64gb Micro SD work on phone?

[suo52scots]

Hey people, I am just wanting some opinions from those clever people out there regarding this new microSD card that is about to launch.
I am currently using an HTC Legend with a 32gb (Class 10) Lexar MicroSD card in it and it works just fine... There are a lot of posts elsewhere that say that these smart phones will not cope with more than 16gb microSD cards and thus will not put up with 64gb. As my little Legend can cope with 32gb should it be able to handle the 64gb when it arrives on sale?
thanks so much for your time

 

[lordofthereef]

I am no expert, but assuming the standards are the same (which I would think they would be, I don't see a reason why this wouldn't work for you.

 

[NightAngel79]

pretty sure it won't handle over a 32 gig card (almost 100% positive)

moving to Android Lounge as this is an Android limitation in general, title updated as well

 

[lordofthereef]

^^^ Now is this because of software limit, hardware limit, or.... ?

 

[NightAngel79]

I am no expert, but assuming the standards are the same (which I would think they would be, I don't see a reason why this wouldn't work for you.

I disagree, windows needed to push a patch to allow for support of 32 gig cards when they came out. That tells me they are different enough that some sort of patch/etc would be required... could be wrong though


edit: would guess software Reef

 

[suo52scots]

Thank you for your time getting back to me both of you. Ill just have to hope for a patch .... also ill be waiting to see the price tag first as the 32gb cost me an arm and a leg!

 

[NightAngel79]

yea, when they are new they are expensive as ****

If i had to bet on it I would say that once they are out (if they aren't already) that then new phones will come out that support it but no old ones will. Purely a guess though

 

[lordofthereef]

Well, the product exists (or will exist) so there will likely be a push to have out devices able to use it. Again, I am no expert, but I would guess there will at least be a third party tweak enabling this down the road, and will likely be cooked into new versions of android in the future.

 

[NightAngel79]

Well, the product exists (or will exist) so there will likely be a push to have out devices able to use it. Again, I am no expert, but I would guess there will at least be a third party tweak enabling this down the road, and will likely be cooked into new versions of android in the future.

I definitely hope so. Not sure if anything special had to be done when 32's hit the market....

 

[PyroSporker]

I'm not an expert, but to the best of my knowledge a 64GB SD card will not work in current Android phones. I believe they use a different hardware setup, software setup, and file system to handle the increased capacity as far as I know. Current phones had to be software upgraded to fully utilize 32GB cards when they entered the market. It was easily possible because they are in the same classification of SD card - microSD-HC. The new 64+GB cards are MicroSD-XC, and use similar but different technology.

I cannot rule out the fact that some hardware setups may be able to run an XC card. But Android software will need an update that changes the read/write programming and file system, which sounds like a major overhaul (but who knows, maybe with Root someone can hack it). Current Android is built on the FAT file system, XC cards require the exFAT file system. As far as I know manufacturers will have to use a new hardware port for XC cards too - I would guess for increased power, better connectivity, or increased transferability and to adopt the new standards or something.

I could easily be wrong, but I feel pretty confident in my research.
Go to the source, the SD Association, for SD card info: https://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdxc/using_sdxc
Feel free to look around the net for other opinions too, that is what I did a while ago when 64GB cards were announced.

 

[suo52scots]

This link was really helpful and will get my laptop multi card reader up to speed for the transition cheers!

 

[PyroSporker]

This link was really helpful and will get my laptop multi card reader up to speed for the transition cheers!

They also have an awesome SD Card Formatting tool for the PC. It allows for more options than the phone allows (like FULL overwrite - which does a more complete job on the used portion of the SD card). Bookmark it, it will come in handy sometime.

 

[daveybaby]

The answer to the OP's question is: maybe, but probably not.

As pyrosporker has already said, most if not all android phones currently on the market are designed for SDHC, which is a standard which goes up to 32GB in size. Cards larger than that will require a phone that supports the new SDXC standard - so a 64GB card (which will be SDXC) won't work in a phone that only has SDHC support.

HOWEVER: SDXC is designed to be backwards compatible with SDHC (which in turn is backwards compatible with original SD). When we switched from SD to SDHC some supposedly non-HC devices could read lower capacity (up to 4GB) SDHC cards. Some devices could be made fully compatible with SDHC with a software update. And some devices were stuck with normal SD (limited to cards 1GB in size) for good.

