTHING critical on eBay. For this reason. In spite of much effort on the part of eBay, it remains a playground for fraud artists.

If you want to buy a new card on the net, I would recommend an outfit like Newegg, etc. buying brand names.

So far, there have been no comments about any restrictions or limitations that might have been encountered with large capacity micro SD devices. I plan to try a Class 6 16GB to suit my needs for storage. Hope to get some commentary from any who have made the jump and done some testing.

Cheers --- Bob :D
 
Regarding the speed of the sd card -- of what special value is an expensive high-speed card if the hardware doesn't read or write at that speed? Does anyone know what the read/write speed of the Hero is?

I performed the following experiment: I installed a 16GB class 2 card in my phone (because it was cheaper than a class 6 card), then I proceeded to record a LARGE single video clip (don't remember exactly how large, but it was more than 2 GB in size, and consumed the better part of an hour, and nearly half the battery, to record), then I played back the recording. Btw, during both recording and playback, the battery got quite warm, which tells me that there was a LOT of read/write activity going on! ;)

Making a large recording did two things: it forced the recording to go to the SD card and not internal RAM, and it made sure that there was no "buffer" influence in the observed results: even if a buffer was being used, at some point it would need to dump its contents into the SD card so it could continue with capturing data.

Here are my observations: The entire video recorded and played back with absolutely no glitches. That tells me that both the read speed and write speed capability of a class 2 card is more than capable of keeping up with full-screen streaming video. Btw, I also have about 2500 songs on my card, and streaming music is also no problem.

The hardware in the Hero may be capable of reading and writing to the SD card faster than is needed for video recording and playback, and there may concievably be a need for such speed, but I'm at a loss to imagine what it could be. But hey, I could be wrong! ;)

Bottom line: I'm very happy with my class 2 16GB card, and don't know why I would need anything faster.
 
oldjackbob said:
The hardware in the Hero may be capable of reading and writing to the SD card faster than is needed for video recording and playback, and there may concievably be a need for such speed, but I'm at a loss to imagine what it could be. But hey, I could be wrong! ;)

Bottom line: I'm very happy with my class 2 16GB card, and don't know why I would need anything faster.
Click to expand...

Hiya OldJackBob -- now that is the kind of info I was seeking!!! ;)
There is not always a direct correlation between card speed and the hardware capability and action. If you could stream video on a Class 2 device, that is good enough for me. And it is probable, that if you did the same experiment with a Class 6, you may see no difference in common usage and applications. Thanks !!!! :D
 
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