Help Question about memory

[1Cent]

Hi all.
So the g2x has 8GB of internal memory and it's possible to add a micro sd. But how does all of that work? If I add a 16GB micro sd, is it just possible to put apps, music etc on that space seperately from the internal space? Or does the 16 GB micro sd space add on to the 8GB so everything goes to the same big memory space?

PS. also which sd card should I get overall? I've been looking at bestbuy and they seem to have all kind of sorts, some called class 10 and some class 2

 

[wmm]

So the g2x has 8GB of internal memory and it's possible to add a micro sd. But how does all of that work? If I add a 16GB micro sd, is it just possible to put apps, music etc on that space seperately from the internal space? Or does the 16 GB micro sd space add on to the 8GB so everything goes to the same big memory space?

The 8GB internal memory is divided up into several distinct partitions. 1.5GB is for the operating system and built-in applications. 1.5GB is available for installing applications, i.e., the space where applications are installed by default. (To give you an idea of how much space that is, I have nearly 100 applications installed on my phone and over 900MB, i.e., much more than half, left.) The other 5GB is for the file system, where things like music, photos, videos, and other data goes.

If you install a microSD card, that appears in the file system as a separate folder. That is, the 5GB internal memory appears as /sdcard; the space on the microSD card appears as /sdcard/_ExternalSD. Many, but not all, applications allow you to specify where to put their data, so you can use folders under /sdcard/_ExternalSD. The builtin multimedia apps will scan both the internal memory and the microSD card and give you transparent access to music and videos, regardless of where you put them.

PS. also which sd card should I get overall? I've been looking at bestbuy and they seem to have all kind of sorts, some called class 10 and some class 2

The "class" refers to the speed of access for the card. That mainly comes into play when you're copying videos and other large files to and from the phone; it really doesn't make any difference at all in the normal day-to-day operation of the phone.

 

[1Cent]

The 8GB internal memory is divided up into several distinct partitions. 1.5GB is for the operating system and built-in applications. 1.5GB is available for installing applications, i.e., the space where applications are installed by default. (To give you an idea of how much space that is, I have nearly 100 applications installed on my phone and over 900MB, i.e., much more than half, left.) The other 5GB is for the file system, where things like music, photos, videos, and other data goes.

If you install a microSD card, that appears in the file system as a separate folder. That is, the 5GB internal memory appears as /sdcard; the space on the microSD card appears as /sdcard/_ExternalSD. Many, but not all, applications allow you to specify where to put their data, so you can use folders under /sdcard/_ExternalSD. The builtin multimedia apps will scan both the internal memory and the microSD card and give you transparent access to music and videos, regardless of where you put them.



The "class" refers to the speed of access for the card. That mainly comes into play when you're copying videos and other large files to and from the phone; it really doesn't make any difference at all in the normal day-to-day operation of the phone.

Thanks! Great information there.

I know you could probably fit a lot of apps on 1.5GB although doesn't the performance of the device get worse even with half of the memory taken up? All I know is that on my HTC Hero the performance goes down from just installing more than 20 apps maybe. Allthough I'm sure that the g2X with 1.5 is a lot more than my hero has.

If the case is the same on the g2X with the performance getting worse with more memory taken up, is it possible to make the space for apps bigger? If it's not the case I don't really care, I'm not gonna install 1000 apps anyway.

 

[wmm]

I know you could probably fit a lot of apps on 1.5GB although doesn't the performance of the device get worse even with half of the memory taken up?

No, the only thing that affects performance is how many apps and services are running at the same time, and how much working memory they use when running. The 1.5GB is for storing the apps and their data when they are not running (i.e., they are loaded from there into the processor's memory when they start), and how full that is makes no difference to how fast the phone runs.

All I know is that on my HTC Hero the performance goes down from just installing more than 20 apps maybe. Allthough I'm sure that the g2X with 1.5 is a lot more than my hero has.

I don't know anything about the Hero, but on my old Windows Mobile phones the memory was dynamically shared between storage and processor memory; the more things you put into storage, the less memory was available for the processor. That's not the case with phones like the G2x; the 1.5GB is completely separate from the processor memory and so can't affect how much memory is available to running apps.

If the case is the same on the g2X with the performance getting worse with more memory taken up, is it possible to make the space for apps bigger? If it's not the case I don't really care, I'm not gonna install 1000 apps anyway.

You almost certainly won't need to worry about that. However, many apps have the capability (to accommodate phones with less app storage) to be moved to /sdcard. In the G2x, unfortunately, that doesn't mean to the microSD but to the internal 5GB memory. Still, if you do install a number of huge games or whatever, you might get close to the 1.5GB ceiling and this "App2SD" capability can take some of the load off by using some of the other 5GB that's available.