Buying Guides

Memory Cards Buying Guide

Memory card buying guide

Smartphones come with limited internal storage capacities. For example, some smartphones come with just 8GB of internal storage.

You therefore, have to expand the memory in order to have adequate storage for your multimedia files.

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However, memory cards are not created equal. There are different kind of memory cards that are designed to service different purposes.

If you are familiar with memory cards, you can go right ahead and check out the best deals we have on Micro-SD cards.

If not, read on to get all the insights.

That said, here is a what to consider next time you are shopping for memory cards.

Brands

There are a number of memory card manufacturers. Some popular brands include SanDisk, Samsung and Kingston. When shopping for a memory card, go for well established brands that have built their reputation over the years.

Size

There are two common memory card types.

We have the SD (Secure Digital) and Micro-SD (Micro-Secure Digital). SD cards are often bigger and are optimized to fit and work with Cameras and Camcorders.

Micro-SD cards are smaller, lighters and are designed to fit in your smartphone’s memory card slot. Therefore, go for Micro-SD cards when shopping for memory cards.

iOS devices such as the iPhone do not have a slot for a memory card, therefore most cards are optimized to run on Android smartphones.

Capacity

Memory cards have different capacities. The largest memory card capacity we have in the market is 512GB. However, the most common capacities start from 128 GB to 1GB.

The more the capacity a memory card has, the more you can store on it. For instance with a 16GB, you store about 10,000 high definition photos or about 15-minutes of HD videos.

Smartphone Type

Smartphones have a limit on the amount of memory capacity they can support. Most budget smartphones have a limit of up to 32GB.

However, newer models can support memory capacities of up to 512GB. Therefore, check the performance specifications of your smartphone before buying a memory just to be sure.

Read and Write Speed

Memory cards also have different read and write speeds. Modern Micro-SD cards have read and write speeds of up 100Mbs.

Most memory cards often have write speeds of up to 48Mbs.

So why should you care about the read and write speed?

Some photos and video modes require high speed write speed to work.

For instance, when capturing photos in a burst mode, your memory card has to be first enough to keep up with the camera. Therefore, in this situation, you need a card with a high write speed.

As for the read speed, i bet you have heard of the 4K video format.

It’s an ultra-high definition mode that requires high speed read memory in order play the videos you have stored in your memory card.

You are now ready to begin shopping for your next memory card. Check them out on Jumia.

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