The storage your phone came with is just not cutting it anymore. You need more space for more apps, pictures, videos, etc. Memory cards, also referred to as SD cards, are always a good investment when it comes to protecting your information and providing better performance on an Android Smartphone.
Before you go ahead and just buy an SD card for your Android phone, you should know which SD Card is the best for your Android Device. Here are some things to keep in mind.
Capacity
The capacity of SD cards varies. The two main types of SD card are SDHC and SDXC. Both offer different capacity ranges.If you just want extra space for your pictures and video then you should be OK with an SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) MicroSD card. This card can store files from that up anywhere between 2GB to 23GB in size.
The SDXC (Secure Digital Extended Capacity), on the other hand, can store between 32GB to 2TB.
Many lower-end devices don't support SDXC microSD cards, so it's crucial that you check your phone's compatibility before buying one.
Speed
Once you choose a card capacity, it's time to choose its speed. The speed class of your card determines to its minimum transfer speed and refers how quickly it can write data. When you're working with video, or burst of photos, the faster the better.Here’s how the minimum speeds for different classes of SD cards break down.
• Class 10 SD cards have a minimum read/write speed of 10MB/s
• Class 6 SD cards have a minimum read/write speed of 6MB/s
• Class 4 SD cards have a minimum read/write speed of 4 MB/s
• Class 2 SD cards have a minimum read/write speed of 2 MB/s
SD cards also come as UHS-1 and UHS-3 (Ultra High Speed) class but not many smartphones are compatible with UHS yet.
Size
As technology advances devices seem to be getting smaller and smaller. The same goes with memory cards. SD cards come in three sizes, SD, miniSD and microSD. Before buying a card, you will need to know which size will fit your phone.• Standard SD cards are the largest and measure 32x24x2.1mm
• miniSD cards are slightly smaller and measure 21.5x20x1.4mm
• microSD cards are the smallest and measure a mere 15x11x1mm
With use of a memory card adapter you can even use the micro SD and micro SDHC cards as regular SD Cards or Mini SD Cards or even Memory Stick Pro Duo Cards. So keep that in mind as well, the Micro SD is the newer and smaller technology and with the help of an adapter can be used on older devices.
Will a better microSD card speed up my phone?
The most important question is whether picking one microSD card over another will improve performance on your phone, to which the short answer is 'yes'.If you store apps and photos on your microSD card (what else would you use it for?), then a higher-speed microSD card will save photos faster, improve data transfer speeds when moving files between devices, and open apps stored on your microSD card more quickly. Note that opening apps on microSD cards may be a bit slower than if you store them on your phone's internal memory, because there's an extra layer of communication between your phone and micro SD card that needs to be carried out.
What Card Video Addicts Should Get
If you mainly want an SD card for all those videos you record, then the best card you can get is a Class 10. Class 10 is suitable for full HD recording and continuous HD recording, Class 4 and 6 is also good for HD.Remember to check your device’s minimum requirements. If your device needs a card with a 50x and you buy one with a 40x, then the card is not going to work properly. If you have a phone that can record in 4K the best card you can get is a UHS Class card.
What Card a Photo Addict Should Get
If the only reason you’re getting an SD card is to make room for more pictures, then focus on the storage of the card. If you take a lot of Raw images then the high the capacity SD card is a better choice for you. One raw image is about 25MB in size.By getting a 16GB card, you’re going to be able to store about 650 pictures. So, if you know you’re going to take more RAW images than that, you know that 16GB is not enough.