What's all that Junk on SD Cards???

In today's episode, we take a look at SD cards. More specifically, what is all that junk all over them?? Join me, on Alex's Tech Corner.
Let me know what you think of this format down below.
0:00 - Introduction
0:23 - Shape
1:26 - Capacity
3:14 - UHS (I)
4:44 - Speed Class (C)
6:02 - UHS Speed Class (U)
7:23 - Video Speed Class (V)
10:30 - Searching for the Best SD Card
11:51 - MicroSD Cards
12:57 - Application Performance Class
"Understanding SD Card Symbols"
"SD Card Symbols Explained"
"Guide to SD Card Symbols"
"Best SD Cards to Buy"
"Choosing the Right SD Card"
"SD Card Shape Explained"
"Different Types of SD Cards"
"SD Card Buying Guide"
"How to Choose an SD Card"
"SD Card Tips and Tricks"
"SD Card Speed Classes"
"SD Card Video Speed Class"
"SD Card Capacity Explained"
"MicroSD vs SD Card"
"UHS Speed Class"
"Best SD Card for Cameras"
"Best SD Card for Video"
"SD Card for Gaming"
"SD Card Guide 2024"
"Top SD Cards for 2024"
"SD Card Ratings Explained"
"Fastest SD Cards"
"SD Card Compatibility Guide"
"Choosing an SD Card for 4K Video"
"Understanding SD Card Sizes"
"SD Card Form Factors"
"SD Card Performance Tips"
"SD Card Durability"
"Top Rated SD Cards"
"How to Read SD Card Labels"
"SD Card Formatting Guide"
"Optimal SD Card for Smartphones"
"SD Card Longevity Tips"
"SD Card for Drones"
"Best Budget SD Cards"
"SD Card for Raspberry Pi"
"Maximizing SD Card Performance"
"SD Card Buying Tips"
"High Capacity SD Cards"
"Secure Digital Card Guide"
"Affordable SD Cards"
"SD Card Maintenance Tips"

[@cavemanshrimp770]

bro can barely work his ipad but knows all about SD cards? 10/10

[@endergamer.mp4]

I don't blame him. apple products are so hard to navigate around. might just be because im an android user but eh...

[@jjcoolaus]

@@endergamer.mp4 unfortunately there are very few good android tablets, and what is available I would describe as overpriced compared to an ipad (I have a new pixel in my pocket and have used android since 2009 - literally 95% of android tablets are ewaste and I've had a few)

[@chrisskinner6483]

​@jjcoolaus my Galaxy tab s8 ultra is wonderful;)

[@sodacooled]

@@jjcoolaus dawg Android tablets have gotten very competitive with the iPad. You've got to be living under a rock.

[@dieseldragon6756]

Couple of bits to expand on this *excellent* vid: 😇 🔒 The *lock switch* at 00:58 is like the _write protect_ tab on audio and video cassettes. It _indicates_ to the reader (cassette deck) that the card _shouldn't_ be written to, but will only work in practice if the reader actually _honours_ what the switch indicates. Many cheaper readers don't detect the switch at all and treat *all* cards as being read/write. 🏃 The *extra contacts* on the UHS-II card at 04:15 support a differential pair data connection (Think SATA-III or USB 3,1) with the host device, and will typically be used by higher-end cameras and professional-oriented card readers - UHS-II cards are intended to serve in a similar way to HDDs or SSDs. All data on a UHS-II card can still be accessed by a regular SDXC compatible reader without the extra data pairs, but data transfer will of course be slower than in your [BigBrand] DSLR. Being a bit of a data monkey I've got SD*C cards spanning pretty much the entire history of the standard up to SDXC, including some that are so old they're original _Class 1_ (Max. 1MB/s, never labelled) cards. These really _don't_ work well in modern applications (That's only to be expected!) but experience shows a Class 2 card from 2006 (With SLC flash) can hold data for longer than a modern SDHC card that uses TLC flash, meaning they're still relevant for high latency long lifetime applications and are especially useful in stereos with an SD card slot. 🎶 The various symbols for indicating the exact same thing (Minimum write speed) have come about simply because the original Class symbol doesn't scale up well to todays transfer rates (You could make a C90 logo, but imagine the C1500 needed for tomorrows 1.5GB/s rates) and the SD Card Forum have basically been throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. Manufacturers also like to have more symbols to put on their product because it means newer product will _seem_ improved and more advanced compared to what the customer already has, even though the Class 10 micro-SD I've had in one of my phones for over a decade performs just as well today as a brand new Class 10/UHS-1/v30 card would. 😉 But aye, I've learned a few new things from this video! I didn't know that SDUC and UHS-III were on the horizon, and thanks for helping me *finally* understand what _A1_ and _A2_ mean on micro-SDs! No more _trying-and-hoping_ when it comes to expanding my Android device storage with SD cards from now on! 💾📈😁

