[NicolasB]

If I want to buy a 16GB micro-SD card, do I need to worry about which one I get, or are they all effectively the same? Are there different makes and, if so, are some more reliable or even faster than others?

[jazzishot]

Name brands for sure are more reliable. Be wary though as lot of fakes floating out there as well that look pretty bloody good, but don't work as bloody good!!

Google fake sd card and see how many hits you get! I'd suggest you buy from a reputable dealer/high street shop.

Hope that helps.

[RandomLee]

I agree with Jazzishot. There's so many fakes for sale online it's really worth the couple of extra quid from a reputable seller to know you're getting a legit product (I would even be dubious about some of the traders on Amazon).

Fakes aside, apart from capacity more money usually means faster transfer speeds. A fast card will usually mean a faster phone, although check what your phone can handle as some can't take advantage of super fast cards (although some CAN, despite it not being specified).

On to brands, definitely avoid unbranded cards. Chances are they will be slow and unreliable.

SanDisk Ultra micro-SD are decent, and what I will probably buy myself when I upgrade the memory in own phone. They're not cheap but they have decent transfer speeds and I believe they come with a 5 year warranty.

SanDisk do make cheaper cards, but they will be slower. Some noticeably, some not so.

Kingston are another well known brand, but as with SanDisk there are fast one and slow ones... and they're another brand that you will find many fakes of.

Lexar are another known brand, but I had one die on me in my old PSP so I won't recommend those. Others might have had better experiences with them though.

Did you get a phone in the end btw, or are you still mulling it over?

[NicolasB]

Originally Posted by RandomLee

Did you get a phone in the end btw, or are you still mulling it over?

I bought an HTC Touch Pro 2 on eBay. (It hasn't got here yet). I've also ordered a £20 a month rolling-contract SIM from O2. I think there's a fairly high chance I'll be upgrading the phone this side of Christmas, so that gives me plenty of flexibility. Got an okay deal on the TP2 (£310 shipped) and I'm hoping it might still be worth £250 by Christmas.

Getting back to micro-SD cards - how do I tell which are the fast ones and which are the slow ones?

Like, for example, there's this cheap one from CCL (who are a quite large, legitimate dealer of PC components):

Buy 16GB Dane-Elec Micro SD Card*DA-SDMC-16GB-R from CCL - Online Retailer of the Year 2008, 2007 & 2006 for laptops, desktops and computer hardware

I'm guessing that's a slower model, but what about it tells me that? What does the "class 2" part mean?

They also do two different Kingston ones, both of which are "class 4" and described as "micro SDHC" - is that something different?

[RandomLee]

That's cool you settled on something, sounds like a cracking handset and a decent price too. I'll no doubt see you in the HTC section then

Check this site out too, I discovered it yesterday: HTCPedia.com - An Online Encyclopedia for HTC Users

Back to memory... the class dictates the minimum transfer speed.

Check here for a better explanation than I can give. Explains SDHC too:

Secure Digital card - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SD & Micro SD Memory Card Buyer's Guide

Never heard of Dane-Elec before, but the reviews seem good enough and it's a nice price:

Dane-Elec DNL DA2IN116GR 16GB microSDHC Memory Card in Secure Digital Memory Cards at JR.com

[NicolasB]

So is one of these going to be a good buy...?

dabs.com - Trancend 16GB Micro SDHC Card (TS16GUSDHC6)

Can't find very many that say they're class 6....

[RandomLee]

Class 6 is as fast as you can get I think.

Again, Trancend are a known brand however I have had no experience of them myself.

You have to weigh up price versus speed really. Is having the fastest performing card worth paying top dollar? Or can you live with slightly slower card for less money?

I always buy fast CF cards for my DSLR camera as you really do notice the difference, however I'm not sure how much benefit you would see in a phone. Perhaps an idea might be to ask on a HTC forum (or here if there's a TP2 thread) to see if anyone has done any tests with different class cards in a Touch Pro 2.

[NicolasB]

If going to a class 6 card really means that I can transfer at 6MB/s instead if 4 or 2 then I would say it's definitely worth it - but whether the phone itself is capable of writing fast enough to keep up with a class 6 device is a whole other question.

I'll post something over at XDA developers, maybe they can help....

[RandomLee]

That's the question... can the phone take them?

I've been looking into what class the Hero supports too.

[NicolasB]

Over on XDA Developers I've been specifically warned off the Transcend card, as it apparently causes problems with the TP2!

So if I want a class 6 card I think it'll have to be one of these:

SDSDQY-016G-E11M Sandisk 16GB Mobile Ultra Micro SD

General feeling seems to be that the phone won't benefit much from anything beyond class 4, if that, but that it will be faster for dumping lots of files directly onto the card from a PC.

Also the class only affects write speed, not read-speed.

[justdoit]

I've used a 1GB Dane Elec SD card for about 4 years now,bought funnily enought from CCL (cost about £50 back then too ) and had no problems with it other than obv its old hat and too small nowadays.