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does (sd-card) speed really matter ? ....

hi all
i'm using pdas for many years now, and always bought high quality over low price. same with sd-cards. if i can get a class6 device for a few euros more i would prefer that. but to come to the question: does it really matter? is a faster card really worth it? is class2 fast enough (regarding the internal sd-card interface of the pda?). i never really saw a big difference in every day use between fast and slow cards. and tools like pocket mechanic NEVER showed speeds close to the theoretical maximum of the card.
so what do you think ...
regards ize|man

Hi
Fast cards worth the money but they must be stable too....
Bye
Jorge

The trick is getting a card that works and is stable in your pda, AND able to read & quickly transfer data with your PC/card reader (need this for transfering movies/mp3s etc). In my opinion the speed is more benificial on the PC side.

my personal experience with sandisk ultra II is that it worked for 2 weeks then got currupted. so i swapped it for sandisk standard & that was 6 months ago, no probs since!

High speed SD card
Sorry for late answer, this is my first post in this forum.
If I can help....
I use everyday Tomtom 6 GPS and I was not very happy of the speed it was working. I tried a 2 Gb high speed (70x) and installed Tomtom in it. What a difference ! The soft was fast and I thought the all PDA too !
Might Helpful for you...

Need to match PDA and memory card ...
I had an issue with any media player misbehaving, and try as I may could not get any music to play without skipping.
Finally I tracked it down to slow memory, namely of the Kingston variety. Having changed the Kingston mini4GB class 4 memory to Sandisk micro8GB class 4 memory all my media player problems seems to have gone away.
I was on the brink of flashing to a WM lite version under mis-belief that it would help. Also I thought of doing some extensive regedits to increase the memory access priority to the card etc. but it seems a more simple solution was at hand.
Match the memory card to the PDA

Yes, I've been using the Sandisk micro8GB class 4 for a few months now. Working brilliantly!

Noony said:
Yes, I've been using the Sandisk micro8GB class 4 for a few months now. Working brilliantly!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually, the same for me - i also have the 8 Gb microsdhc class 4 and it works like a charm - much better than previous "fast" minisd from mobymemory.
Still, i am never able to use them correctly under my PC - despite the fact i use a SDHC compliant USB adapter...

Definitely worth the money. I used to use a regular 2G miniSD, lately I replaced it with a Nokia 8G micro SDHC class6 (with mini adapter). Much faster and more stable.

Bluetooth quality?

Just wanted to see what the bluetooth quality/reliablilty is with the Polaris.
I bought a Tytn II from Mobile planet and it was the worst for me with a bluetooth headset, it constantly disconected and was completely unreliable, so much so that I sent it back.
I was also unimpressed with the qualcom CPU finding it quite sluggish and generally slow for any application, especially TomTom6.
Just wanted to see what you guys thought.
G

I have no issues with bluetooth. It works fine with my headset, laptop, and another cellphone.
The speed of Tomtom navigation is not so much an HTC issue as well as the tranferspeed of MicroSD card. I have a MIO A201 and replaced the 2Gb SD card with a ultraspeed 22,5 MB/sec which improved the performence of Tomtom. Considering that I use now an 8Gb MicroSD Class 4 on thye HTC Cruise (Polaris) means that the transfer speed is only 4 MB/sec and, therefore, has an inpact on the performance of Tomtom.
Alex.

---Alex--- said:
I have no issues with bluetooth. It works fine with my headset, laptop, and another cellphone.
The speed of Tomtom navigation is not so much an HTC issue as well as the tranferspeed of MicroSD card. I have a MIO A201 and replaced the 2Gb SD card with a ultraspeed 22,5 MB/sec which improved the performence of Tomtom. Considering that I use now an 8Gb MicroSD Class 4 on thye HTC Cruise (Polaris) means that the transfer speed is only 4 MB/sec and, therefore, has an inpact on the performance of Tomtom.
Alex.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im sure it has more then 4mb/s.
class 4 means only that 4mb/s is guaranteed, even class 2 crads can reach up to 20mb/s.

Thank you for your response with respect to the transfer speed , can you put a link to the information about transfer speed. I only found that class 4 provides 4MB/sec and class 6 provides 6MB/sec.

there was somewhere a review about various sd cards in this forum, if i find it again ill post it.

