Which Class/Speed SD Card for Galaxy S4

[Mike Wyzlic]

I spoke with Samsung technical support (Level 1 & 2) specifically about the SD slot when I was researching the GS4 before buying. This was because I had seen a lot of conflicting reports about compatibility of 64 GB cards. On the subject of Class rating, they confirmed that the SD Slot is only rated at Class 6. This supports what is mentioned above about Android limitations to Class 6. I've tried doing my own further research on Class compatibility and it seems that a higher class card will work, but just won't perform beyond the specs of the class the host device is rated for. However, I'm not an expert on SD card specifications and compatibility. Even the SD Association's website (www.sdcard.org) doesn't explain it very clearly.

Additionally, in regards to the 64 GB cards which by SD standards are all formatted as exFAT, the GS4 does support exFAT (in addition to FAT) according to the official Samsung Galaxy S4 manual as well as the Samsung Customer Consultant Guide. This was one of my main questions when I called Samsung support. This information is not found in the watered down carrier manuals for the device (Sprint's manual is horrible!). If you get a message stating that the card is formatted incorrectly for the device, beware!, you'll probably encounter problems.

I'd say a Class 6 or Class 10 card should work fine, but you might see more stability with a Class 6 card since that's what the device is 'designed' for. Also, if anyone is curious, the UHS-I specification is not supported by the GS4. This is an additional speed rating indicated by the number '1' inside a 'U' on higher end SD cards. Most 64 GB cards will have this specification in addition to the usual Class 10 speed. The SD Association isn't clear here either on compatibility, but it does seem to indicate that you should not use a UHS-I card in a device that is not UHS-I rated. So if you want to be completely trouble free (hopefully), choose a quality brand 32 GB Class 6 card (my opinion).

 

[copasetic]

... I think dropbox is a good idea. Im sure with the new S4 gives me a 50Gb dropbox account.

I know this is an older post, I was looking at the best ?SD for the S4, and saw this....What? really? I didn't see anything in the box about any DropBox offers...is anyone with an S4 eligible for the 50GB? Is it permanent? How do we sign up?

 

[Farish]

I know this is an older post, I was looking at the best ?SD for the S4, and saw this....What? really? I didn't see anything in the box about any DropBox offers...is anyone with an S4 eligible for the 50GB? Is it permanent? How do we sign up?

Your carrier isn't part of this.

 

[Haalcyon]

The Sandisk Extreme micro SD works exceedingly well and is substantially faster than the Sandisk Ultra. This makes a noticeable difference when moving files and launching apps. I love my 64GB Extreme.

Sent from my humble S4

 

[Farish]

Phones do not support UHS technology. Because of this, the cap data on any SD card on your phone is 25 mb/s read and 10 mb/s write speed. Get a class 10 because they should be the same price of Class 6/4 cards anyways and in most cases you are just buying old inventory with those cards.

You won't get any added benefit in your phone because of UHS technology not being supported, on your pc is a different story if you have a UHS compatible reader, but if you only have USB 2.0 you are limited by that bus speed which is never has lived up to what is has been advertised.

 

[Haalcyon]

Farish, I'm sorry that what you've read tells you differently but I have both the Sandisk Ultra and Extreme micro SD cards. Both in the phone and via USB my 64GB Extreme is consistently, easily, and noticeably faster in reads and writes than the 64GB Sandisk Ultra I have. Do you believe the Sandisk Ultra I have is defective, my Extreme is performing better than it should be or something is wrong with my S4 that would explain the gelow graphs? I may not be getting the UHS speeds of 80 MB/s on the Extreme but I'm getting way better performance (nearly 2x write speed) than my class 10 Ultra.


This is the SD Tools graph for the my 64GB Sandisk Extreme



This is the graph for my 64GB Sandisk Ultra



The difference is tangible as the Extreme writes nearly 2x faster at 14.6MB/s and reads noticably faster as well as is shown.

 

[Farish]

Farish, I'm sorry that what you've read tells you differently but I have both the Sandisk Ultra and Extreme micro SD cards. Both in the phone and via USB my 64GB Extreme is consistently, easily, and noticeably faster in reads and writes than the 64GB Sandisk Ultra I have. Do you believe the Sandisk Ultra I have is defective, my Extreme is performing better than it should be or something is wrong with my S4 that would explain the gelow graphs? I may not be getting the UHS speeds of 80 MB/s on the Extreme but I'm getting way better performance (nearly 2x write speed) than my class 10 Ultra.


This is the SD Tools graph for the my 64GB Sandisk Extreme

View attachment 78650

This is the graph for my 64GB Sandisk Ultra

View attachment 78651

The difference is tangible as the Extreme writes nearly 2x faster at 14.6MB/s and reads noticably faster as well as is shown.

My 25/10 vs your 20/15 is not that huge. I get about the same as you with my Samsung sd card. My point is without UHS you aren't going to get better because of bus limitation s.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I467 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[AcemanX AcemanX]

My 25/10 vs your 20/15 is not that huge. I get about the same as you with my Samsung sd card. My point is without UHS you aren't going to get better because of bus limitation s.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I467 using AC Forums mobile app

what is your samsung card, the pro? thats 70/20?

 

[jmgilliam]

Would like to know the type of Samsung card too. I've decided to go Samsung, but is it worth it to get the Pro vs the Plus version. The Pro says 70/20 and the Plus says 48... On an S4 would you realize the difference in the two cards?

Thanks.

 

[jhsa]

Hey guys, hello to all.. It's my first post here and I hope I'm doing it on the right thread.

I own a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini and I installed a 32Gb class4 SD Card..
The problem is that when recording videos at full resolution, the picture sometimes has some kind of digital noise (don't know the right word), the colors get mixed up and the picture distorted, every few seconds. I think this happens more on longer videos. If I lower the resolution the videos are better but sometimes it happens also in longer videos.. Could this be the card being a class4?
Thank you in advance for your answers..

 

[Tori Sim]

You can also search online Wholesale prices for Micro SD Cards - for example - DHGate dot com has Samsung Micro SD Card 32GB Class 10 for $11.96 + free shipping from China delivers within 3 weeks to your door I've ordered many things from them, and although their packaging for shipments are not the greatest - they do deliver a great product and a great deal too

 

[jhsa]

Thanks.. Will have a look. Just had to format the card I have in the phone at the moment.. I had to restart the phone and when it came back on, it said that the card was bad..

 

[fokka85]

Hello there! I'm from Argentina and i can't get a Micro SD class 6 for my Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. What do you recommend? A class 4 or a class 10?
Thanks in advance!

 

[ricksinn]

Well LoganK you made it simple and simply wrong. The reverse is true of your statement "In general, the higher the class rating, the slower the card will be for general access". Please go to the following web site and they can fill you in on the facts. Sorry you will have to copy and paste this as I didn't see a way to put a link in this forum which would be extremely efficient. Here it is https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/speed_class/
Hope this helps everyone with their question of storage cards.

RickS out

 

[ricksinn]

Well LoganK you made it simple and simply wrong. The reverse is true of your statement "In general, the higher the class rating, the slower the card will be for general access". Please go to the following web site and they can fill you in on the facts. Sorry you will have to copy and paste this as I didn't see a way to put a link in this forum which would be extremely efficient. Here it is url]https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/speed_class/[/url

Hope this helps everyone with their question of storage cards.

RickS out

 

[syfimalik7]

I'm using galaxy S4 9505 and I'm using SanDisk ultra micro sdxc UHS-I speed upto 80 mb/s. It works fine and pretty good.