It’s not that long ago that all we needed to hold in a phone memory was a few contacts. They hardly took up a lot of space and, simple things that they were, the technology didn’t need to be particularly advanced to be able to do the job. Now, though, we’re using our phones for so much more. We’ve got the internet, social networks, books, music, work documents and emails in there, all needing to be accessed while we’re out of the office or home. The amount of storage we require is big and growing fast, and if you’ve got a smartphone that is being used to its full abilities then the chances are that you will need something like a 64gb micro sd card in it.
When you are looking for a new card though, don’t just consider the capacity. Read up on some reviews and comparisons and see how your chosen brand compares to others in the market. My preference is for SanDisk models, which seem to give the best balance between cost and reliability or ease of use. SanDisk aren’t the cheapest cards on the market. In fact, you’ll find plenty of others that are much, much cheaper. But when I think about how much the data stored on my micro SD card is worth to me, and the sheer inconvenience and irritation that failure will cause, I know I want a brand that has proven reliability. I’ll pay more for that security, but my wallet isn’t bottomless so just as I won’t go for a cheap card, I won’t buy one that costs over the odds either.
In addition to the reliability, I want a card that just works. I unwrap it, take it out of the packet, push into my phone and that’s it, it works. You wouldn’t think there could be so much variety when it comes to that, but believe me there is, especially with some of the very cheap cards that are being sold right now. The differences aren’t even visible to the eye – after all, how significant is a difference of a fraction of a millimetre – but you notice it as soon as the cover over the card won’t close properly. Suddenly, you can see that some of the extra you pay for the likes of SanDisk is for the quality control, ensuring every single card is exactly right.
I’m not too bothered about the bigger capacities at the moment, as the 64gb micro sd cards will meet most people’s needs for quite some time yet. However, as mobile phone use continues to mature and we do more and more data related activities with them, we’re going to need more storage eventually. 128gb cards are already making an appearance, though in my opinion they are a bit too expensive to justify buying right now. It won’t be long until they drop to the cost of 64gb or even 32gb cards though, and at that point they’ll be worth the purchase.
