Which SD card do I need

[Edible Walrus]

I know it's Micro SD, but then there seem to be different classes and then there's SDXC and SDHC. Which do I need? :/

 

[neel69]

I am using Transcend's UHS-I 32GB Class 10 Micro SD Card (SDHC) and it's working great!

 

[jhubensc]

I bought SanDisk Ultra 32 GB MicroSDHC C10/UHS1 Memory Card at Amazon for $23 each for both my and wife's S4. Work fine.

 

[STSVA]

I'm using a Sandisk class 6 4 32GB microSD card. From what I've read, the S4 cannot use the faster speed available from a UHS1 card, so that the card will revert to the fastest speed the phone system can handle. I haven't found anything definitive on whether these phones can handle Class 10 speed without the UHS1 functionality, or how fast that would be. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me can provide the answer.

EDIT: Here's a thread that may be helpful to you - http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s4/267781-class-speed-sd-card-galaxy-s4.html

 

[Haalcyon]

Sandisk Ultra micro SD class10 cards seem to be the sweetspot.

Sent from my humble Note 8.0 LTE

 

[Edible Walrus]

My computer doesn't seem to support SDXC, but does the phone? If it does then can I use an SDXC card in the phone and copy content to the card using the computer (card in phone and phone connected to computer)? Is 64GB only available on an SDXC card?

 

[STSVA]

My computer doesn't seem to support SDXC, but does the phone? If it does then can I use an SDXC card in the phone and copy content to the card using the computer (card in phone and phone connected to computer)? Is 64GB only available on an SDXC card?

You'll have to use an SDXC card if you want to go bigger than 32GB; this will not be an issue with the phone. I'm assuming the issue with the computer is the micro size of the SD card; the SDXC part should be irrelevant EDIT: (although a note on the Sandisk site says that some older computer card readers may be incompatible with the SDXC, so maybe that's your issue). Most people have the SD card in their phone and connect to their computer by USB or wireless in order to transfer data to the card, but you can buy micro SD cards with adapters if you want to connect the card directly to your computer outside the phone (Note: may require an external USB card reader for your computer, unless you have a built-in card reader).

EDIT: You may be over-analyzing this. All you need is to decide whether you want a 32GB or 64GB micro SD card, then pick the brand and speed of the card. Your basic options are class 6 or class 10 speed; as I noted above, from what I can find here and elsewhere the UHS-1 high speed features are not usable by the S4. Install the micro card in your phone, use the USB cable from your Samsung charger to connect to your computer's USB port, and you're (mostly) good to go. At that point you'll be dealing with whether to use Samsung's Kies software to transfer data to the card (there are a couple of open threads here now by people complaining about Kies not working right, although it worked OK for me to transfer music to my phone), or whether you want to use other options, such as direct transfer using the computer's operating system. If you decide to use Kies you'll obviously need to download and install in on your computer. Also, if you have a Windows computer you'll probably see popups about installing drivers when you first connect the phone to the computer; once all that's done you should have a usable connection. Make sure to pick external storage as the target for data transfers; the Android file system is extremely confusing and appears to call some storage areas SD card even though it's not the physical SD card, but if it calls something "external SD card" that will be the physical SD card and not some kind of emulation in the internal phone memory.

 

[Haalcyon]

You'll get a performance boost from a UHS-1 card, but not a huge one. My Sandisk Extreme writes at 14.9MB/s and reads around 20MB/s. The write speed, is however, nearly double what I get on my Sandisk Ultra (7.8MB/s). Is this enough to pay the price premium? You have to decide. Let me know if you need to see the benchmark graphs from SD-Tools that support this.

Sent from my humble Note 8.0 LTE

 

[STSVA]

You'll get a performance boost from a UHS-1 card, but not a huge one. My Sandisk Extreme writes at 14.9MB/s and reads around 20MB/s. The write speed, is however, nearly double what I get on my Sandisk Ultra (7.8MB/s). Is this enough to pay the price premium? You have to decide. Let me know if you need to see the benchmark graphs from SD-Tools that support this.

Sent from my humble Note 8.0 LTE

Are you getting those speeds with the S4? I've read elsewhere that the S4 does not support UHS-1 features, but perhaps the Extreme cards are inherently faster than the Ultra cards even with UHS-1 being inoperable.

 

[Haalcyon]

Yes, those are my S4 speeds. It's stated that you can get up to 80MB/s so perhaps the numbers that I'm getting are what others consider as the card not being supported by the S4. ...but it does work well, it is durable, and there is somewhat of an advantage over the slower cards, albeit, a slighter one. I get annoyed when folks that don't have the Sandisk Extreme tell me its no faster than the Sandisk Ultra, when I actually have the Extreme and the benchmarks that prove otherwise.