[@Jackpkmn]

That speed rating system is exactly how they do it with CF cards. Which is how you end up with like 1066x speed CF cards. It's exactly the same thing as old CD-ROM speeds so a 100x CF card is twice as fast as a 52x CD-ROM drive. They've only really started moving away from this system recently.

[@frostlynn]

I just realized this channel only has 150 subscribers. The video quality and content are amazing! Keep doing what you do; I hope this channel becomes big someday!

[@xakh]

Yeah same, it said "232" next to his name and I'd just expected a "K" after it 😂 this channel has the identity of someone who's been uploading for at least five years.

[@DST.73]

He's growing pretty fast. 3 days ago - 150 subs. Today - 581 subs. I think that's impressive. And yes, I agree his quality and content are top notch!

[@KTSpeedruns]

LOOKS LIKE HE GAINED 500 SUBS in just six days.

[@ingenuity23-yg4ev]

considering the video quality i was shocked to see so few likes and views on it, nice video.

[@selm1313]

i really like your casual style with keeping the "blooper" parts in, it makes it feel more casual and natural compared to mainstream stuff. keep up the good work!

[@ennayanne]

every youtuber does this

[@cakedisbad]

Finally a video that I actually learn from! KZbin recommended on fire! Awesome quality from a smaller youtuber. Keep up the good work.

[@lukeumhoefer]

The audible "what the f**k" i let out learning about SDUC... 128TB is insane

[@dieseldragon6756]

When he came to that at 02:58, the first thing I thought was: _This seems _*_crazy_*_ in 2024...But just imagine how _*_small_*_ it'll seem in _*_2054_*_ !_ 😳 (I'm not exactly kidding, either. When I bought my first SD card - A 2GB one - In 2006, I thought I would never ever need a card bigger than that. Almost 20 years later and I'm routinely filling up 500GB devices without even realising it! 😇)

[@lukeumhoefer]

@@dieseldragon6756 it’s crazy how fast the landscape shifts, I think I paid $70-80 for my first thumb drive and it only had a capacity of 8gb

[@dieseldragon6756]

@@lukeumhoefer What I have to say here might shock you even more than that: My first thumb drive (Bought secondhand in 2003) was 32 *MB* and cost me (IIRC) about £10,- incl. postage. At that cost/MB your 8GB drive works out to more than *£2.500,-!* 😳😳😳 Mind you, technology always reduces in price as economies of scale increase. The last one I bought (I get through a lot of flash drives! 🙃) was 256GB and cost just £15,- 🙂

[@rossjennings4755]

​@@lukeumhoefer What's crazy to me is how capacities of things like SD cards and little USB drives continue to go up rapidly, while the amount of storage in a typical laptop has stagnated. The first laptop I ever bought cost me about $600 in 2011, and came with a 500 GB spinning-disk hard drive. These days, the typical size of a laptop SSD is somehow still about 512 GB. Granted, that's a 512 GB NVMe SSD, as opposed to a 500 GB mechanical hard drive and so it's **much** faster, but still the size has not really gone up despite the fact that we have 512 GB SD cards now!

