16gb Class 6 MicroSDHC card = no good for Hero?

[dvdqnoc]

First of all, let me note that the card that comes with the phone is a SanDisk 2gb MicroSD card, NOT MicroSDHC. Check if for yourself if you dont believe me.

Now. I ordered a Transcend 16gb Class 6 MicroSDHC card from eBay last week, and i've been playing with it ever since. And let me tell you, the performance on my Hero has been BAD with it in several ways. First of all, it does NOT improve overall speed of the Sprint Hero. I bought it mainly it enhance the experience of the Music player (to make the music app faster) but I can assure you it is the SAME (if not slower) with the class 6 card compared to the stock card.

And one thing I have noticed, which is very very annoying for me, is that whenever I have the class 6 card in my Hero, it takes long for the phone to wake when you press the menu/end buttons. Like say your phone is asleep, and you press menu/end buttons. Sometimes, with the stock card, it takes a second for the screen to come on. And that's ok. But with my Transcend class 6 card, sometimes it takes up to 3-4 seconds for the screen to turn on. I did some rigorous tests and experiments to ensure that this wasnt merely my imagination. I even, at one point, thought it was my phone that was the problem so I exchanged it for a brand new one at Best Buy and the exact same thing happens for my new Hero.

Does anyone know if the Hero is supposed to not work well with MicroSDHC card's as opposed to normal MicroSD cards? PS - I tried formatting the class 6 card on my computer using 32k instead of 16k but no help from that. Still same results.

 

[asapelectric]

I seen some one on here say that a HTC rep told them that only class 2 would be best. Thats my take on it.

 

[dvdqnoc]

Yeah, but the issue here is not between the class. It's between MicroSD and MicroSDHC.

 

[xisruno]

I just bought a 16GB micro sdhc class 2 Duracell and dont have any problems with it.

 

[pking]

Adata 16gb class-6 here, and it runs beautifully. The only thing that slows down the music app is the massive amount of music it has to scroll through. That lag I fully expect.

Outside of that I don't see any performance difference between using my 16gb and the 2gb card that came with the phone.

 

[dvdqnoc]

Adata 16gb class-6 here, and it runs beautifully. The only thing that slows down the music app is the massive amount of music it has to scroll through. That lag I fully expect.

Outside of that I don't see any performance difference between using my 16gb and the 2gb card that came with the phone.

Is the phone any faster with the A-data card? Or is it the same as the stock 2gb card?

Also, if you could, do this for me (I'm assuming your A-data card is in the Hero right now): Let your Hero sit on the desk for a good 10-12 minutes without ever waking it up. Then press the menu/end button to wake it up. How long did it take for the screen to light up? Was it immediate, or did it delay a bit? Because the problem might be the Transcend card I got, and I might return it and get an A-data instead.

 

[pking]

The card really shouldn't affect the speed of your phone at all, aside from when you're actively accessing data from the card. I notice no difference whether I use the stock 2gb, my Adata 16, or no card at all.

If you're finding that the card is significantly slowing down your phone, even when you're not accessing data on the card, it's definitely a possibility you've got a bad card. Does the card seem to be slow to respond when you're copying data to/from the phone? Have you tried the card in a different device?

[edit]
Forgot to answer your question - the phone wakes nearly immediately regardless of how long it's been sleeping. I do not, however, have any widgets or shortcuts on my home screen that access the card (music widget, playlist shortcuts, etc)

 

[dvdqnoc]

The card really shouldn't affect the speed of your phone at all, aside from when you're actively accessing data from the card. I notice no difference whether I use the stock 2gb, my Adata 16, or no card at all.

If you're finding that the card is significantly slowing down your phone, even when you're not accessing data on the card, it's definitely a possibility you've got a bad card. Does the card seem to be slow to respond when you're copying data to/from the phone? Have you tried the card in a different device?

[edit]
Forgot to answer your question - the phone wakes nearly immediately regardless of how long it's been sleeping. I do not, however, have any widgets or shortcuts on my home screen that access the card (music widget, playlist shortcuts, etc)

I only have the small HTC Music widget on one of my homescreens. And yes, it is very possibly that I got a bad card. However, copying and deleting files to/from the card (via plugging in usb from phone to computer) is very fast. So I dont know what's going on. I have not tried the card in a different device because I don't have one. Is your phone's music app and album app faster with the class 6 card? Like does it do a faster job of accessing picture files and music files than the stock card?

 

[troyboytn]

I really dont know what your problem might be. Transcend is supposed to be a quality brand. I use a Sandisk mobile ultra sdhc class 6 8gb card and experience very good tranfer speeds and have never had a problem with accessing or listening to music. Also, my screen wakes almost instantly after pushing end/menu. My advice is to format once again, just as you did already....using 32kb setting with slow format (not quick format). Otherwise, I'm clueless as to any other suggestions.

 

[dvdqnoc]

I really dont know what your problem might be. Transcend is supposed to be a quality brand. I use a Sandisk mobile ultra sdhc class 6 8gb card and experience very good tranfer speeds and have never had a problem with accessing or listening to music. Also, my screen wakes almost instantly after pushing end/menu. My advice is to format once again, just as you did already....using 32kb setting with slow format (not quick format). Otherwise, I'm clueless as to any other suggestions.