Sent from my humble Note 8.0 LTE

 

[STSVA]

Yes, those are my S4 speeds. It's stated that you can get up to 80MB/s so perhaps the numbers that I'm getting are what others consider as the card not being supported by the S4. ...but it does work well, it is durable, and there is somewhat of an advantage over the slower cards, albeit, a slighter one. I get annoyed when folks that don't have the Sandisk Extreme tell me its no faster than the Sandisk Ultra, when I actually have the Extreme and the benchmarks that prove otherwise.

Sent from my humble Note 8.0 LTE

Thanks! I'll have to look into a faster card, now that you've confirmed that they're faster even without the UHS-1 superspeeds.

 

[Haalcyon]

The question is whether or not the speed boost you'll see is worth the increased cost. If you're doing a lot of writes, then it may be. The 15.9MB/s reads I see on my Sandisk Ultra aren't that much slower than the 20.9MB/s I'm seeing on the Extreme.

Sent from my humble Note 8.0 LTE

 

[STSVA]

The question is whether or not the speed boost you'll see is worth the increased cost. If you're doing a lot of writes, then it may be. The 15.9MB/s reads I see on my Sandisk Ultra aren't that much slower than the 20.9MB/s I'm seeing on the Extreme.

Sent from my humble Note 8.0 LTE

\

Got it. Even the Ultra would be an upgrade for me, I've got the basic Sandisk card I was using in my DINC2.

 

[Edible Walrus]

You'll have to use an SDXC card if you want to go bigger than 32GB; this will not be an issue with the phone. I'm assuming the issue with the computer is the micro size of the SD card; the SDXC part should be irrelevant (although a note on the Sandisk site says that some older computer card readers may be incompatible with the SDXC, so maybe that's your issue). Most people have the SD card in their phone and connect to their computer by USB or wireless in order to transfer data to the card, but you can buy micro SD cards with adapters if you want to connect the card directly to your computer outside the phone (Note: may require an external USB card reader for your computer, unless you have a built-in card reader).

EDIT: You may be over-analyzing this. All you need is to decide whether you want a 32GB or 64GB micro SD card, then pick the brand and speed of the card. Your basic options are class 6 or class 10 speed; as I noted above, from what I can find here and elsewhere the UHS-1 high speed features are not usable by the S4. Install the micro card in your phone, use the USB cable from your Samsung charger to connect to your computer's USB port, and you're (mostly) good to go. At that point you'll be dealing with whether to use Samsung's Kies software to transfer data to the card (there are a couple of open threads here now by people complaining about Kies not working right, although it worked OK for me to transfer music to my phone), or whether you want to use other options, such as direct transfer using the computer's operating system. If you decide to use Kies you'll obviously need to download and install in on your computer. Also, if you have a Windows computer you'll probably see popups about installing drivers when you first connect the phone to the computer; once all that's done you should have a usable connection. Make sure to pick external storage as the target for data transfers; the Android file system is extremely confusing and appears to call some storage areas SD card even though it's not the physical SD card, but if it calls something "external SD card" that will be the physical SD card and not some kind of emulation in the internal phone memory.

I want to get 64GB. Just didn't want to purchase and find it didn't work with one or more pieces of hardware

 

[STSVA]

I want to get 64GB. Just didn't want to purchase and find it didn't work with one or more pieces of hardware

That's reasonable. As far as I can tell, a major brand 64GB class 10 card should work fine in the phone, and as long as you use the computer-phone connection to copy data to the card you shouldn't have a problem. Based on Haalcyon's excellent info. above, I just ordered a 64GB Sandisk Ultra for mine.

 

[Edible Walrus]

That's reasonable. As far as I can tell, a major brand 64GB class 10 card should work fine in the phone, and as long as you use the computer-phone connection to copy data to the card you shouldn't have a problem. Based on Haalcyon's excellent info. above, I just ordered a 64GB Sandisk Ultra for mine.

I ordered this one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...ag=hawk-future-21&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU3065606
A 64GB Sandisk Ultra Micro SD card. Unfortunately I missed weekend delivery so go a few days' wait :/

 

[STSVA]

I ordered this one
SanDisk SDSDQU-064G-U46A Ultra 64GB Class 10 microSDXC Card Including microSDXC to SD Adapter: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
A 64GB Sandisk Ultra Micro SD card. Unfortunately I missed weekend delivery so go a few days' wait :/

Me too - both the card and the wait. I was going to re-load music on my card this weekend after fixing some iTunes tracks that couldn't be read by the S4 because they were in Apple lossless format, but now I may rip a bunch of CDs through iTunes and then load all the music, old and new, on the new card once I get it next week.

 

[Edible Walrus]

I have it and it works fine. Close please