[@mega_gamer93]

why is it insane? The theoretical maximum is only limited by how many bytes can be allocated for partition size, it is not particularly computationally expensive to make it possible for it to support 128T. If anything, I think it's actually kinda small. Also, I don't understand people here who are saying that this is ever going to seem small in 2054. Perhaps if you are trying to record raw video in ungodly high resolutions it might be, or if you are trying to back up unoptimized media, but for most users the current limits are already far more than enough. My laptop has a 500G SSD, and sort of filling it up by trying to back up high resolution movies, gazillions of books or bloated modern games, I genuinely cannot image how I would fill it up

[@venomsnake256]

HOLY SHIT THE VIDEO QUALITY IS SO GOOD keep up the good work man!

[@rodrigotudancafernandez17]

Here before bro blows up

[@rodrigotudancafernandez17]

Not bro, the channel i mean

[@rodrigotudancafernandez17]

Pls don't spontaneously explode

[@dieseldragon6756]

@@rodrigotudancafernandez17 So it's not just me who misread it like that?... 🙃 (That said, I come from a place that's known for its prototypes not _always_ working out as expected... 🤖🇬🇧💥😇)

[@The_T-Bone]

Can you do more video game videos, on like classic games and consoles?

[@alexmichaelwalker]

I'm planning on making a few more of these soon, and possibly one for halloween 👀 Thanks for watching!

[@U9DATE]

You are one of the only exceptions to KZbin’s awful new algorithm. Recommend videos with no views of completely unrelated videos I don’t have an interest in of some random kid filming nothing

[@xakh]

You actually covered Application class! No one ever covers those. I use SDs as storage for a lot of embedded stuff and finding good A2 cards is always a pain lol.

[@dieseldragon6756]

I've been involved in technology for over two decades, and this video is the first time I've ever heard the A1/A2 symbols being explained. Thanks to this man, I now *know* which cards I need to put in my phone to successfully expand the storage on my Android devices! 💾📈❤👍

[@tasherratt]

There is no U2? On this Beautiful Day, that would be Bad! I'll Exit the comments now before I Fall Down.

[@dieseldragon6756]

I imagine Bono would be demanding heavy royalties if there was a U2 class. From what I understand, this has been a problem between that group and any German city with more than one underground line for _years_ now... 🧑‍🎤🇩🇪🚇😉

[@rpnorris]

I usually don’t like tech videos but this one is pretty cool. I can’t wait to see what this small KZbinr will do in the future!

[@Deraco1]

As soon as you showed the wiki chart, i think the reasoning of the "duplication" is since the newer classes have higher "minimum" speeds, they have to still print on the older classes as the cards can still negotiate at lower mimium speeds for that older class. It's all about backwards compatibility and labeling such of what the SD driver chip can actually support

[@damer3016]

this is a well made video ngl, i was really looking for a vid to watch while i snack and this is perfect

[@aprilwalker3634]

Where did you learn to write your letters from the bottom up? Also, the content surprised me because I thought you were going to talk about all the stuff that fills up the sd card which keeps you from storing the whole 32 gb on them.

[@sleepysonic]

hahaha I LOVE how confidently you wrote that "4" down and your brain betrayed you. 🤣 subscribed.

[@namandang]

such an underrated channel

[@Banty3D]

printing off my own labels with all the class logos and branding mixed up to flood the 2nd hand market with cards that no one will realise are nonsense until it's too late

[@tezcanaslan2877]

9:34 gotta create those analog horror videos

[@The_T-Bone]

Dude I was thinking that yesterday, great channel by the way

[@makori]

found this video on my home page and it was totally worth it

[@dieseldragon6756]

+1 that statement! 👍

[@jeremey2072]

Great info I didn't know I ever needed. Keep putting out stuff like this 👍

[@timothyhayes9724]

Thanks for that helpful explanation. I'm saving this to a playlist to reference later.

[@JonathanLeeWilson]

If you can confirm to me that your opening jingle was done facetiously, then I will be happy to subscribe as a loyal viewer. Jokes aside, new creators with quality videos make me want to join the fray with my channel idea. Keep it up, man.

