Galaxy S4: SD card vs internal flash, speed and limitations?

[BrianPB]

I have a 32GB Galaxy Nexus and am constantly running out of space with giant pictures and panoramas. When I view 300MB files in slide shows, it often takes many seconds to move from one to the next. I want a 64GB Galaxy S4, but can't find one.

Is the SD card as fast in MB/s as the main flash memory when dealing with 300+ MB JPG panoramas? What are the limitations of the SD card in terms of what can be stored there? I have read that applications can't be used on an SD card.

Does anybody regret settling for a wimpy 16GB model even with an SD card?

 

[garublador]

You're best off researching the capabilities of any specific card because they're not all created equal. A "class 10" 64GB uSD card must transfer data at 10MB/s. Some cards claim 30MB/s read speeds which would mean it would take 10 seconds to read a 300MB file. It's probably best to find reviews of each card to find out what actual speeds people have been able to achieve. Internal memory is generally able to be faster, but I haven't heard of any tests done on the S4 to see what it can achieve. Perhaps someone else knows of these tests being done on giant images on the S4.

In the newest versions of Android (which are on the S4) you can not store apps on external memory without rooting. Apparently some app data can be stored on external memory, but it's up to the developer to do that. If I were a developer I'd only store stuff to the internal memory to avoid having to deal with what you should do if the card is too slow or not there. The only other thing I'm aware of that can not be stored on external memory is synched music from some cloud music players. For example, with the Google Play Music service you can "pin" your songs to your phone to listen to without using data, but you can only pin them to internal memory.