SD Cards vs MicroSD Cards with Adapter Speed Reliability - Which is Better?

[@brianjarvis3367]

Thanks so much Robbie and guest, David. You answered my question beautifully! It was nice to be vindicated, so I think I’ll continue to prefer microSD cards as they seem to be getting more and more common especially as devices get smaller and smaller. Cheers from Adelaide, Australia.

[@LinuxTechShow]

And from my perspective, it's just one of those things I've never really given much thought to - yet now that I know the answer (I learned along with you here) I may start using more MicroSD cards as well! Thanks for the great question.

[@tricitytypebeat8622]

thanks for the quality answers! when you said you didn't know I threw my hands up in frustration, but you found the right guy

[@cee128d]

The biggest drawback to the MicroSD cards smaller size is it's much easier to misplace or lose them, especially outdoors. I will use them when necessary for the device, but I prefer the larger physical SD cards for that reason. I've never noticed any measurable or appreciable difference in performance between same size and speed rated cards. As the only devices I own that use micro SD cards are older phones that either don't work at all, or can no longer be activated I don't really have a use for them these days. My current Pixel 4a phone doesn't even have a MicrosSD slot. If I did have devices that used Micro SD cards I would definitely rethink this.

[@LinuxTechShow]

Good points! To solve the loss of cards, I bought a simple MicroSD card holder from Amazon. It is a bit thicker than a credit card, but the same size, so you can carry it in your wallet. IIRC it holds 7 MicroSD cards... maybe 10. Not a bad fix, because you're right - they're WAY too easy to lose. For me, I have a couple action cams, quadcopters with cameras, and a lot of single board computers that use MicroSD... so it really does make sense for me to start buying MicroSD and use the adapters, having learned there is no difference in performance.

[@cee128d]

@@LinuxTechShow I have a card holder wallet that holds SD as well as Micro SD. But the chance of dropping and possibly losing one when transferring a card between that case and a device still remains. Especially for someone as old as I am (think older than dirt) with arthritic hands/fingers and still has some lingering affects of a series of strokes few years back. But like most things, there are usually more than one thing to consider in situations like these. Like the legendary Paul Harvey said, "now you know the rest of the story".

[@LinuxTechShow]

See, you raise an interesting point I may not have thought of: full-sized SD cards can be easier to handle, physically. So the form factor really becomes simply whatever works best for the individual, since the underlying tech, based on David's answer, is the same.

[@cee128d]

@@LinuxTechShow Exactly. I don't even want to think about trying to handle a Micro SD outside in the middle of winter up where you live. It has to be as cold, if not colder than were I live near Green Bay, WI. But then, I wouldn't want to handle a full sized SD card in those conditions either.

[@LinuxTechShow]

Let alone when my hands are covered in Maple Syrup. Which is always.

[@emilloffler1216]

Hi, how thick is a full size SD card compared to the micro SD card adaptor. Does the full size one fit into the same slot exactly as the adaptor does, or would it be a bit too slack.

[@flat-earther]

same size

[@OliviaE_OG]

So a 256 big and 256 micro with adapter will save the same way and to the same quality ?

[@LinuxTechShow]

Correct. And at the same speed (if of the same speed class).

[@gjaeigjiajeg]

Are full sized sd cards still properly full sized cards (I.e with their electronics spread about in the entire form factor), or do manufacturers these days streamline their production by only making microsd and then encasing that in a sort of permanent sd adaptor to make it look and feel like a full sized card? I mean, I probably would. 😂

[@ProffyChaos]

That is a good question. I mean why wouldn't you do that? I remember touring the Jaguar car plant and they said you can have cloth upholstery but it would cost you more because their entire supply chain is geared to leather only. Imagine the savings if you just focus on microsd and then stick it in an sd card shell.

[@Autotrope]

I downvoted when you said you didn't have the answer and then had to undo that when you brought in someone from Kingston to answer haha. Thanks for this. Great video, checked off most of the myths regarding SD vs microSD!

[@LinuxTechShow]

Phew! Saved our upvote with a knowledgeable guest 😆 Thanks for watching!

[@RossiB172]

But using a micro sd in an adaptor. Would that save wear as the adaptor takes all the abuse and you can just change that. Max endurance micro sd in an adaptor surely can be a safe data keeper?

[@NazimAlizade]

The answer from Kingston's man is not correct! Yes, the adapter will probably not affect the speed, yes SD card and Micro SD same class from the same manufacturer can show the same speed, BUT why buy SD cards then? The answer is very simple! Micro SD's write speed will DROP after the continuous shooting and slow your digital camera down, while an SD card will perform better! A similar thing you can see while using a small USB Flash Drive, no matter how fast it is, it will drop the writing speed much earlier than the bigger one!

[@ProffyChaos]

Thanks to Robbie and David - I always wondered this and now I know.

[@JosephJMcAllister]

Thanks... Really needed to know. Thanks for going straight to the source! So I don't have to!