[@hannahpargmann8302]

Hey is that intro song about me??

[@alana_babi]

i think so (i watched with no audio)

[@steveurbach3093]

💡 Possible reason for overlapping type identifiers: The users manual (for older items). It says USE (this type and has a picture). Next time you are in the (button) battery section. look at the packaging. Photo, Medical... and those all have the same exact A76 battery. It is 'The Schwartz'..Merchandising (tnx Mel)

[@charliesretrocomputing]

Awesome video… I didn’t know any of this about SD cards and it will definitely be super helpful for buying sd cards! Also, I subscribed within the first minute of this video; I’d expect production quality like this from a channel with tens of millions of subs. Keep up the great work 🙌

[@mme725]

Damn this was a good video. Also the outro song is really nice, I'm actually having breakfast while watching this lol

[@dragon28022000]

It's so calming. Thanks for vid)

[@RetroJack]

I haven't used an SD card in forever. I mainly use micro SD cards with an adapter and a couple of old CF cards.

[@joolsrainynot290]

Clever idea, with using the overhead camera AND tablet to go through the info and it gives a clean look too

[@ravijol1]

Wow, really good quality video. Love it.

[@Hypefon]

made me re-think my life choices was so emotional keep it up!

[@DST.73]

You appear to be new to this, but your video quality and presentation is outstanding! And you followed the golden rule with close up work...trimmed and clean fingernails! I've seen many videos ruined due to that oversight. Nice attention to detail.

[@TheLazyJAK]

Why do I feel like this whole video is a joke when it's not lol

[@hateasuka]

Very interesting, bought an sd card for my modded psp and thought about what the symbols meant. Never bothered looking it up ofc 😅. Sweet video!

[@blarghblargh]

What is this intro music! Holy John Mayer, batman. If you keep making this "tech corner" series, you should use that as your theme song.

[@blarghblargh]

hell, even if you apply it to something else.

[@spinosaurr]

I thought it was channel with 100k subs minimum with the quality and the way u say about it... but u have only 400 subs... keep going and doing what u do, its so well made, it was so good and quality was high, good job man, keep goin !

[@ironicdivinemandatestan4262]

There's also SD Express, which is just another higher speed category.

[@MrBlackRichieRich]

Can do a video about the stuff/junk that comes loaded on the SD Cards…what happens when you delete the stuff off of SD Card or by keeping them on it… thank you!

[@janice-_-8188]

I love the quality of this video, Keep up the quality!

[@WackoMcGoose]

* Probably a coincidence, but the SD card is _also_ shaped like a Nintendo Wii from side view (the real reason for the corner is directional insertion keying, obviously) * The X in SDXC actually stands for *_XTREEEEEME!_* (just like DisneyXD stands for Xtreme Digital) * ...SDUC can do *_WHAT_* now?! Oh man, imagine a max capacity _microSDUC,_ you could fedex an entire Google-scale datacenter in a shoebox! * Also did anyone else think this video was about the junk _data_ that SD cards pre-ship with? Trial backup software and other things...

[@v1v9k]

So cool and informative video 🎉, keep growing 👍🏻

[@eobardthawnemcoc]

Here to support you my boi

[@ImpactWithFacts]

A2 is not always superior to A1. To fully utilize an A2 card, the card reader must support the additional pins for UHS-II. A2 cards often use newer flash technologies such as QLC cells. Their speed relies on caching in a pSLC area. They cannot sustain high IOPS during continuous writes. Additionally, these cards consume more energy, generate more heat, and can have their speed throttled by the controller. QLC cells have only a third of the program/erase cycles compared to TLS flash cells, resulting in lower endurance and earlier defects. A1 cards might still use TLC flash. Another huge factor is the size of the card. A new card with modern flash cells but small size like 32 GB might be a 128 GB card running in pSLC mode or having a huge section of the card that is not visible to the user prolonging its endurance. I usually go for 32GB SanDisk Extreme from a photo gear brick and mortar store or Samsung cards that can be validated to avoid buying fakes.