Well first of all, I want to get a 16gb, not an 8gb. I found this on Amazon... it seems to be a microSD, not SDHC, and doesnt say what class:
Amazon.com: 16GB Mobile Ultra Microsd Card: Electronics

I am having a hard time finding a class 6 mobile ultra microSDHC my Sandisk, on Amazon at least.

 

[troyboytn]

Here is a link to info about the mobile ultra i bought from Amazon. This is th UK Sandisk site as it is not offered on the US site. However, it looks as though the 16gb is not branded mobile ultra and is actually a class 4 (the 8gb is class 6) SanDisk | Products | Mobile Memory | SanDisk

 

[deryn]

I have a 16gb SDHC Class 2 and it works fine

 

[elguapo76]

I have a 16GB Ridata class 6 card in mine and it works just fine. Ebay has been a breeding ground for fake flash memory so it could be you got a relabeled card. Try testing the transfer speeds to your pc. It should be in the 4.5-7mb a second range.

 

[pking]

it seems to be a microSD, not SDHC, and doesnt say what class

All microSD cards with capacities > 4GB are SDHC cards, the 'HC' just means 'High Capacity'

It's my opinion that if you can't determine the specifications of a product you're considering buying ( class rating, etc ), it probably shouldn't be your first choice.

As an aside, I've used 4 different Adata cards in the 4, 8, and now 16GB ranges, all class 6, and they've been nothing short of great. They're consistently the lowest priced on newegg (within the class ratings of course), however they seem to get far fewer 'this was a peice of crap DNB!' type reviews from what I've seen.

 

[dvdqnoc]

All microSD cards with capacities > 4GB are SDHC cards, the 'HC' just means 'High Capacity'

It's my opinion that if you can't determine the specifications of a product you're considering buying ( class rating, etc ), it probably shouldn't be your first choice.

As an aside, I've used 4 different Adata cards in the 4, 8, and now 16GB ranges, all class 6, and they've been nothing short of great. They're consistently the lowest priced on newegg (within the class ratings of course), however they seem to get far fewer 'this was a peice of crap DNB!' type reviews from what I've seen.

Amazon.com: 16GB Mobile Ultra Microsd Card: Electronics
This is a 16gb microSD, not SDHC, card. It just doesnt say what class it is. I'm thinking about just going with a 16gb A-data class like you. Does your Hero do a faster job of reading music/picture files from the A-data card compared to the stock 2gb card? Like when browsing and listening to music on the stock Music app, for example? Thanks

 

[pking]

Again, anything > 4GB is, by definition, microSDHC - the microSD specification simply does not support higher capacities than that, but I digress..

You're not going to notice any significant difference between a class 2 and class 6 card for things like browsing through your file list or listening to an MP3 - the data transferred while doing so is significantly smaller than the maximum throughput of the card even at class 2 speeds.

To give an example - if you had a file listing where the list alone was ~ 2mb, that would be hundreds of thousands of files, and class 2 cards can transfer between 1-2mb / s.

Where you might see a difference are things such as playback of large video files from the card, or when transferring large files to/from the card.

Pulling up large file listings or browsing around in the card is going to be far more dependent on how quickly the device can process all that data into a 'user friendly' format than how quickly the card can transfer it.

To get to a point - the difference between a class 2 card and a class 6 card is going to be fairly negligible for day-to-day usage (browsing the card, listening to music), and only really come into play with large files or when transferring large amounts of data.


[edit]

To get to a more relevant point for you - if you are noticing that the stock class 2 card is considerably faster doing the same tasks on the same data than your class 6 card, you've definitely got a problem with your card.

 

[dvdqnoc]

Again, anything > 4GB is, by definition, microSDHC - the microSD specification simply does not support higher capacities than that, but I digress..

You're not going to notice any significant difference between a class 2 and class 6 card for things like browsing through your file list or listening to an MP3 - the data transferred while doing so is significantly smaller than the maximum throughput of the card even at class 2 speeds.

To give an example - if you had a file listing where the list alone was ~ 2mb, that would be hundreds of thousands of files, and class 2 cards can transfer between 1-2mb / s.

Where you might see a difference are things such as playback of large video files from the card, or when transferring large files to/from the card.

Pulling up large file listings or browsing around in the card is going to be far more dependent on how quickly the device can process all that data into a 'user friendly' format than how quickly the card can transfer it.

To get to a point - the difference between a class 2 card and a class 6 card is going to be fairly negligible for day-to-day usage (browsing the card, listening to music), and only really come into play with large files or when transferring large amounts of data.

Ok. I never dissagreed with your first statement about the definition of SDHC, I was just wondering because the Amazon listing of that item shows a 16gb microSD, not SDHC, and that just got my puzzled.

