The Argument
There is always an argument between speed and capacity of a MicroSD card. Many people told me that I’ve bought an expensive MicroSD card, but they fail to realise that capacity of a MicroSD card is not the only factor for consideration. So what if you managed to get a 16GB MicroSD card at 12.50SGD and I got mine at 35SGD? A slow MicroSD card can significantly slow down the usage of the whole smartphone/camera because of its slow data transfer speeds between the host device and the MicroSD card. As applications become more data consuming, so are the needs of having a fast MicroSD Card to quickly complete a data transfer job. So stop whining, as my MicroSD Card is probably 4 times faster.
Introduction to Review
Today, we are going to take a look at the new SanDisk Extreme MicroSD card which are targeted at extreme users who want to transfer files quickly between their MicroSD card and host device. I am referring to users who want to capture Full HD videos or take photos in burst mode and have a seamless experience on their devices.
The SanDisk Extreme MicroSD card comes in 3 capacities, namely 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. They have faster write speeds as capacity increases. We have a 16GB model for test today and we take a look at how much difference there actually is when compared to a mainstream budget 16GB Class 4 MicroSD Card.
Test Setup
AMD 8350FX 4GHz
ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 Motherboard
Samsung Black Knight 1600MHz RAM
Xigmatek Accessor Ultimate Card Reader (USB 3.0)
SanDisk Extreme MicroSD Card 16GB
SanDisk Class 4 MicroSD Card 16GB
Benchmark Results
In ATTO disk benchmark, we saw the Class 10 Extreme MicroSD card from SanDisk simply smothering its little brother. Both read and write speeds are through the roof. Write speeds are about 6 times faster and read speeds are about 4 times faster. For a start, this benchmark shows you how nasty a SanDisk Extreme MicroSD card is in terms of speeds as compared to a usual Class 4 MicroSD card.
Other than synthetic benchmarks, we also put both MicroSD cards to the test with a real-world benchmark application. I simulated the transfer of a 1080P video with a size of 1.8GB from my Hard Drive to the MicroSD card and vice versa.
The results had shown that there was a very significant difference on the write speeds of the SanDisk Extreme MicroSD as compared to the Class 4 MicroSD. We were getting 31.2MB/s speeds transferring the file to SanDisk Extreme, while only 5.3MB/s on the Class 4. Of course, time taken to transfer the files were 5-6 times faster. The transfer of the movie file to Extreme 2 only took less than 6 seconds while Class 4 took a miserable 32 seconds. Imagine how much time you can save for file transfers if your file sizes were huge?
As for the read speeds, both MicroSD cards faired similarly, but of course, write speeds are more important to tell a fast memory card to a slow one as read speeds have already reached a decent mark for most microSDs.
Conclusion – The truth
Speeds are equally important. Currently in the market, the most budget and mainstream MicroSD cards are rated to be Class 4 where transfer speeds are almost mediocre (rated at 4MB/s) and mostly targeted at users who just want to use it as a storage flash card. However, if you are taking Full HD videos or high megapixel photos, there is definitely a need to get a faster MicroSD Card. If you have a device that is capable of fully utilising a Class 10 card and you saddle up a Class 4, you will impair its functionality. In a camera, this means that it will slow down how quickly you can take the next photo because it takes up a lot of time just saving the photos onto the MicroSD Card. That is why if you fall within the category of user mentioned above, you SHOULD get the a MicroSD card with similar speeds like the SanDisk Extreme MicroSDs.
SanDisk Extreme microSDHC cards are available worldwide now and on www.sandisk.com in 16GB to 64GB capacities carrying MSRPs of SGD35 to SGD135. It also comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
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