[@iamkazuha]

Your video quality surprised me for the amount of subs you have! good video!

[@danielsuguwa746]

Hey bro, I'm impressed how great your channel and your videos are. Considering you've less than 1k subs (I'm your 501 subscriber btw :D), the quality is pretty high here while able to explain things way simpler and down-to-earth to a lot of non-tech savvy user, and still not going too professional like most big KZbinrs out there. I'm looking forward for your next video! Cheers :) Edit: you also did videos that are non-tech related too, such as math, philosophies, to name a few. That's really good, I like these kind too!

[@alexmichaelwalker]

Thanks so much!! I have like 30 videos planned haha, I hope you enjoy them!

[@danielsuguwa746]

@@alexmichaelwalker Nice dude! I'll surely enjoyed that buffet of your brick-ton contents when it arrives ;D

[@bs_blackscout]

Great quality for the number of subs! However I do suggest verifying the subtitles as they seem automated and I noticed a few mistakes.

[@alexmichaelwalker]

Will do! I appreciate your feedback!

[@kewltune4683]

Awesome video! Just curious, what iPad app are you using in the video for drawing?

[@alexmichaelwalker]

Goodnotes! Its kind of expensive though, there are better cheaper options I didn't know about when I bought it

[@kewltune4683]

@@alexmichaelwalker thank you!

[@ZipplyZane]

My guess is that there were a lot of instructions that say to get at least a C10 card, so they keep it around.

[@balsalmalberto8086]

Interesting. They can have such a variance in speed for example Samsung has 3 models with the same symbols that go up from write mb/s speed Select 160, Pro 180, Pro plus 200. each adding an additional $8-10 to the cost.

[@Shadowdragon1o]

I really liked this video

[@Nikioko]

The microSD in my dashcam has 512 GB, XC I, A2, Class 3 V30.

[@--Re--]

this video rocks!!! ur gonna grow big man

[@joeceretti9098]

I thought that the reaso for the plethora of symbols is that different device manufacturers use whatever they see fit so the standard has accepted the commonly used symbols to try and reduce the confsuion in this standard amongst end users. It's not helping much but at least they tried.

[@gavin9038]

Clearly explained thanks! Is crazy when industries have so many different ways of showing the same information, makes it super confusing for the consumer. I stick to known brands and look at Amazon reviews with regards to real world performance.

[@NabekenProG87]

Awesome video, you are very entertaining. I have the feeling your audio has a lot of clipping, or is that just my headphones?

[@Sembazuru]

BTW, that read-protect switch on the side? Yeah, it does nothing to the SD card, the SD card has no idea of the state of the switch. Much like old-school cassette tapes and floppy disks, that switch will either open or leave closed a switch in the SD card connector. It is up to the device to interpret the state of that switch for read/write. (Or in a custom firmware for some Canon cameras, it changes from using the custom firmware off the SD card to using the stock camera firmware in the camera's ROMs.)

[@poolhalljunkie9]

Damn dude. I really thought you would have a ton of subs. Was not expecting so little. Should have mentioned (for those who don't know though i have no idea who doesn't at this point) that some sd cards are readers for the minis. Otherwise great video. Loved the intro. 😂

[@yerunski]

When I read the title I actually thought it was about the content they put on it, like a manual in PDF or some kind of autorun shit. Anyway, a really informative video! Well done.

[@funded.]

how does bro have 600 subs with this video quality damm you need more

[@-INK-]

Thank you. Very informative.

[@pranthowrungrueang4092]

THOUGHT THIS CHANNEL HAD A MILLION SUBS, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

[@zinixoficial]

Why is this channel so good? with only 400 subs?? Here's some constructive criticism though, please get a separate C-stand for the overhead cam, it is really shaky! Everything else is excellent!

[@alexmichaelwalker]

Thanks for your feedback! I actually did invest in a C-stand after seeing how shaky the overhead looked in the edit, lol, hopefully you won't notice any problems in the future!!

