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Disappointing results : 32Gb Class4 Kingston vs Sandisk 16Gb Class 2 microSD

I'm sorry to report that I've returned the Kingston Class 4 32Gb microSD card for its failure to perform.
Performance writing to this Kingston card (from a desktop PC, card in either the N1, or the PC's card reader) was ~820KB/Sec
Writing the same data files to a Sandisk Class 2 16Gb card I achieved > 1.5MB/sec - i.e. approx twice as fast.
(PC is Acer Quad core 2.6Ghz jobbie with 8Gb RAM running Windows 7)
I found it really hard to get 4MB/sec out of the Kingston card - and only achieved it with 1 of the test options on CrystalMark. (write 1Gb sequential files)
When I tried this test with the 16Gb Sandisk class 2 card I got 10MB/sec. Clearly the SanDisk isn't a class 10 card - so I'm guessing the Crystal benchmark test isn't completely appropriate for SD card writers!.
I supplied Kingston with the packaging details / photos etc and they confirmed that it IS a real Kingston class 4 card. They agreed that performance should be better. LamndaTek clearly agreed too - after they received my return and tested it they gave me a full refund. (32Gb £83.66 (Inc VAT)). (Many thanks guys)
I guess the card was faulty.. but I might just be placing my trust in Sandisk now, as I've never had any problems with their cards.
I just thought that you all should know..
Graham

did you test it with a card adaptor or from the nexus one?
Also, if you're writing hundreds of small files vs one large file it makes a difference.

I think it was just a defective card.
Even the POS 32Gb cards floating around out there write at faster than 800kb/sec mb/sec.

SanDisk suck!
I will never buy any sandisk flash,sd card, micro again.. they have the worst CS i have ever delt with.. THey stand on their High Horse thinking their **** dont stink just because they said they only have a 1% defective rate.. which is crap if you ask me.. i went through some many defective flash drives used as keeping files on them and music to play in my scion xb.. So pretty much they told me i was mis using the device.. so i told them i would never buy from them..
so Kingston all the way now. they have the best CS i have ever delt with.. good day!

mynameisjon said:
did you test it with a card adaptor or from the nexus one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tested it with both options - the supplied adaptor - and also in the Nexus 1 - couldn't get it faster that I quoted, in any combination. Even tried a reformat - still no good.
Also, if you're writing hundreds of small files vs one large file it makes a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was a mixture of file sizes for the main copy, i.e. the contents of the 16Gb drive over to the 32Gb drive. About 14Gb were music files which come in at about 4Mb each.
As the other guys said above Kingston customer services were very responsive once they identified the card as genuine.. but LambdaTek were even more so.
I've still never had a Sandisk product give me an error though (I have 3 cards from them)
G.

I've used SanDisk for years without issue. Also been extremely happy with Lexar. Kingston, on the other hand, has been a complete letdown to me! A couple years ago, I bought a 4gb class 6 Kingston card for my digital camera. I didn't run any controlled benchmarks, but real-world use showed only about 2-3mb/sec transfer rates, which I thought was kind of slow. Also, as I was using a card reader instead of just plugging my camera in every time I needed to move pictures, the card was constantly being moved between devices. This proved fatal to the card, as the cheap plastic began to come apart. Never ever have I seen that happen to *any* SD card, even the cheap no-name ones! It started with the little tabs between each of the contacts, but didn't take long before the top and bottom of the card had begun to split. After a few months, the Kingston card was no good - all because of a disappointing casing. I wasn't rough with the card - I didn't treat this card any differently than others. In fact, I still have a 64mb SanDisk card from several years ago that's still going strong (great for sharing some jpgs, docs, etc.) So it might be worthwhile staying away from Kingston altogether...
Brands I've been happy with:
SanDisk
Lexar
Duracell
Transcend
Brands I've been disappointed with:
Kingston

so what is the deal with the N1 and its SD card speed?
i have a Transcend 8gb Class 6 card, i bought it for my G1 and recently got a N1.
on my G1 i would get an as expected 6 mb/sec or better copying files to/from it. in the N1 its never much more than 2mb/sec at most. this is apparently just when copying files via usb though
i just ran the app j bench mark 1.0.
when set to 10mb (2kb buffer) the default and lowest test setting i get
1.5mb sec write 2.5mb sec read
when set to 100mb (8km buffer) i get
6.16 mb/sec write
10.34 mb/sec read
so clearly internally the phone can and does handle the card at full speed but connected to PC's it does not.
and before anyone says it yeah i know just use a card reader to transfer large files.. whatever shouldn't need to do that imho
(megabytes not bits i am quoting here, i know the difference)

