Choosing a good memory card for your smartphone

Only in rare cases do manufacturers equip smartphones and tablets with the amount of memory on the built-in storage. At the same time, a certain part of it is also occupied by system functions. That is why when buying a gadget, the question immediately arises about a flash drive. Without it, you lose the ability to actively use all the functions of the device.

Today we will figure out how to choose the right memory card for a smartphone or tablet in 2020, if in terms of appearance they are all almost the same? What parameters should you look at, first of all, which class of memory card is best for you and how to understand that this flash drive is perfect for your device?

What are the types of SD cards

To choose the right memory card for your smartphone, you need to take into account its model, as well as technical capabilities. It is a common misconception that any device starts working very quickly if equipped with the best and highest quality SD card. It often happens that a gadget, especially a budget one, does not even recognize the presence of a USB flash drive in the connector. This is due to the incompatibility between the device and the drive.

That is why it is worth familiarizing yourself with the standards of flash drives:

• MicroSD - the presented format appeared earlier than the others. It forms the basis for SDHC and SDXC. Suitable for all kinds of digital devices as long as they support SD, SDXC, SDHC formats. However, gradually this standard is becoming less popular and widespread, as it offers a small volume (up to 4 GB). Works on the FAT16 file system and the speed of 12.5 Mb / s.
• MicroSDHC is a high-capacity standard. It is currently considered the most common. For a tablet or smartphone, this type of memory card is perfect. Provides up to 64 GB of free space. If your device was released before 2008, chances are it won't recognize the drive. It works in the FAT32 system, and the baud rate is the same as the first standard.
• MicroSDXC is the most capacious flash drive format, providing the user with 2 TB (maximum value). It makes no sense to purchase it for old (before 2010) or budget devices. In addition, if your device only supports the SD format, then the memory card will not work with it either, since it is based on a completely different file system - exFAT. Requires SDXC compatibility. The data transfer speed is twice as high - 25 Mb / s. How do you know if the standard is suitable for your device? Look for the "SDXC" logo on it.

If you are wondering what capacity to choose a memory card for a smartphone, then it all depends on how you plan to use the device. For example, fans of movies, TV shows and gamers will need at least 16 GB of free space. And if you only rarely listen to music, take photos and store documents (books), then 8 GB is more than enough. There is simply no point in overpaying for a larger volume.

Thus, choose the flash drive that is right for your smartphone, tablet or other device. To do this, find out the standards it supports. If you need a memory card for your camera, most of them support SD varieties - SDHC or SDCX. All this is indicated in the device parameters.

Memory card classes

When choosing an SD card for a phone or other device, you need to pay attention to its class.It depends on it how fast the speed of writing and reading data will be.
The following classes can be found:

1. Class 2 - has the lowest speed of 2 Mb / s. For modern smartphones and tablets, such a memory card is not suitable, since the data flow in them is simply huge. But you can install this option in a photo frame or MP3 player, its capabilities will be enough.
2. Class 4 is quite common, but has several disadvantages. The data transfer speed is 4 Mb / s, which is not the most suitable indicator for a gadget. In addition, users often experience unstable operation of this class. Nevertheless, if your device belongs to the budget segment, problems with a flash drive will probably not arise.
3. Class 6 - transfers data at a speed of 6 Mb / s. This indicator is considered to be quite suitable and the most common among users. Choose an SD card for a smartphone of this class: the speed is good, the work is stable, and the cost of such a flash drive is not much more expensive.
4. Class 10 - for using a mobile device, the presence of such a memory card with a speed of 10 Mb / s will be preferable only for those who will install games on their devices, since they need a good read speed, otherwise there will be slowdowns. In general, you won't feel any difference between 10th and 6th grade if you use the card to store photos or music. This class of memory card has proven itself well in action cameras and DVRs that shoot in Full HD. Of course, the cost of such a flash drive is appropriate, so there is no point in overpaying.
5. UHC Speed ​​Class is the most rare class of the drive. In theory, it can read and write data at a speed of 321 MB / s, but so far only 30 MB / s has been achieved. In the future, such memory cards will probably replace all other classes, but so far only a few gadgets support working with them.

To find out which class a microSD card belongs to, take a close look at it: the number is usually indicated inside the "C" symbol.

Which company to choose a memory card

There are a lot of flash drive manufacturers and it is rather difficult to figure out which memory card to choose for your smartphone. In general, there are three main companies that specialize in the development and manufacture of drives. We are talking about Transcend, Kingston and SanDisk. Which of these companies you prefer is not so important, since each of them has an excellent reputation and issues guarantees for their products. The only thing when choosing a flash drive is to avoid models on which the manufacturer is not indicated at all. As a rule, they are sold in cell phone stores and are called by their own names. For example, this is often found in the MTS network. And since you cannot find out anything about the manufacturer, then there can be no question of high quality.

The best memory cards for smartphones

1. SanDisk Ultra Class 10 32GB
2. Samsung microSDHC EVO Plus 16 GB
3. Kingston SDC4 16GB
4. Sandisk extreme
5. Transcend TS2GUSD
6. ADATA Premier microSDHC Class 10 8gb
7. Kingston SDCA10 64GB
8. ADATA Premier microSDHC Class 10 16GB
9. Transcend TS 16GB

Conclusion

After reading our tips and tricks, you can easily figure out how to choose a good memory card for your smartphone, and you can certainly make the right choice. It is also worth adding that try not to rely too much on the opinion of the seller offering you one or another option. You must first familiarize yourself with the information about your device. And in the process of buying a memory card, carefully study its characteristics, purpose, manufacturer. Based on all the information received, make a choice in favor of the best option.