[@Kyo99King]

Great answer thanks

[@koryyyy]

Things changed a lot last years, and it change brand by brand too. SD Cards used to be more robust since they have more space for components and temp dissipation. And they used to have better capacity at some time in history since they had more space for chips. but now the microSD has the same capacity and speeds. I'm into this dilema too. I just got a new reflex camera, and is SD, should I get a full SD or microSD with adapter? Why high end manufacturers still shipping their cameras with SD card slot, instead of switching to microSD if is the same thing? Also, did you know that high end mainboards (motherboards) designers put the bridh (pci lane controllers) the nearest possibel to the slot since the shorter the path to the lane makes difference in speed (at nanoseconds I guess). and how a dirty contact can affect performance too? Well thats the microSD to SD adapter, is contact that touchs the mini contacts on microsd and put them on the SD size. so you add another "touch" contact to the card before getting to the actual port. Some old school photography forums, talked about that the microsd actually is not hold in place by anything inside the adapter. The microSD port has a "click" but the adapter not. So if you have a device that will be on the move, a card that internally can move is not ideal. So, I still cant decide. My only advantage to go with a microSD is that I have slot and readers of microsd on my laptops. but the camera is wifi and probably not taking the memory out much...

[@hehoosmeltitdeltit]

Okay, lots of great info here. But just to be clear, using a micro with an adapter does not adversely impact the performance of the card... right? 🤔. Never was concerned about it until I started finding micros cheaper than standard cards instead of the other way around. So, I'm finding ultra-fast 256GB micros cheaper than the standard card, I just want to be absolutely sure I'm not losing speed using the adapter. Please confirm. Many thanks -- good video, excellent content, I'm subscribing.👍👍👍

[@Agnes.Nutter]

Correct. The adapter is a simple passthrough, containing no electronics, just some wires and metal contacts. It won't affect performance unless it has some kind of physical problem affecting the connection to the card or the upstream device.

[@hehoosmeltitdeltit]

@@Agnes.Nutter Thanks for the reply! 👋

[@AuthenticallyTrue]

this answered the concern i had, i need to remove content from my iphone 11 to my pc

[@RAWDZ.1]

Thaaank youuu ❤

[@ronm6585]

Thanks.

[@darkijah-andersjehovahsn7893]

There is nothing that is called a to fast Micro SD card!!!!! You want everything you can press out of it. The more the better. Nothing is to fast on Micro SD Cards..... So the greater the better.

[@pepeshopping]

NO! More lanes does NOT make “cars faster”. It allows MORE cars traveling at the SAME time (parallel).

[@LinuxTechShow]

Well, in terms of data aren't we saying also that MORE cars travelling at the SAME time (parallel) means MORE data moving at the SAME time (parallel) ... which translates into faster transfers? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the idea behind the analogy is to simplify the concept of how data saves to the card, not to actually provide a literal 1:1 comparison.

[@miggity_mac_attack]

cars always travel the speed limit (limit of the said SD card(s) V30>V60>V90.....) if the road has 2 lanes and only 100 cars on it. that is 2 lines of 50 cars long | H | H | H=car |= line on road. lets say each car takes 1 second to travel the distance of 1 car length. so 100 cars split in to those 2 lanes of 50 cars would take 50 seconds to pass through (full complete). now lets say those same 100 cars are on a 5 lane road that is 5 lines of 20 cars long | H | H | H | H | H | H=car |= line on road each car also takes the same 1 second to travel the distance of 1 car length. so 100 cars split in to those 5 lanes of 20 cars would now take 20 seconds to pass through (full complete). more lanes means faster travel for same amount of cars in total (data) (100 cars = size of 1 picture/video file)

[@iancurrie8844]

As he alluded to, generally speaking, full sized SD card have more channels of NAND flash resulting in faster write speeds (generally). Most of the time, full sized SD cards have faster write speeds. The gentleman from Kingston alluded to that.

[@LinuxTechShow]

In fact, he was stating that the physical size of the disk makes no difference: SD Card vs. MicroSD Card - it doesn't matter. However, the capacity (the storage size, rather than physical size) is what matters. So, assuming other factors like a matching drive classification, a 128 GB MicroSD and a 128 GB SD will perform the same, as they have the same number of lanes. However, a 512 GB card will be faster than a 128 GB card because it has more lanes. But can be either Micro or full-sized. Thanks for watching!

[@iancurrie8844]

@@LinuxTechShow Except that's just not true. Maybe for his brand but not at large. There are many benchmarks and examples that show that the same card in the same capacity (one in SD, one micro) have different write speeds because the micro has fewer channels. He mentions that the micro has fewer channels than the full sized SD. While it's true that larger capacity cards generally have more channels than smaller capacity ones, even at the SAME capacity, the micro will often have fewer channels.

[@Leolright]

⁠@@LinuxTechShowöl