Faster, bigger SD cards and Eris responsiveness

[kinakomochi]

Being new to the Eris and smartphones in general, I apologize in advance if I've missed something common-knowledge...

Today I got a 16GB Class 6 SD card in the mail, one to both max out storage and to settle a hunch -- that the class of card (i/o speed) would noticeably affect how the Eris responded. Class 6 cards are about 30 - 50% more cash than Class 2, but triple the rated write speed. Just happened to find one cheap enough to try it out...

Wow. Not only has everything from the pattern unlock screen to the browser become far more responsive, but the stutter for actions in the Sense UI is gone.

Now, for the circumstances... formatted the new card and copied the entire old card's contents onto it w/USB & my desktop. Added another 2GB of music while mounted... still slick. Mind you, tasks themselves don't happen any faster... just the delay between them I'd gotten used to, vanished...

Am I missing something? I'd hate to get anyone's hopes up, if this is just something that only resembles a performance tweak. Either the system or software use SD memory more than I'm aware, or this is all in my head. All I can say for certain is that my Eris is much nicer to use now.

 

[Caddyman]

this very well might help performance, only 1 way to find out, have more people try it.

 

[smittythepig]

great, so now i have to spend a fortune on a new SD card? how much was this card you bought?

 

[BigDaddyFromCincinnati]

$36.99 at Microcenter.com

Micro Center - 16GB CLASS 6 SDHC Card - Blue

 

[smittythepig]

well, that's not too bad. i guess maybe i'll wait and see if anyone else feels like this really works.

 

[rdalev]

Why not try this class 6 8mb card for $17.00 !

Newegg.com - A-DATA Turbo 8GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash Card Model TurboSD SDHC 8G - Flash Memory

In this case size doesn't matter, unless you really need all that storage, speed is the factor here .

 

[smittythepig]

Why not try this class 6 8mb card for $17.00 !

Newegg.com - A-DATA Turbo 8GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash Card Model TurboSD SDHC 8G - Flash Memory

In this case size doesn't matter, unless you really need all that storage, speed is the factor here .

good point!

 

[StDevious]

How can you put a SDHC card in that phone ?? don't phones take microSD ?

 

[Caddyman]

yes our phones take microsd

here is a class 6 8gb microsd for like 18 bux

http://www.supermediastore.com/prod...ntent=datafeed01&utm_campaign=googleBase - ME

 

[kinakomochi]

I found my 16GB Class 6 microSD for $47 at Buy.com just before Xmas. Afterwards, I'd seen them for as low as $36. Yes I kicked myself for not holding out four days. :/

Oh BTW... the prime reason for getting a 16GB in C6 vs an 8GB, was that my iTunes library took up a bit less than 7GB -- had 919MB left on the stock card. So figured if 16 was maxed, may as well see if i/o speed made the best of that capacity.

I did notice Eris was balking more at tasks like streaming YT video, the more I loaded onto the old C2 card, hence my hunch. If you think about it, 2MB/sec (C2 write speed) isn't very fast at all.

 

[stmartin84]

so all the applications downloaded from the market, contacts, video, mp3's, etc. are saved on your external microSD card? I heard that this phone only supports up to 16g, has anyone tried a 32g card?

 

[colornshape]

so all the applications downloaded from the market, contacts, video, mp3's, etc. are saved on your external microSD card? I heard that this phone only supports up to 16g, has anyone tried a 32g card?

Take from this what you will. Two weeks after I bought my Eris, I went back to a Verizon store. Both associates there told me that a 32 gb card would work.

Now, all I have to do is sell one of my kidneys, and I'll have enough money for one.

Matt

 

[erisuser1]

so all the applications downloaded from the market, contacts, video, mp3's, etc. are saved on your external microSD card? I heard that this phone only supports up to 16g, has anyone tried a 32g card?

Applications, no.
Contacts - unsure of this one.
Video, mp3's - yes.

Someone that uses the Mail app (not Gmail) who did a factory reset might be able to tell you whether they still had contacts afterward (the factory reset doesn't wipe the SD card).