With the same card reader I was able to write the same data (2MB) 3 times faster to my ultraspeed 22,5 MB/sec SD card than the MicroSD class 4 card.

I contacted Scandisk who confirmed that the MicroSD class 4 card can reach a maximum transfer speed of 9MB/sec Write and 10MB/sec read, which confirms my statement that it slows down the performance of Tomtom.

---Alex--- said:
I contacted Scandisk who confirmed that the MicroSD class 4 card can reach a maximum transfer speed of 9MB/sec Write and 10MB/sec read, which confirms my statement that it slows down the performance of Tomtom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The current batch of SanDisk 6 and 8GB Class 4 microSD are very fast card. Despite the "Class 4" category, it is capable of sustained read speed of 20MB/s and write speed of 15MB/s.
You can check the test results here which has 6GB Class 4. Do note that the 8GB Class 4 has similar performance, but NOT 4GB Class 4. The 4GB Class 4 is a much slower card.
http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/index.html#speed-by-cards-sdu.html
And be aware that this speed may not be true for future batches.

nosnoop said:
The current batch of SanDisk 6 and 8GB Class 4 microSD are very fast card. Despite the "Class 4" category, it is capable of sustained read speed of 20MB/s and write speed of 15MB/s.
You can check the test results here which has 6GB Class 4. Do note that the 8GB Class 4 has similar performance, but NOT 4GB Class 4. The 4GB Class 4 is a much slower card.
http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/index.html#speed-by-cards-sdu.html
And be aware that this speed may not be true for future batches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I asked Tech. Support of Sandisk specific for the MicroSD 8GB class 4.
I wonder why this tech guy gave me less transfer speed ratings than specified in your link.

bluetooth problem
My bluetooth headset H700 motorola does'nt work fine with my touch cruise.
it disconnects after a few secondes when i have a call.
The headset works fine with another phones
I reinstall headset et reset touch cruise, always the same problem.
I need help.
thanks for reply.
jlgre

jlgre said:
My bluetooth headset H700 motorola does'nt work fine with my touch cruise.
it disconnects after a few secondes when i have a call.
The headset works fine with another phones
I reinstall headset et reset touch cruise, always the same problem.
I need help.
thanks for reply.
jlgre
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try using btio http://www.silentservices.de/btIO.html and jetware http://www.jetwaremobile.com/install.htm worked for me.

Take a look at this thread. It may help you out
http://www.jetwaremobile.com/
T

Micro SD Problem VOX/S710

i've recently got my hands on a VOX/s710 phone
my last phone before this used micro SD cards, it was a nokia
when i try to put my nokia micro SD into my VOX, it doesnt recognize, but, as soon as i put it on a nokia, other phones like a palm, etc, it recognizes
is there a problem between nokia branded micro SD cards with HTC?
i tried another brand of micro SD and it worked perfectly
any ideas?
cheers

Initially I tried a NOKIA micro SD card with my Vox and it worked fine.

hum, tks for the reply
so no clues at what the problem might be?
guess if i dont resolve this, ill have to buy another micro SD card

May be, you give a try by formatting the card using a card reader from a Windows PC. That might help.

Yes, make a backup and format to FAT32 (also useful if you want to flash from sd card)! Then put your files back on the card and try again!

thanks for the tips
fortunately, i dont have any indispensable information on the microSD card, i didnt use it a lot, since it was a 1G card, and i had a 2G on my older nokia.
i'm going to try and format it and then post the result hopefully it will work
but since i dont have a memory card reader right now, im gonna try and put it on my old nokia, connect it to the pc and try to format it from there, or format it from inside the nokia phone.
ill figure out something
thanks again for the tips
cheers
=========
tks for the tip tryed it right now, and now its working fine
many thanks both of you for the help!