The same things will apply to pretty much every different phone out there at the moment. Some may be able to use 64GB cards already (unlikely). Some may be able to use all SDXC cards with a firmware update (either provided by the manufacturer or via a custom ROM). Some will be stuck with SDHC at the 32GB limit for good.

 

[ChrisLeon]

I too am using an HTC Legend with the original 4g that came with the set; unfortunately after about 9 months usage, I am experiencing crawling speed with most applications. I am just wondering whether upgrading to a 32gb (Class 10) Lexar MicroSD card would be the solution for me.

 

[NightAngel79]

doesnt really sound like that is the sd cards fault

 

[The_Chief]

Well, this should explain a lot:

SanDisk Announces 64GB microSDXC card but don't get too excited | Android Central

So in essence: NO. 32GB is the max right now, and you'll need a special SDXC slot to take advantage of higher-memory cards. But those slots will soon be industry standard... just not now. SORRY!

 

[Shocky]

From Wiki, if I'm understanding this correctly it could work if Google add support to Android.

SDHC and SDXC compatibility issues

In the 3.0 specification, the electronic interface of SDHC and SDXC cards is the same. This means that SDHC hosts that have drivers that recognize the newly used capability bits, and have operating system software that understands the exFAT filesystem, are compatible with SDXC cards.

SDHC and SDXC cards and hosts have these compatibility issues:

Existing SDHC hosts will only support the SDXC cards at up to UHS104 speeds.

SDXC hosts are backward compatible with SD and SDHC memory cards.

The operating systems that support SDXC, as of 2011, are: Linux (with a proprietary driver for the exFAT filesystem), Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1+, Windows XP SP2 or SP3 with KB955704, Windows Server 2008 SP1+, Windows Server 2003 SP2 or SP3 with KB955704, Windows CE 6+, Mac OS X 10.6.5 or later.

 

[quick1906]

I ordered the Sandisk 64gb microSDXC and received it on Friday. It seems to be working fine in my Motorola Droid Bionic (non-rooted, stock rom). When I first put it in, it asked me to format it, so I did. In the end it said it has 59.46GB of total space. I have been using and filling it up (transferred about 16GB so far) since Friday and have not had any problems. Have gotten read/write speeds consistent with a class 6 card (6-7 MB/s both read and write using SD Card Tester app).

 

[quick1906]

To test its true capacity and class you would have to run a test like this:

Download H2testw 1.4 Free - Check your USB for errors with this tool. - Softpedia

I bought an SD card off of Ebay and every computer/camera/camcorder I put it in said it was 32GB but once I ran the test it turned out to only be 512MB. It would let me write large files to it but all it did was rewrite over itself. The test takes a while so don't let your computer fall asleep or you have to start all over again. It also requires a format before starting so you will lose everything that is on it.

Thanks for the information. I may try this later this week just because I am curious. I am not too worried about it, because I bought it directly from SanDisk and if it does turn out not to be functioning properly then I can return directly to them.

 

[JnEricsonx]

Man....if this sucker works on Thunderbolt....well, I'm broke and jobless, but it'd be a kick to know I can get it down the road, when the price drops somewhat.

 

[GoldenBulletXD]

Wow thats alot of space, What exactly do you need 64gb for?

 

[Yeahha]

Wow thats alot of space, What exactly do you need 64gb for?

I could use it, I am almost out of data on my 32GB micro SD. I've got approx 10k image files stored on it currently, useful when trying to theme something. I ran out of space before and had to delete old backups as well as some older rom zips I wont be needing.

 

[GoldenBulletXD]

I cant even fill up my 4GB

 

[The_Chief]

Well, I stand corrected then

I have a 32GB card which is about half full. Not sure when I would ever need a 64GB card, but it's nice to know they're out there.

 

[NZtechfreak]

These cards are working in Android devices - they just need reformatting to Fat32 in the device itself, but after that it works fine. Works in my Galaxy S on Froyo, my SGSII, my Transformer, and my stock HTC Sensation - I suspect it will work in most SDHC compatible devices.

I've already nearly filled the card, oh well... look forward to 128GB cards next year? Better start saving now...

Lots more detail with benchmarks and so forth at AndroidNZ: Sandisk 64GB Micro SDXC cards confirmed WORKING in Galaxy S II, HTC Sensation, Galaxy S

Sandisk 64GB Micro SDXC Vs Samsung Galaxy S II - YouTube