Does the Tab 4 support UHS-1 speeds? (I'm talking about microSD speeds)

[androidmatcha]

Does the Galaxy Tab 4 WiFi-only 8-inch model support UHS-1 speeds?

 

[Rukbat]

As long as the card responds quickly enough, the phone won't slow down. If the card can respond 10 times faster than the phone's maximum ability to access it it's not a problem - the card "waits for" the phone. The phone is running at its maximum speed and you don't see anything wrong. If the card is too slow, the phone waits for the card - and yo see the phone acting sluggish. Still no problem, just not the best performance you can get.

All phones "support" all speeds of SD card. It's not the speed you should worry about, though. Any Class 10 or faster card is faster than current phones. It's whether the card is real or counterfeit. Printing the card so it looks like "brand X" is trivial, so the fact that a card says Kingston or SanDisk isn't proof that it is.

Inside the card is a little computer - it's not just a memory chip. there's a controller, with its code and a memory card. The code tells the controller which memory cells are bad (there are always some), how large the memory chip is, etc. So some unscrupulous little mom&pop shop over on the western end of the Pacific Ocean can take an old black 2GB Class 4 card and program it to say it's a 128GB Class 10 card, paint it red and tan, print up a card you couldn't tell from the real one with a microscope and sell you a "SanDisk Class 10 128GB card in retail package" for only $59, shipping included. And make about $57 in profit. (The old cards aren't worth as much as 10 cents.) Buy real cards from a reputable source, like Amazon (special deal till midnight tonight, on our news page - look at the top for News) or Best Buy or Newegg. And don't buy "factory refurbished" SanDisk cards from anyone but SanDisk - that's the way they sell them.

(Why am I touting SanDisk? There are only 2 factories making chips for these cards - Samsung and SanDisk [in a joint venture with Toshiba]. SanDisk is a MUCH easier company to deal with if you have a problem, which is rare. [Just go to their website and there's live help.] Everyone else buys the chips from them. Are they getting top of the line chips, or rejects? I don't know, but being in the industry since before the advent of solid state memory [even before TI's Bubble Memory], I've heard stories. Some from people I've learned to believe. Which is why I always spend the extra bucks for SanDisk. Problems? I slipped once and broke the shell on one microSD card. That's been it. [The card still works, but I'm not putting it into anything it's coming out of - I'm afraid if I handle it too much it'll start coming apart.] And I still have a 32MB [not GB, MB] card around somewhere - from when it was considered a HUGE amount of portable storage. But I've worked with SanDisk with problems other people have had. The only better experience I've ever had was with Seagate, and they're past unbelievable.)

 

[androidmatcha]

Thanks, rukbat, for taking the time to write an informative reply. I placed an order today for an original 64GB Sandisk microSD for $25.