Opinion
I got a Samsung microSD card rated at up-to 130MB/sec write speed, 'cause it was on sale. I use cards like these to put (big) movie files on them, for viewing on my Windows laptop or Android tablet while travelling. The cards need to have a large capacity, It’s not unusual for single seasons of a tv series to take up 15GB to 28GB. Multiply that for multiple seasons.
At first I grabbed the nearest microSD adapter, and began copying files onto the card. It was taking forever, and I noticed the speed was about 16MB/sec. So slow! So to copy the next folder of files, I dug up a microSD adapter with a blue part, indicating it is meant for USB v3. The transfer speed doubled to about 33MB/sec.
That increase in speed intrigued me, so I experimented with other SD and microSD ports. When I inserted the microSD card into Samsung’s SD adapter, and stuck it into the SD slot on my Dell laptop, Windows did not recognize it. My laptop rests on a laptop stand that doubles as a port extender: same thing, its SD and microSD slots did not seem to work.
Finally, I remembered my HP X2 Windows tablet computer has a microSD slot. I inserted the memory card, and began moving a folder of files. The speed doubled again, this time to 66MB/sec.
When moving tens of gigabytes of files, a 4x increase in speed makes a huge difference, like 15 minutes instead of an hour. Summing up:
- USB 2 adapter: 16MB/sec
- USB 3 adapter: 33MB/sec
- Built-in microSD slot: 66MB/sec
I wonder what it would take to reach the 130MB/sec speed the card is apparently capable of reaching?
I think back to my first computer with a hard drive, and it had a capacity of 30MB. Its entire contents would today be moved in half a second.
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