MicroSD cards are small removable storage devices used for storing personal data and other improtant documents. MicroSD stands for Micro Secure Digital card. It come in two types: HC (High Capacity) and XC (Extended Capacity). The difference between these two types is their storage capacity. Normaly, MicroSDHC ranges between 2GB to 32GB but MicroSDXC can reach up to 1TB of capacity. These SD cards can be used in many of devices such as smartphone, Nintendo Switch Console, drones and all those devices which comes with SD card slot.

I have noticed a lot of people having hard time choosing right microsd card for their smart devices. So here are the 4 points which you should keep in mind before purchasing a memory card.

Speed

The speed of the card is very important in many applications as it indicates the data transfer speed of the device. This is important when writing data at very high speeds as in the case of 4K video recording, which is becoming more common, even on smart phones!

The SD card has various speed classes normally written on its packaging. This refers to speed classes for reading and writing data to and from a memory card, shown as megabytes per second (MB/s.) The class coding is pretty simple, Class 2 has transfer rate of 2 MB/s, Class 4, 4MB/s etc. Classes are generally Class 2, 4, 6, 10.

Further more, as you can see from the above image their is an new format naming UHS (Ultra High Speed) Class, which was introduced in 2009 for SDHC and SDXC memory cards. To achieve the more higher transfer rates, the UHS utilizes a new data bus that will not work on non-UHS compatible devices. If a UHS memory card is used in a non-UHS host, than it will work in backward compatibility “speed class” mode. UHS Class 1 provides a minimum of 10 MB/s speed and UHS class 3 gives 30MB/s.

As technology evolved so fast and 4K UHD become mainstream, another class introduced naming “V” (Video Speed Class). Video speed class has much higher data transfer rate than any other class.

All these classes info will be mentioned on SD card so people can choose correctly.

Storage Capacity

Now lets talk about memory card capacity. It’s easy to think that bigger is better when it comes to capacity, but it really depends on for what purpose you are going to use SD Card. Many photographers prefer several lower-capacity cards , because that way, if one breaks or gets corrupted, they still have the data they’ve saved on the other memory cards.

Those who shoot high-speed bursts, such as event photographers, and those who record lots of video, often prefer one card having huge storage space, since it allows for more continuous shooting without having to stop and switch to a new one. Also those who have huge songs and movies collection in their smartphone are going to prefer high storage memory card for their phone.

Another consideration when deciding upon card capacities is the type of files you shoot, generally, and how large your average file size is gonna be. If you are working with a small 12MP point-and-shoot camera and only shooting JPEG files, you can capture about 8,000 images to a single 32GB memory card. But if you are dealing with a full-frame DSLR and recording both RAW and JPEG file types simultaneously, you might only get 500 or so images per 32GB.

Protections

Memory cards often has a lot of protections which ensures their longevity. Card having X-ray , Waterproof , Magnetic Proof, and shock proof protection often last much longer than those which don’t offer such protections. Most of reputable brands offering all these protections in their card, they often mention these on their product website as well.

Warranty

if your sd card comes with a warranty than its a plus point, ensuring high reliability of your card. Now days, many of reputable brands offering Lifetime warranty or up to 5+ years warranty means if your card fails within this time they will replace it with the new one. Also some manufacturer even offers data protection services for free, just in case if your card gets corrupted or so.

So, keep these points in your mind to get the best microsd card for yourself.