I have sandisk 16gb class 2 and under android 2.2 I gоt 1.5 mb/s and under android 2.1 I gоt 7-8 mb/s

gf_gollum said:
I'm sorry to report that I've returned the Kingston Class 4 32Gb microSD card for its failure to perform.
Performance writing to this Kingston card (from a desktop PC, card in either the N1, or the PC's card reader) was ~820KB/Sec
Writing the same data files to a Sandisk Class 2 16Gb card I achieved > 1.5MB/sec - i.e. approx twice as fast.
(PC is Acer Quad core 2.6Ghz jobbie with 8Gb RAM running Windows 7)
I found it really hard to get 4MB/sec out of the Kingston card - and only achieved it with 1 of the test options on CrystalMark. (write 1Gb sequential files)
When I tried this test with the 16Gb Sandisk class 2 card I got 10MB/sec. Clearly the SanDisk isn't a class 10 card - so I'm guessing the Crystal benchmark test isn't completely appropriate for SD card writers!.
I supplied Kingston with the packaging details / photos etc and they confirmed that it IS a real Kingston class 4 card. They agreed that performance should be better. LamndaTek clearly agreed too - after they received my return and tested it they gave me a full refund. (32Gb £83.66 (Inc VAT)). (Many thanks guys)
I guess the card was faulty.. but I might just be placing my trust in Sandisk now, as I've never had any problems with their cards.
I just thought that you all should know..
Graham
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had the same problem... RMA'd it with newegg and the replacement comes in tomorrow... I hold out hope.

Sandisk more me, no problem so far

My replacement Kingston class 4 holds out class 2 speeds on write of large files, less than that on write of small files. Blazingly slow on write, but faster on read than my class 6 8gb sandisk...
All in all... I can live with it for now...

The article below is an interesting read regarding Kingston and the sdcard market in general.
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918

Choppy hd video w stock micro sd

I'm waiting for my 16gb to arrive but I'm wondering if the chippy video is due to the included memory card.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

just got my new 16gb class 4 card and the video steal seems to be a problem. when moving the camera, the video will be smooth, then pause for a split second and continue w/smooth recording again, then the video will pause for a second again and so on. anyone having this issue while recording in hd?

markjnj said:
just got my new 16gb class 4 card and the video steal seems to be a problem. when moving the camera, the video will be smooth, then pause for a split second and continue w/smooth recording again, then the video will pause for a second again and so on. anyone having this issue while recording in hd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bumping this thread because both my wife and I have the same problem with hesitations in video. She's stock; I have a 16gb class 4, stock rom, and faux's latest kernel.
Anyone else have or solve this problem?

I also have this problem. I was wondering if it was the sd card. I have this isssue with all sense ROMs. I even unrooted and flashed PD15IMG to get back to "as new" and reformatted sd card. The hesitation was still there. I haven't always had this problem with HD videos... I have a few videos recorded a while ago that are perfect or have one spot where it skips. I have contacted Tmobile about the issue because I have the insurance. The technician wanted to do some research on the issue and get back to me within 72 hours... which should be tomorrow (3-15-11). He said he wanted to see if there was a solution he didn't know of before they replace the phone. I'll let you know what happens.

T-mobile told me it was my sd card. I bought a class 10 and still had the problem. I called them back and asked for a replacement phone. My replacement should be here tomorrow.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk

roush97 said:
T-mobile told me it was my SIM card. I bought a class 10 and still had the problem. I called them back and asked for a replacement. My replacement should be here tomorrow.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems unlikely, but keep us posted...
I read that rebooting right before creating a video helps, and I've also played around a little with overclocking the cpu before making a vid. Seems like these have helped on mine, but haven't had a chance to really test it out thoroughly.

I did get good 720p recording a day or two ago. It was a 40 second video with no choppiness. It's the first good video I had in a long time. I was running the RoyalGlacier 1.2 ROM. Team Royal makes great ROMs, especially coupled with faux123's kernels.