 

[erisuser1]

Today I got a 16GB Class 6 SD card in the mail, one to both max out storage and to settle a hunch -- that the class of card (i/o speed) would noticeably affect how the Eris responded. Class 6 cards are about 30 - 50% more cash than Class 2, but triple the rated write speed. Just happened to find one cheap enough to try it out...

Wow. Not only has everything from the pattern unlock screen to the browser become far more responsive, but the stutter for actions in the Sense UI is gone.

That sort of surprises me, if the only difference in SD card performance is on the write side of things - you might expect apps starting up to be reading lots of things (wallpapers, etc), but writing on startup - not so much.

It is typical for Flash memory - of whatever class - to be asymmetric between read and write speed - reading is usually a lot faster than writing.

Maybe there is more writing to the SD card going on than I thought - either that or the read speed on the Class 6 cards is also improved.

Thanks for the report.

eu1


PS Gettin' to be about time for some of that Kinako Mochi, yes?

 

[thetomlin2]

That sort of surprises me, if the only difference in SD card performance is on the write side of things...

I was thinking the same thing. It will be interesting to see what happens with other peoples Eris if they try this. Personally, I thought it was the internial memory along with the processor on the Eirs that was causing any lag.

 

[snorge]

I read somewhere before the Eris ships with two different types of micro sd cards. I wonder if this could explain why some people complain so much of lag while others are perfectly happy.

 

[kinakomochi]

PS Gettin' to be about time for some of that Kinako Mochi, yes?

It's always time for kinako mochi, om nom nom...

eu1, I admit freely to the most superficial knowledge in the smartphone world... but lots of experience in similar disciplines, as well as claims by authorities in them that either sink or swim in the end. I was careful to not tout this as a definite hop-up tweak until I gathered more conditional data (and opened to peer review) to muckrake my observations... like a good n00b.

Another interesting comparison would be if someone bought an 8GB C6 card, and see if it gives similar changes with a similar complement of apps/data and Eris config -- that would proof if it's the class, or if it's the size, responsible for the improvement. Also, see if the improvements last over time, as I put more stuff on the card. Both will help narrow how the system interacts with SD memory, and may end up saving a peep some cash.

 

[iAndroiid]

I will be buying a 16gb and or 32gb and test it out

 

[erisuser1]

Another test to try would be to simply remove the SD card and see if that changes apparent responsiveness of the UI. (Or, alternatively, mount the SD card on a PC from the Eris using the USB cable - the OS seems to prevent simultaneous use of the SD card file system by both the Eris and the Linux kernel by unmounting the SD card when the PC has access to it).

eu1

Edit: I note that the OP mentioned browser speedup - speedup for that activity is completely believable as the browser writes thumbnails of pages into /sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1. A faster card will certainly help that type of activity, as well as any camera recording (image/video), or maybe downloads if a fast link is involved (WiFi, not 3G).

 

[iAndroiid]

Another test to try would be to simply remove the SD card and see if that changes apparent responsiveness of the UI. (Or, alternatively, mount the SD card on a PC from the Eris using the USB cable - the OS seems to prevent simultaneous use of the SD card file system by both the Eris and the Linux kernel by unmounting the SD card when the PC has access to it).

eu1

Edit: I note that the OP mentioned browser speedup - speedup for that activity is completely believable as the browser writes thumbnails of pages into /sdcard/.bookmark_thumb1. A faster card will certainly help that type of activity, as well as any camera recording (image/video), or maybe downloads if a fast link is involved (WiFi, not 3G).

thanks for the tip! I was about to buy a 32gb card last night but the fact that I checked the reviews and almost everyone said the card stopped working made me not get it. Anyone know of any good 32gb cards out there that will keep working and not stop working? If not I'll have to settle for a 16gb card. Also, I can't wait for Seidio to finish the 3,500mah battery. The day they post it on there website is the day I buy it.

 

[Ruben]

This is all very interesting. Is it that we can only save apps when/if the device is rooted?

 

[L0stS0ul]

yes, only a rooted phone can save apps out to the sd card and run them from there. Non-rooted phones have to "install" them thru the installer into a special location in ROM.

 

[kinakomochi]

Interesting responses -- learning a lot, which is great.

 

[hrbib21]

Good info, thanks. I may very well try this myself...

 

[canrunin]

if anybody else tries the 16gb class 6 i would like to know there results too.