I have 2 GB microsd card installed. Is it possible to install a 4Gb card or more? Who tried? Does it support SDHC?
Funny thing, I've got an answer from htc support, they say 2Gb is the only possible amount supported

Katik said:
I have 2 GB microsd card installed. Is it possible to install a 4Gb card or more? Who tried? Does it support SDHC?
Funny thing, I've got an answer from htc support, they say 2Gb is the only possible amount supported
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont know exactly how to do it search the forum, but i know that there is a thread that says that partion 4gb (using WM5torage that thread tells how to) and then you can use it.

the vox supports SDHC microSD up to 8Gb, found this in www.pocketpc.ch (will post the link l8 when back on my pc).
i'm using a sandisk SDHC 4Gb fat32 formatted, works perfect! i will buy a 8Gb soon and post the results here .
edit: http://www.pocketpc.ch/htc-s710/39075-8-gb-micro-sd-htc-s710-moeglich.html the forum is in german there....

remembered to post this note, after fomarting the sd card, it worked well
just another question though, you guys are talking about 4 and 8 gigs sd cards
doesnt having a much bigger sd card slow down the phone? i've heard of such rumours but never got the chance to tested myself, and since i'm willing to make a sd upgrade i would like to know if its better to stick with a 1 gig or 2 gigs sd card, or i can go ahead and get a 4 or 8 gigs?
cheers

so, finally i bought this fine 8Gb microSDHC from sandisk, and i works just perfect.
artilheiro.mz said:
just another question though, you guys are talking about 4 and 8 gigs sd cards
doesnt having a much bigger sd card slow down the phone? i've heard of such rumours but never got the chance to tested myself, and since i'm willing to make a sd upgrade i would like to know if its better to stick with a 1 gig or 2 gigs sd card, or i can go ahead and get a 4 or 8 gigs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i never tried with a 1 or 2Gb card, so there i cannot say. but on the otherhand i did not remark an diffrence of speed with the 4 or 8Gb card, they're just as fast as usual (in cellular device or in pc with cardreader). the only thing i can say, is that cards from cheap(er) brands are always slower than cards from quality brands (such as sandisk, as example). and also SDHC cards should always be faster than 1 or 2Gb cards, because they have a newer controllers (not 100% sure about this point, i think i might have read that in c't).
i hope i could help a little bit...

Dang, 8GB cards work without driver patching? That is champion. I'll be ordering myself one soon.

Yep, can confirm 8gb card works fine, have had one in mine for some months now...
Now what about 16gb? was that article written before 16's were available even the sandisk site seems to be out of date saying nokias that are supposed to support 16's only support 8?
anyone actually confirmed 16's don't work?

Katik said:
I have 2 GB microsd card installed. Is it possible to install a 4Gb card or more? Who tried? Does it support SDHC?
Funny thing, I've got an answer from htc support, they say 2Gb is the only possible amount supported
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, i am using a Sandisk 4GB micro Sd without any problems.

@ zarn:
have a look at General discussion > Accessories > 16 and 32GB MicroSDHC test
JayRayMee.NL said:
16GB will be available in Q4.
32GB somewhere in the first half of next year.
Pricing unknown, but I guess that 16GB will have an intro price of something like € 100,00.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess we have to wait some time to test it
at work, some weeks ago, i discussed this with a dev. and he meant that from the hardware side it should be no problem, but maybe the driver needs to be updated. i'm not sure, but as i know the driver adds support for sdhc, no matter of the size of the card. he's not a sys dev, he does apps and branding, i'm only test-ex and advanved user, so correct me if i'm wrong (i'm still learning ).
edit: found following on http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-sdhc-cards.htm
The new 2.00 specification should last a bit longer, as it allows SDHC cards to reach a maximum capacity of 32GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so i think, if the device supports that specification (and the vox does), it should support cards up to 32Gb.
and again some info about speed:
The SDHC specification 2.00 calls for cards to be classified according to the minimal sustained DTS as follows:
Class 2: minimum sustained DTS of 2MB/sec
Class 4: minimum sustained DTS of 4MB/sec
Class 6: minimum sustained DTS of 6MB/sec
SDHC cards are classified to guarantee a specific sustained DTS. This potentially saves consumers money, as flash cards are priced not only according to capacity, but also to speed. For example, if a product's maximum DTS is 2MB/sec, dishing out extra cash for Class 4 or Class 6 SDHC cards would be a waste of money. Conversely, devices that can utilize the 4MB/sec or 6MB/sec DTR (i guess the author meant DTS, kel187) will perform significantly better with Class 4 or Class 6 SDHC cards, respectively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my 4Gb card is Class 2 and my 8Gb is Class 4. i did not recognized any diffrences in speed advantages, neither on the mobile nor on the pc. so the vox and my cardreader must be class 2 devices, what a pitty ^^

