Choosing right capacity External Memory Card for your devices and use cases

This article helps you build understanding on which memory card to choose among currently available MicroSD, MicroSDHC and MicroSDXC.

Confirm Compatibility

Before inserting your SD memory card, confirm the device is compatible with the SD standard by locating an SD logo on the device or referring to the device’s user manual or manufacturer information.

The differences between the three formats are significant:

  • microSD: Has a capacity up to 2 GB, and can be used in any microSD slot.
  • microSDHC: Has a capacity of more than 2 GB and up to 32 GB, and can be used in hardware that supports either SDHC and SDXC.
  • microSDXC: Has a capacity of more than 32GB and up to 2 TB (although at the time of writing this, 512 GB is the largest available card), and can only be used in devices that support SDXC.

In addition to checking that a card’s format is compatible with your hardware, you need to check a few other details, too.

Understanding Backwards Compatibility

  • SDXC memory cards must only be used with SDXC devices.
  • SDXC devices can use SD memory cards, SDHC memory cards and SDXC memory cards.
  • SDHC memory cards can be used with SDHC devices and SDXC devices.
  • SDHC devices can use both SD memory cards and SDHC memory cards.
  • SD devices can only use SD memory cards.

 

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