SD Card speed class explained

What class memory card to get for the Nexus One

I was on the Google help forums this morning and I read a post by a guy who said he was getting a 16 gig class 6 memory card for his Nexus One so I figured I would come on here and explain why this individual is spending more money than necessary.

There are two things you need to consider when buying a memory card..

  • Size
  • Speed

I think most people understand size numbers. The bigger the number, the more music, pics, video, etc you can store on the card.

Speed on the other hand is a bit of a mystery to some.  While bigger numbers mean faster speeds, device limitations are much more severe than size limitations. The common speeds right now are 2, 4 and 6 (I think Panasonic just came out with a 10)

Here is a list what each speed is good for.

Class 2 : H.264 video recording, MPEG-4, MPEG-2 video recording
Class 4: MEPG-2 (HDTV) video recording, DSC consecutive shooting
Class 6: Mega-pixel DSC consecutive shooting, professional video camera

As you can see, Class 6 is beyond overkill for the nexus one. This is intended for high-speed high definition video. Class 4 is also not necessary as it is intended for high-def recording. The nexus one video camera specs: MPEG-4 SP, H.264.

So please, don’t waste your money paying for speed you will never need. If you want to cover yourself just in case you decide to use the card for something else in the future, get yourself a Class 4. Otherwise stick with a high quality Class 2 card.

I like SanDisk cards the best. Here are two: (at really good prices)

SanDisk 8GB MicroSDHC Memory Card

Sandisk 16GB Microsd Card

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