Now, onto the topic of the actual speed. It seemed like most of your argument revolved around the idea of 'large amounts of data'. Well I have about 700 mp3's that are waiting to be put onto my Hero. And when I finally find the right SD, I'm gonna dump all those mp3's on there and stick it in my phone. Well whenever I open my Hero Music app and browse through those 700 songs, the Hero is gonna have to pull data from my SD card, no? And that's what I was talking about earlier. I know with a slow card, there will be a bit of lag in doing this because it will take time for the Hero to obtain data for these 700 songs from the card as I browse through them all. And I was wondering if you knew if a faster class SD card will speed that up at all.

 

[pking]

And I was wondering if you knew if a faster class SD card will speed that up at all.

That's exactly the point I was trying to make - it will speed up copying all that music to your card, but not the actual day-to-day usage of that music.

 

[dvdqnoc]

That's exactly the point I was trying to make - it will speed up copying all that music to your card, but not the actual day-to-day usage of that music.

So you're the class speed only regards the write speed and not the read speed?

Like right now, I have like 20 or 30 songs on my stock SD card. When I open my Music app, and then click the bottom-left "list" icon to show options for artists, playlists, songs, etc, it takes about 2 seconds to transition there. I'm assuming that delay is the time it takes for the Hero to "read" the music data on the SD card and then display it non the screen for us to see. I was hoping that a higher class card would mean that delay would be minimized, and it would take less time for the phone to "read" data from the card and present it to the user. I guess that's not the case then?

 

[pking]

Unfortunately no, it's not.

The class does determine both read and write speeds, with class 6 being faster in both regards.

When you're 'reading the list of songs' - the phone isn't looking at all 700mb of mp3 data, it's looking at file headers - the ID3 tags specifically - which are very small compared to the total size of an mp3. The average ID3 tag is ~ 355 bytes, so for 100 mp3s, that's only 35.5kb - whether you're transfering that amount of data at 2mb/s or 100mb/s, it's only going to take a fraction of a second to transfer.

The phone is going to take a lot longer on the 'displaying it to the user' part than the 'reading it from the card' part - so you're not going to see a difference between class 2 and 6 here.

 

[dvdqnoc]

Unfortunately no, it's not.

The class does determine both read and write speeds, with class 6 being faster in both regards.

When you're 'reading the list of songs' - the phone isn't looking at all 700mb of mp3 data, it's looking at file headers - the ID3 tags specifically - which are very small compared to the total size of an mp3. The average ID3 tag is ~ 355 bytes, so for 100 mp3s, that's only 35.5kb - whether you're transfering that amount of data at 2mb/s or 100mb/s, it's still going to take a fraction of a second to transfer.

The phone is going to take a lot longer on the 'displaying it to the user' part than the 'reading it from the card' part - so you're not going to see a difference between class 2 and 6 here.

Ah, and since the 'displaying it to the user' part is solely the job of the phone, not the sd card, it would take the same amount of time regardless of the SD card's class correct? And since the 'reading it from the card' part is only reading the headers, it also would be just about the same speed regardless of the class. This is what I got from what you said, assuming I did not misunderstand anything.

Well in that case, when you pay for a higher class SD card, you're basically only paying for the speed of copying/deleting files to/from the SD like when the phone is mounted via usb cable to the computer, right? What you see on the phone's screen is virtually the same regardless of the class?

 

[pking]

That's the just of it.

There are several other reasons for opting for class 6 however - video files are one of the big ones, the custom stuff you can do with a rooted phone being the other.

If you plan on rooting your phone, having class 6 gives a huge benefit over class 2 - many of the custom ROMs give you the ability to store your apps on the SD card, as well as setting up a memory swap partition. Both of these would use the card pretty intensively, and the speed difference would be very noticeable.

The price difference for the 16GB class 2 and class 6 cards isn't all that much, getting class 6 is worth it just for the options it opens up, regardless of whether you'll use them now.

 

[dvdqnoc]

Well let me ask you this then. Is there any way to improve the speed of the browsing in the Hero's music app? Like getting rid of those annoying delays when tapping different options to view artists, playlists, etc? Or is that just a characteristic of the Hero that can't be changed?

 

[pking]

It's characteristic of HTC's music player more than anything else. You could try a different music player from the market, but you won't be able to change the performance/behavior of the 'stock' music player on the Hero.

 

[chris4chelsea]

Well let me ask you this then. Is there any way to improve the speed of the browsing in the Hero's music app? Like getting rid of those annoying delays when tapping different options to view artists, playlists, etc? Or is that just a characteristic of the Hero that can't be changed?

Yo dvdqnoc, pls let me join in. I have recently bought a Transcend 8GB class6 but I have noticed that the phone generally behaved slower as compare to the time when i was using the stk SD. One possible reason maybe i have been installing more apps than previously... can some expert tell me how i can check my phone mem availability? from what i understand, the more apps i installed the less mem will be ava for running apps so in turn slowing the phone.

BUT one very noticeable lag i found is the music app! when the music app changes title, most of the time, for sure each song will lag (jitter) during the first 10 secs and from time to time it will be like that in middle of some random songs. there r no problem with the mp3s coz i have been listening to them on itunes and other portable players!!

can anyone give me any suggestion / advise. i love the phone, but this issue is currently bugging me!