How to Determine the Best SD Card for Your Needs

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Maximum Read Speed – This is the maximum sequential read speed the memory card is capable of in Mega Bytes per second (MB/sec). Please note that write speeds are rarely ever published on memory cards and you will need to find that information in memory card manual or listed specifications. In this case, the maximum read speed of the SD card is 300 MB/sec. Type of SD Memory Card – You should also be able to locate the proprietary SD card logos on memory card labels that indicate whether the card is of SD, SDHC or SDXC type. In this particular case, it is an SDXC memory card. UHS Bus Speed – UHS bus speed is also often published directly on memory card labels. If it is a UHS-I card, you will just see roman numeral one (I), whereas if it is a UHS-II card, you will see roman numeral two (II), as in the case of the above card. SD Speed Class – This number indicates what SD Speed Class card it is, per table above. As in the above case, all modern SD cards should be rated at 10 minimum, which guarantees minimum sequential write speed of 10 MB/sec. UHS Speed Class – Aside from UHS bus speed, you will also typically find a UHS speed class label. In this particular example, I can see that the card is rated at minimum 30 MB/sec write speed, thanks to this U3 label. Memory Card Capacity – The capacity of the memory card is typically displayed in large numbers. As can be seen here, this memory card has a total capacity of 128 GB.

Please see the following charts regarding picture, video and music storage. Please note these are not exact numbers and 'your mileage may vary' depending on use:

Pictures by megapixels by storage size

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3 types of SD Cards are standard sized, mini and micro. Standard is used for computer sd card readers and digital cameras, micro is used for phones tablets and most other portable electronics. Mini is not used

Full SD: This is a full-sized SD card and is generally used for computer SD Card readers and digital cameras/video recorders as they tend to have the fastest read/write speed.

Mini SD: This is rarely used but some devices still accept mini SD cards. Please refer to your device's user manual if you suspect your device accepts mini SD cards.

Micro SD: The most commonly used type of SD card outside of digital photography as most phones and tablets use this type of SD card. If you are in doubt, have no fear: most micro SD cards come with adapters you can use to make it fit other devices as shown below:

This is a picture of a micro sd card being inserted into a full size SD card adapter

How to Determine the Best SD Card for Your Needs

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