[Q] Slow/Poor micro-sd performance

Hi, i bought some days ago an 8GB class 10 micro sd card, hoping it would speed up my phone (i was using app2sd+ with Kyrillo's ROM v7.1).
I didn't notice any diference compared to my old 4GB class 2 card, so i installed SD Tools app to test the speeds, and i realized all the cards i put in my phone get 4MB/s as the maximun write speed, i tried many different sd cards, class 2 and 10 and there's no difference. Then i tried the same cards in my girlfriend's Galaxy Ace and the speeds were much higher, 7~12 MB/s write speed.
I thought it was a rom problem, so i backed up with Titanium Backup and flashed a stock ROM (JPM), but the speeds remain the same (around 4 MB/s for writing), i also tried changing the buffer size from 128kb to 1024, 2048, 4096 with "SD Booster" and "SD Speed Increase" apps, but no good results...
Could my phone be faulty?
Is there any configuration i can try to make my sd card faster? any command line?
What are the speeds you reach with "SD Tools" and classes of your SD card?
Best Regards!

I'm not sure, but I think there's nothing you can do....
Mine is a 16GB class 6 and it's the same, whatever I try. Before had 8GB - was the same.
Whatever I wrote into the 'read ahead buffer'...
But maybe anyone else has an idea?

Try changing the buffer to 0 as sometimes that works.
Sent from my GT-I5800 using XDA App

dilzo said:
Try changing the buffer to 0 as sometimes that works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TNX for the tip, but unfortunately SAME RESULT...

i also get the same speeds..
i think thats a bug with sd tools.
By the way has any one tried data2sd/apps2sd v3? do you face lags?
also do you people have SD or SDHC

I belive that sdtools has a bug. Or is seriously faulty. I have 16GB class 2 sdcard and sdtools claims that my read and write speeds are equivavlent to class 6 card (values range from 6.x/6.x to 8.x/7.x, write/read, respectively (depending on read_ahead_kb values). And I know for a fact that this really cheap sdcard does not have such performance. You can try antutu benchmark, free app on market, which provides a bit more accurate results plus you can select what to benchmark. My card gets 3.0MB/s read and 2.0 MB/s write with default buffer values. Which is more accurate than sdtools. Especially because disks (any kind) usually have higher read rate than write rate (because it is easier to read data than to write it and 'cause we usually perform much more reading than writing, so it is optimized for read operations).

mrvek said:
I belive that sdtools has a bug. Or is seriously faulty. I have 16GB class 2 sdcard and sdtools claims that my read and write speeds are equivavlent to class 6 card (values range from 6.x/6.x to 8.x/7.x, write/read, respectively (depending on read_ahead_kb values). And I know for a fact that this really cheap sdcard does not have such performance. You can try antutu benchmark, free app on market, which provides a bit more accurate results plus you can select what to benchmark. My card gets 3.0MB/s read and 2.0 MB/s write with default buffer values. Which is more accurate than sdtools. Especially because disks (any kind) usually have higher read rate than write rate (because it is easier to read data than to write it and 'cause we usually perform much more reading than writing, so it is optimized for read operations).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
antutu give me 3.x and 4.x for write and read speed respectively!!
8gb class 10

That is odd. Do you have a card reader? Maybe you can bench from pc and see the results. I have only 2 sdcards, both class 2 and the results I get are to be expected from class 2 cards. There is also possibility that it is a low quality component. If you feel like it try to investigate, get cards info like serial, model and manufacturer and see what you'll discover. Nowadays people are selling everything claiming it to be a better than actually is. I remember reading tests regarding SD 's where they said that same card type from same manufacturer performed about 10 times worse just because one was.made in China and the other in taiwan, or something like that. I personally would do some research but it's up to you.

mrvek said:
That is odd. Do you have a card reader? Maybe you can bench from pc and see the results. I have only 2 sdcards, both class 2 and the results I get are to be expected from class 2 cards. There is also possibility that it is a low quality component. If you feel like it try to investigate, get cards info like serial, model and manufacturer and see what you'll discover. Nowadays people are selling everything claiming it to be a better than actually is. I remember reading tests regarding SD 's where they said that same card type from same manufacturer performed about 10 times worse just because one was.made in China and the other in taiwan, or something like that. I personally would do some research but it's up to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i did a bench mark from laptop's card reader.. it was way over 18 mbps.. cancelled the benchmark in the process as it was taking too long.. but half way read speed was definitely above 18mbps.. Also my sdhc's manufacturer is transcend. I hope this company wont betray us!!

