Is a high class microSD card worth the extra $

[jonaddis84]

Im looking for a 16gb replacement for my 8gb stock card. Was about to buy a Sandisk from amazon but its a class 2. I found another thread with people comparing different class cards read and write speeds, but none of them said whether it translated into noticeable differences.

A class 2 card is as low as $21
A class 6 card is as low as $61

If Im not even going to NOTICE that difference outside of the SD card speed test app then I dont want to fork over an extra $40

 

[eldub1]

A class 4 will do. It wil also save you a few dollars.

 

[thekarens]

I got a class 6 off Amazon for around 37. I'm happy with it.

Sent from my HTC Evo 4g

 

[smileshappy]

I got a komputer bay 16 gig class 6 from amazon for a really cheap price. Should check into it. I am happy with mine.

 

[Gekko]

it takes me about 15 minutes to copy a 2GB movie from my Netbook to my EVO's included microSD card via the included HTC USB cable. would another brand or type or class of microSD card be significantly faster? my guess is no.

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

Only around twice as fast.

 

[Gekko]

well the 2GB mp4 movie plays beautifully on my EVO using the stock video player BUT fast forwarding capability is not good. it kicks me out of the movie when i try to use the scroll bar to fast forward. not sure if this is because the file is so big (2GB) or just a limitation of the video player - or both. no big deal for me because watching movies on EVO is more of a novelty for me and not something i would do often if ever. interesting test though.

 

[IAmSixNine]

The higher class rating is only noticable for transfereing larger files. So yes to those who have 2 gig files, and yes to me who has 3 gigs of music.
General day to day use of the device no, but yes if you record in HD, technically the higher recording needs class 4. Class 2 is a bare minimum for HD recording. Again, just my opinion and only backed up by a few things i have read.
I am looking for a class 4 or 6 32G card because i do occasionally want to record in 720P and not get choppy recording or play back.
Also if i update my music it would be nice to have it go faster.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

The higher class rating is only noticable for transfereing larger files. So yes to those who have 2 gig files, and yes to me who has 3 gigs of music.
General day to day use of the device no, but yes if you record in HD, technically the higher recording needs class 4. Class 2 is a bare minimum for HD recording. Again, just my opinion and only backed up by a few things i have read.
I am looking for a class 4 or 6 32G card because i do occasionally want to record in 720P and not get choppy recording or play back.
Also if i update my music it would be nice to have it go faster.

Kingston is the only brand right now that makes a class 4 32gb microSD.

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

The higher class rating is only noticable for transfereing larger files. So yes to those who have 2 gig files, and yes to me who has 3 gigs of music.
General day to day use of the device no, but yes if you record in HD, technically the higher recording needs class 4. Class 2 is a bare minimum for HD recording. Again, just my opinion and only backed up by a few things i have read.
I am looking for a class 4 or 6 32G card because i do occasionally want to record in 720P and not get choppy recording or play back.
Also if i update my music it would be nice to have it go faster.

The EVO does not need anything more than Class 2 for HD recording ever. The 720p recording option records at ~1MB/s, which is half of a Class 2's rated speed.

Also, whoever mentioned playback of a 2GB movie and fast forward crashing: no, that's just an issue of the app.

 

[willy900wonka]

There is another aspect to choosing your microsd card. That is battery consumption. Not going to go into details. There is only a finite amount of electricity a chip can consume before it overheats. So if a sd card is limited@ some speed it's because it takes more energy than what it can dissipate, to go faster. So if a sd chip is rated at 10 and you use it at 2 then you are using one fifth of the rated max current for the sd. Since all sd's are close in total consumption at their rated max, you do the math.
Please Google this and don't take my word for it.

 

[deaofly]

I have arc media player which plays great and can skipping to any part of the video and it wont skip or lag, but they are 300mb vids. You can try it out.

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

There is another aspect to choosing your microsd card. That is battery consumption. Not going to go into details. There is only a finite amount of electricity a chip can consume before it overheats. So if a sd card is limited@ some speed it's because it takes more energy than what it can dissipate, to go faster. So if a sd chip is rated at 10 and you use it at 2 then you are using one fifth of the rated max current for the sd. Since all sd's are close in total consumption at their rated max, you do the math.
Please Google this and don't take my word for it.

Not only is this post nonsensical, it has absolutely no point to it.

 

[willy900wonka]

Not only is this post nonsensical, it has absolutely no point to it.

Can you be specific? Hand waving doesn't count. You're obviously an EE.

 

[PookiePrancer]

Not only is this post nonsensical, it has absolutely no point to it.

After reading that 4 times, I'm going to have to go with your assessment. That was so painful to read, I don't WANT to Google anything about it.

 

[mmhhc]

Easy guys. Willy900wonka is just saying that the max current usage is the same regardless of class number, i.e.:

Imax,class2 = Imax,class4 = .... = Imax

He is also assuming that the current consumption scales linearly with read speed, something like:

I,actual = Imax*(read speed/max read speed)

So if a movie only requires 1MB/s to read from the card, then a class 2 is at 50% power while a class 10 is at 10% power.

Is Willy Wonky? I don't know. I "googled it" but could not find the answer. I even looked on manufacturers web-sites.

Willy, please point us in the right direction.

 

[splmonster]

The EVO does not need anything more than Class 2 for HD recording ever. The 720p recording option records at ~1MB/s, which is half of a Class 2's rated speed.

Also, whoever mentioned playback of a 2GB movie and fast forward crashing: no, that's just an issue of the app.

If that was the case it wouldn't skip during HD playback on recorded videos.

 

[Jerzyiroc]

I've had two different class 2 sd cards and I have no issues with HD playback

 

[splmonster]

I've had two different class 2 sd cards and I have no issues with HD playback

I don't have issues with the playback of HD videos from say "my computer". Now ones that I record on the phone is a different story. Choppy playback when viewing the videos I have recorded with the phone in 720p. I have seen it happen on about 20 different Evo's. So it can't be just mine.. Has to be the class 2 does not have sufficient enough write speed for 720p.

 

[willy900wonka]

Easy guys. Willy900wonka is just saying that the max current usage is the same regardless of class number, i.e.:

Imax,class2 = Imax,class4 = .... = Imax

He is also assuming that the current consumption scales linearly with read speed, something like:

I,actual = Imax*(read speed/max read speed)

So if a movie only requires 1MB/s to read from the card, then a class 2 is at 50% power while a class 10 is at 10% power.

Is Willy Wonky? I don't know. I "googled it" but could not find the answer. I even looked on manufacturers web-sites.

Willy, please point us in the right direction.

You're right about the assumption, it does scale, once over a baseline threshold. Read on chip leakage.
The actual data I have is from design (spec) books (paper) distributed by mfgs. They should be available on line. Pick a chip by mfg. then google its design specifications.

http://www.datasheetlocator.com/

A rhetorical question is why are low power sd's rated (when normalized to speed) and priced similarly to high speed sd's?

The other route is load the "currentwidget" from market, and run an sd dependent apk while using different sd's.