SD Memory Card Choices

What Card Works Best with Your Device?

Hundreds of manufacturers have built thousands of memory cards and devices to SD standards. Memory cards come in a variety of storage capacities, speed classes and three different physical sizes -- SD memory card, miniSD memory card, and microSD memory card. With so many choices, it’s important to understand which SD memory card works best with your mobile phones, tablets, personal computers, video cameras, digital cameras and other electronics devices.

	Full SD	miniSD	microSD	SD Card Capacity
SD				up to 2GB
SDHC				High Capacity 4GB to 32GB
SDXC				Extended Capacity Over 32GB up to 2TB

To determine the right card to match your device, always consult the device's user manual or contact the manufacturer.

If your device supports video recording, it’s important to understand your Speed Class choices.

Note: SD memory card and SD host device are the terms for licensed products that meet SD standards.* SD Association does not manufacture, market or sell any product; it creates standards and then promotes the adoption, advancement and use of SD standards used by competing product manufacturers that make interoperable memory cards and devices. For questions related to products, please contact the product manufacturer.

*SD, SDHC and SDXC are trademarks or registered trademarks of SD-3C in the United States, other countries or both. Also, miniSD, microSD, miniSDHC, microSDHC, microSDXC, smartSD, smartSDHC, SDIO and miniSDIO are all trademarks or registered trademarks of SD-3C in the United States, other countries or both. 

Greater Performance Choices

SD Speed Class standards were created to support video recording. SD memory card manufacturers use different types of flash memory to create an SD memory card, so actual transfer speed can vary. Varying speeds make it difficult to determine which card will provide reliable recording of streaming content because recording video requires a constant minimum write speed to ensure a smooth playback. The SD Association defines Speed Class standards indicated by speed symbols to help consumers decide what card will provide the required performance. There are two kinds of speed indications regarding SD bus generation:

Speed Class and UHS Speed Class* symbols indicate minimum video recording performance to ensure smooth video playback. This is important for camcorders, video recorders and other devices with video recording capabilities. The Speed Classes defined by the SD Association are Class 2, 4, 6 and 10.

UHS Speed Class is designed for UHS** devices only and designates minimum writing performance to record video on UHS products. The UHS Speed Classes defined by the SD Association are UHS Speed Class 1 (U1) and UHS Speed Class 3 (U3).

* (Speed Class and the UHS Speed Class are two different speed classes.)

**UHS (Ultra High Speed), the fastest performance category available today, defines bus-interface speeds up to 312 Megabytes per second for greater device performance. It is available on SDXC and SDHC memory cards and devices.

	Marks	Operable Under	Applications	SD Memory Card
Speed Class		High Speed Bus I/F	Full HD video recording HD still consecutive recording	SD, miniSD, microSD SDHC, miniSDHC, microSDHC SDXC, microSDXC
		Normal Bus I/F	HD ~ Full HD video recording
			SD video recording
UHS Speed Class		UHS-I Bus I/F UHS-II Bus I/F	Full higher potential of recording real-time broadcasts and capturing large-size HD videos (UHS Speed Class1 denotes a 10 MB/s minimum write speed)	SDHC UHS-I and UHS-II, SDXC UHS-I and UHS-II
			Capable of recording 4K2K video (UHS Speed Class 3 denotes 30 MB/s minimum write speed)