well, in that case it might have to do with phone configuration/programming. Maybe devs could figure out why the phone does not utilize full potential of the sdcard. Perhaps low ram, (relatively) "slow" cpu, something...

mrvek said:
well, in that case it might have to do with phone configuration/programming. Maybe devs could figure out why the phone does not utilize full potential of the sdcard. Perhaps low ram, (relatively) "slow" cpu, something...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point. Hope some dev is listening!!

I have the same problem.
Samsung Galaxy 3 GT-i5800, Android Froyo firmware v2.2 build XWJPL.
I tested with two class 10 microSD cards, quality ones, but got poor transfer rates.
card1: Transcend 8GB MicroSDHC Class10 (TS8GUSDHC10) - up to 20 Mb/s
card2: Samsung 8GB SDHC Plus Class10 (MB-MP8GA/EU) - Read max. 24 Mb/s, Write max 21 Mb/s
Samsung 8GB cl10 test result (SD Tools app): Write: 4.4 Mb/s; Read 5.1 Mb/s
The card write speed should be higher than 10 Mb/s

SD card class to get?

I've been reading that the higher class SDHC cards like class 6, 10 aren't great for random write access, small blocks, but since we run our OS/apps on the phone's internal memory and we don't do the A2SD+ stuff, should it be ok to use class 10 cards?
Or does android still do a lot of significant random access on SD cards for the sensation?

Class 10!
I use a 32GB class 10 with nearly all my apps stored on there. I don't suffer and read / write lag. All I'd say is you get what you pay for, so don't buy a cheap one

I understand but do you know if the OS does the random r/w on sdcard? I'm not running any a2sd for my apps or anything so AFAIK I could run my phone without an SD card...

well since gingerbread came out app2sd is integrated into the OS, so you can transfer your apps to your SD card or they can be internally stored
just go to settings>applications>manage applications then tap into any app (thats not a system app) and you can move it to your SD card o to the phone

?????
I'm not asking about transferring apps to SD card?!
I'm asking if the random read/write access matters since our OS and apps are on the internal 4GB memory of the phone. Does the OS use the sdcard for any operations at all?

i read somewhere in the forums that class 4 will suffice. class 10 suits those HD camcorders as the write speed is high. if i'm not wrong, the read speed is the same for all (don't blame me if i'm wrong though)

I'm actually also wondering about this. Since the sensation can record 1080p, does that mean we need a fast writing card for our phone?

I have just bought a 32GB class 4 Sandisk micro SD (£28.99 Ebay) and i have no problems at all recording video at [email protected] Mbps. It may seem slightly jerky when you are actually filming on screen but when you play it back its smmmooottthhh!! Don't buy cheap memory cards. YOU WILL REGRET IT and waste your hard earned cash!! Just a personal experience warning.

adamlayzell69 said:
I have just bought a 32GB class 4 Sandisk micro SD (£28.99 Ebay) and i have no problems at all recording video at [email protected] Mbps. It may seem slightly jerky when you are actually filming on screen but when you play it back its smmmooottthhh!! Don't buy cheap memory cards. YOU WILL REGRET IT and waste your hard earned cash!! Just a personal experience warning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. I have a 32gb class 4 sandisk and also a 32gb class 10 lexar and both record perfectly fine (smooth recording and playback). I'm using Amaze Cam v7 with 16mb bitrate. So if it can record and playback (via connecting to USB to computer and playing on PC) smoothly, then it is more than fast enough to run the apps and constant writing apps.

nonione said:
well since gingerbread came out app2sd is integrated into the OS, so you can transfer your apps to your SD card or they can be internally stored
just go to settings>applications>manage applications then tap into any app (thats not a system app) and you can move it to your SD card o to the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was actually Froyo that bright A 2SD, mate!
Sent from my Sensation using xda premium

I ordered Lexar 32gb class 10 card from Amazon Tigerdirect seller for 48$... Will get it in couple of Weeks... I think class 10 is good fir sensation and is also future proof...
Spending once is better then spending twice later...