Here's some info that might be helpful to someone. I'd been having problems with choppy video, and was using a 16gb Patriot class 4 card. It turns out that this card was at least part of the problem. It's not a 'counterfeit' and was bought through a reputable retailer, and it passed the the 'h2testw' program in terms of overall capacity. BUT, the test showed that the write speed was actually a bit slower than the 8gb card that came with the phone (the read speed on the 16gb was a bit higher than the 8gb card, but I imagine this doesn't matter in recording vids much).
So I'm back to using the 8gb card that came with the phone. This fixes 90% of the choppiness issue that I've been experiencing the past couple months (got the new card in January). Btw, I did try reformatting the card, etc. I'm now going to look at buying another 16gb or 32gb card, but will be staying away from the Patriot brand and also trying to get one that is class 6 or higher.

I have class 2, 4, 6, and 10 cards. Only my class 10 patriot 8gb micro sd card seemed to work. Honestly a class 4 card should be fine for 720p recordings...but something's up with the software.

nodrogkam said:
I have class 2, 4, 6, and 10 cards. Only my class 10 patriot 8gb micro sd card seemed to work. Honestly a class 4 card should be fine for 720p recordings...but something's up with the software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be that something in the software keeps it from writing efficiently, but definitely weird that the 16gb class 4 patriot tested out with a lower write speed than the 8gb one that came with the phone...and that's the only thing that seemed different with that card that would explain why I was getting so much more stuttering on my vids.

netter123 said:
It may be that something in the software keeps it from writing efficiently, but definitely weird that the 16gb class 4 patriot tested out with a lower write speed than the 8gb one that came with the phone...and that's the only thing that seemed different with that card that would explain why I was getting so much more stuttering on my vids.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what class is the 8gb card that came with your phone? some came with class 2 and some with class 4.
it's commonly known in the storage/memory world that the larger the card size the slower the write (and often read) speeds will be. Granted when an SD card is certified to be a certain class it should meet the standards of that class. That being said, how a card is formatted, handled, and ejected or not ejected properly affects the performance of the card.
in my years of experience buy the size of the card that you need to use...getting a card 2x than your storage needs maybe thinking ahead but if speed is what you want, smaller is better and of course the higher class the better.
I got my 8gb class10 patriot from amazon for $25 flat and have no complaints. SD card tester programs tell me the card is writing data at about 10mb/sec which is what it should be doing.
good luck with your video issues, and hopefully a future update will rectify the situation so that even class 2 can handle the recording and playback of recorded videos on the device.

nodrogkam said:
what class is the 8gb card that came with your phone? some came with class 2 and some with class 4.
it's commonly known in the storage/memory world that the larger the card size the slower the write (and often read) speeds will be. Granted when an SD card is certified to be a certain class it should meet the standards of that class. That being said, how a card is formatted, handled, and ejected or not ejected properly affects the performance of the card.
in my years of experience buy the size of the card that you need to use...getting a card 2x than your storage needs maybe thinking ahead but if speed is what you want, smaller is better and of course the higher class the better.
I got my 8gb class10 patriot from amazon for $25 flat and have no complaints. SD card tester programs tell me the card is writing data at about 10mb/sec which is what it should be doing.
good luck with your video issues, and hopefully a future update will rectify the situation so that even class 2 can handle the recording and playback of recorded videos on the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The card that came with the phone is a class 2, and the test showed it was writing at above 5MBps, while the 16gb Patriot class 4 was just above 4MBps.
In terms of creating videos on each card, I tested them each immediately after a full format and with a somewhat controlled view of the same scene. Thus, the only variable that would seem to be able to account for the poor performance using the 16gb card seems to be the card itself, and, my guess is more specifically, the write speed.
Perhaps slightly over 4MBps is just below the threshold for what is required for a stutter-free video, and perhaps some variability in the cards that shipped with the phones accounts for why some people are reporting hesitations in their videos while others are not.

netter123 said:
The card that came with the phone is a class 2, and the test showed it was writing at above 5MBps, while the 16gb Patriot class 4 was just above 4MBps.
In terms of creating videos on each card, I tested them each immediately after a full format and with a somewhat controlled view of the same scene. Thus, the only variable that would seem to be able to account for the poor performance using the 16gb card seems to be the card itself, and, my guess is more specifically, the write speed.
Perhaps slightly over 4MBps is just below the threshold for what is required for a stutter-free video, and perhaps some variability in the cards that shipped with the phones accounts for why some people are reporting hesitations in their videos while others are not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's probably a good evaluation of the situation. i never did test my 4gb class 6 card, but i do know it transfered the contents of my music folder significantly faster than the 8gb class2 card that came with the device. Yet that card was still not enough for stutter free 720p recording. I can only assume its speeds were <10mb/sec. So the sweet spot is probably 6mb/sec.+
thinking bigger picture, there's a serious QC issue if some people with the same cards have issues while others don't. though i question if some people think that they're recording 720 by default and never bothered to check the video settings to begin with (default is 480p). therefore some people think they have no problems, but it's only because they're recording in 480p (which is still clear, especially on screen).