[@Sembazuru]

Remember, that $500 UHC-II card won't have any extra benefits if your device (computer, camera, etc) if it isn't designed for UHC-II because it won't have the extra pins in the card connector. It'll still work as an SDXC, but you won't reach the published speeds.

[@kyiscray]

Great video i now know how sd cards are actually rated and i even subscribed

[@edwinov]

The U in SDUC actually stands for Unbelievable. Also, you remind one of the villains in the movie The Rock.

[@robertsteinbach7325]

Because device manufacturers have on their devices, throughout the years, were requiring a certain Class of SD cards or a certain U of SD cards. That's why everything is confusing with SD cards.

[@StillthatguyJake]

Finally you're getting the subscribers you deserve....now add a zero and we'll be on a roll! Thank you for always being a reliable, entertaining source of entertainment!

[@RaaZVan99]

Here before your channel takes off =D keep up the great work (I'm not a bot btw lol)

[@marblebongos2794]

Video quality is superb!

[@ChaosPootato]

Good shit, cheers

[@RedSkin666]

good to know

[@dhavalsavalia]

if you continue to do this. don't change

[@izimsi]

I don't think U1 is exactly the same as class 10, I believe UHS also means the card supports a faster transfer protocol

[@SuperWhatever1978]

I want that sad card. Good info/video

[@jjcoolaus]

What app is on that on his ipad? Is it onenote or evernote?

[@alexmichaelwalker]

Goodnotes! Its kind of expensive though, there are better cheaper options I didn't know about when I bought it

[@lucas8385]

I THOUGHT IT WAS A MILLION SUB CHANNEL BRO KEEP IT UP

[@noahvalenzuela9161]

I am watching this video.

[@charlesballard5251]

That was INFORMATIVE!!! And since I did not take notes I'll forget it all in 2 minutes. So... what do I do about that? SUBSCRIBING!!!!!

[@maingron]

I mean, I kinda already knew about everything but wow ❤

[@Zeazy]

damn good video man

[@RoterFruchtZwerg]

Really nice video, didn't know that. But how could not address the elephant in the room? There is also a (read?) speed written on the card 😂

[@ericmintz8305]

I thought the video was about preinstalled data. My wife bought an SD card that was unusable in her Mac until popped it into my Linux desktop and deleted everything.

[@aaronwalker6078]

I respect the mustache 👌

[@chrisgenovese8188]

subscribed for not making me look at a nasty ass screen. also, the info was good!

[@gemanter]

m-man, who the hell is this dude? why does he make such quality content and have such a small following... h-hmh, g-gotta follow)))

[@StarWarsMG]

Very shocked by the lack of views on this video, incredible content!

[@byrd203]

Don't for get the 10 works on backwards co patbility readers that are only 10 the 30 is newer readers 30 meg speed think about older readers meaning the 10 means it supports an older reader that's a 10 only

[@Peremptor]

I only use microsd with adapter though...

[@Lorinc936]

Underrated channel

[@murwsa]

why does bro not have at least 100k subs wtf

[@darshvijay3108]

ikr i realized is like at the end i was soo surprised

[@kelownatechkid]

Very engaging, despite being about ...sd cards!

[@vijf]

underrated as fuck

[@elvinhaak]

nice.... funny wayo making it. Of course, video-speed has also some other meanings, but that was also mainly in the past so for compatibility-reasons they still put it on newer cards too. SD-cards are a quite old system already compared to other tech. And yes, I have some tech that will never run on newer cards or on some cards that don't support the older standards. Sometimes still needed. This includes my DSLR's, some work with the same cards but will not record video's fast enough although they work faster for writing large files from PC's for example. With newer cards and newer equipment, well, it does not matter that much anymore besides the size and just getting a high writing-speed. I also have some cards that cannot read well in my PC, while others do. some newer and some older.... need to switch between readers/writers sometimes depending on card, depending on camera ;------)

[@realDJ15]

Algorithm bless this man

[@tlhcpuguy]

sduc can hold up to128tb max

[@premiunm]

4 days later… 507 subs….. So fast