Different Types of SD Cards

SD (Secure Digital) cards are the flash memory that is approved by the SD card association. There are different types of SD cards that are now available in the market for use. With a great variety available, it is often difficult to know what the correct use of each of these different types of SD cards.

To begin with, there are three basic SD cards types which include SD, microSD and miniSD card. SD cards are of the normal SDcard dimensions and comes quite handy with most of the devices. The evolution of ever smaller gadgets especially cell phones required the introduction of even smaller SD cards. Thus, the miniSD and microSD card fulfill these requirements. The first miniSD and microSD cards were introduced in the market by Sandisk.

MiniSD cards are 37% of the size of SD cards and are therefore more compatible with smaller devices. They function exactly like the normal SDcard but in a small card. It has the same speed and storage as the SDcard. The miniSD card is used along with its adapter for transferring the digital data to any SD enabled device.

MicroSD cards are even much smaller than the miniSD card. The ever evolving mobile industry has been the reason for the production of microSD card. It is one fourth of the standard SDcard size. MicroSD cards are the most common of the SD cards used today for the mobile phones. This is because of its ultra small size and the variety of SD interface it can support.

The miniSD and microSD card are usable in full size SD and MMC slots via an adapter. Both the micro and miniSD cards show backward compatibility. That is they can be used in place of the standard SD cards with the use of its adapter. This is one of the reasons that microSD cards have increased in use extensively as they are they can be used in place of all other SDcards introduced before it. MicroSD cards also support SDIO mode unlike the other two.

When it comes to the speed and performance both these cards, the miniSD and the microSD are similar to the standard SDcard and is available in same speed classes. All these cards have storage capacities that vary from 16 MB to 2 GB. It is because of its compact size and extensive use that these are more expensive as compared to the standard card. These cards are also used in the GPS systems, portable audio and video player and some other devices.