i had a few minutes. ran a test on 3 cards
1. 8gb class2 - stock card - ~4mb write
2. 4gb class6 - ~6mb write
3. 8gb class10 - ~10mb write
So as i stated before, for my phone, i need more than 6mb/sec + card for stable 720p video recording.

I haven't checked this thread in a while, but I just got a replacement mt4g w/the good screen and thought maybe it'd improve, but hd video recording is still freezing up every so often. so I've just resorted to taking video in widescreen. hopefully someone figures something out. I'm running faux kernel, stock rom.

So I was reading this thread and remembered a thread I read yesterday in the android apps and development forum. Apparently we are governed by how fast our SD Cards are read, but you can change it. Anyway, if someone wants to try the fix out (seems simple) I think it would be a good place to start. If it ends up working out make sure to let us know which method you used.
Link to the thread..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1010807

just flashed 2048 on my mt4g. tested a few short clips which seemed to have improved. The 2nd clip there were only a few very slight pauses on video recording. This was off of a fresh reboot though, so I will continue to test through out the day as I use my phone more.
Update: The flash didn't seem to stick. as suggested by some others on the thread I'm now using/testing sd speed boost. Settings seem to stick, and so far there hasn't been any choppiness in recording hd. will continue testing and let you know.
Update: Doesn't help...still happens.

im on cmrc4, using the same sd card that came with the phone it is recording fine

could you try this out
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1025512

just made the changes. video -15000000 and audio -96000. Let me do a few tests.

[q] sd card speed matters

Hello All I have a very simple question but plays a very important role in performance.
I got a 2GB SD CARD FROM SAMSUNG.
I have another LOCAL SD CARD 4GB
My question is will the SPEED Remain same to transfer or access data from both these SD CARDS.
I mean to say is will the LOCAL SD CARD BE SLOWER(since its not samsung branded) IN ACCESSING AND RETRIEVING DATA which will eventually slow down my phone or something like that.
I hope you all understood my question..will elaborate if u want me to.
hoping for a good answer.
Thanks

so many views yet no replies
cumon guys a small opinion would make a big difference

I am not very knowledgeable about this, but the class of the SD card matters when comparing performance. Here is a link that might help:
http://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/speed_class/

i have noticed that when i changed sd card from samsung original (came with phone) to new transcend 8gb sd card, phone is now booting for 5 minutes....

It being a samsung card doesn't make the card more "compatible" with a samsung phone. A card is defined by the card, not by the brand.

martin.jeremic said:
i have noticed that when i changed sd card from samsung original (came with phone) to new transcend 8gb sd card, phone is now booting for 5 minutes....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah so it means that performance has degraded right.
Also i think booting is not much worry as its done from ROM
so apart from booting what else is buggy or degrading performance,comparing both 2 GB and 8 GB

its on a card to card basis, if it is slower for him it doesnt mean it will be slower for you.

You should use a Class 6 SD card. Slower cards are not adequate.
Sent from my GT-I5801 using XDA App

You can use a class 6 SD card, however, i do not think the phone is capable of handling such high speed cards, and thus the read/write speed of the phone will limit the speed.
Conclusively i don't think there will be an increase in performance!

SD Card Partitions

I have a Nook Color that is rooted running CyanogenMod 7.1.0 on internal memory. I have a 16GB Class 10 SD Card in it and was wondering what people are using for partitions on their SD Cards. I have pushed pretty much every app over to SD Card but some (not all) applications (Google Maps for instance) seem really sluggish and many times it force closes.
Is the Nook just not powerful enough to run Google Maps or is there something I need to adjust? Maybe a bigger swap partition? I set them up quite a while ago and don't recall what I set them to off the top of my head.
Using CyanogenMod I am overclocked to 1.2GHz with the Governor set to Performance.
VM heap size set to 48MB.
Thanks

class 10 cards are not as good as you'd think for any Android device. Android devices tend to write smaller files... a class 4 card (Sandisk recommended) is actually best for these devices.

DizzyDen said:
class 10 cards are not as good as you'd think for any Android device. Android devices tend to write smaller files... a class 4 card (Sandisk recommended) is actually best for these devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am mainly using Class 10 as that is what I had laying around in the Micro SD Card Format.
I have a 32 GB Class 4 in my Thunderbolt and it is fine. Do you really think it would slow it down much if it is Class 10? I could always toss it in an adapter and use it in my Canon T3i.

This thread here explains what the issue is and will tell you how to test your cards out to see if they'll work. Basically that Class10 card only gets Class 10 speeds when transferring large files and for small files (like an OS/app uses to write temp files) you get crap speed. it's not normally noticed in everyday use because the files are small and a little delay writing it isn't noticed by the user. Class 4 cards from SanDisk seem to be overall performers for files of all sizes.
- Aerlock

Aerlock said:
This thread here explains what the issue is and will tell you how to test your cards out to see if they'll work. Basically that Class10 card only gets Class 10 speeds when transferring large files and for small files (like an OS/app uses to write temp files) you get crap speed. it's not normally noticed in everyday use because the files are small and a little delay writing it isn't noticed by the user. Class 4 cards from SanDisk seem to be overall performers for files of all sizes.
- Aerlock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, that is interesting. Now does it matter that I am booting off internal memory? I am not dual booted and have CyanogenMod on internal memory. I am running Google Maps which is one of the programs that is really slow on internal memory. My guess is that what you are saying would apply because of the swap space being used on the SD card. I will say that my wife also has a Nook Color that I put my old 8GB Class 6 card from my old Nexus One in and hers seems to perform a little faster than mine. I haven't done the tweaks to VM heap size to hers that seems to have helped mine a little. So you may be on to something. I have a couple of these class 10 cards that I use on my Camera and have been happy with them. I think they are Samsung. The DSLR is 18MP so those files are pretty big so it might be just better to leave those cards for use there and get a couple of those SanDisk Class 4 cards for our Nooks.

Yeah, running apps from the sd would benefit from a fast sd card. When you get one, use CrystalDiskMark (pc) to check the 4k read/write speeds. I bought an 8gb and two 16gb Sandisk class 4 cards from Radio Shack that have reasonable speeds and work well. They're all in the .5 range for writes - not as good as some I've heard of, but they work well! Some (a Kingston and a knockoff Sandisk) I tested were as low as .006! I tried to use the Kingston before I tested its speed and got lots of instability and FCs. hth
Sent from my CM9 NookColor using Tapatalk

External SD card painfully slow speeds?

Hi All,
I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just to be expected. I have an S7 edge that I'm attempting to move apps to the SD card and they are just painfully slow, if they transfer at all. I'm using a Samsung Evo 128gb class 10 micro sd card. I've also tried a SanDisk 128gb Ultra class 10 card and it was really really slow. Is there some trick to speed this up? Am I using too beefy of a card? Any help is greatly appreciated!!

move the apps always has been slow even in class 10 sd cards, or at least thats what I remember.... but every other thing is just right

re: microsd card speed
slim011 said:
Hi All,
I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just to be expected. I have an S7 edge that I'm attempting to move apps to the SD card and they are just painfully slow, if they transfer at all. I'm using a Samsung Evo 128gb class 10 micro sd card. I've also tried a SanDisk 128gb Ultra class 10 card and it was really really slow. Is there some trick to speed this up? Am I using too beefy of a card? Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The speed of the external microsd card fully depends on the quality and the specs of the microsd card
itself. That's why some microsd cards are slow or super slow.
I have two 128GB microsd cards, one of them is Sandisk Extreme $80 model and it reads and writes
almost 5 times faster than my other off-brand $28 128GB microsdcard. Both microsd cards are class 10.
I am not talking about speed benchmarks, I am talking about real life transfer speeds under heavy usage..
I also have a 64GB off-brand $17 microsd card which is just as slow as my 128GB $28 off-brand microsd.
All 3 of my microsdcards were purchased at Amazon.com
Good luck,
Have a great day!

I have same problem here I have : https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00V62XBQQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And I go 13Mb/S Write and 60 MB/S Read
((((((

same here...
Just got my S7 and transferring speed from PC to external SD is extremely slow (I tried 64GB and 128GB sandisk class 10 which worked great on my last LG-G3...)
I also tried transferring from internal memory to external SD and it was still extremely slow..
Can it be HW problem (I can send it back for refund - but if it SW issue which can be fixed it would be a better)?