Sandisk Micro-SDHC Secure Digital 8192 MB

I have a feeling that this review will be one of my shortest reviews ever, not because I can't be bothered, but because I'm not sure how much I can talk about a Micro SD card; none the less though, I thought I'd write about it anyway as I've had nothing but good experiences with this card from this brand.

I bought my card for £15, which is a couple of pounds more than you'd pay these days, but that's what happens with all technology since there's always new improved things being released all the time.

With the Micro SD card came a tiny USB reader (not always the case) so that you can put your card inside it, then into a USB port on your computer and this allows you to add and remove files and folders. This is very handy to have if you don't already have a card reader suitable for the Micro SD format (most seem to have SD but not Micro) although you also get an SD adapter which makes the Micro SD card into a standard size which can then be used on any other card readers you already have.

One thing I will say about the reader is that it is VERY small, and easily lost; I have lost it more times than I care to remember, and have since bought a normal card reader that I use with the SD adapter that also came in the package as I can never guarantee that I'll know where the included reader is when I find I need it.

I think this was also an extra pound or so than the Micro SD without the little reader, so if you don't need the reader, it may be worth saving a bit of money and going for one that doesn't have it in the package.

The card is an 8GB card which has a capacity of 8,160,542,720 bytes, although this isn't the total available memory that can be used as you'd find with any normal hard drive that you'd find on your computers. The total formatted memory that can be used is 7.59GB; and is formatted in the FAT32 file system which seems to be pretty standard with these size Micro SD cards.

The FAT32 system is an old computer file system that was used for computers before the NTFS system became the norm, but the system still works brilliantly for flash memory such as these cards due to their smaller memory capacity. The biggest restriction I can think this system has is that they have a maximum file size of 4GB, which means any file that is over 4GB will either not go on, or will have to be split if possible (which it's not always). I don't find this to be an issue as I use my card for music and images for the most part, so don't find that I need big files on there so would probably only be an issue for a small percentage of people using these cards.

This is a class 4 card which relates to the minimum sustained write speed of the card, or in layman's terms, how quickly (or slowly) your files transfer to and from the card, and how quickly they are able to be read by whatever device you use with your Micro SD HC (high capacity) card. As you can see below, Class 4 equates to 4MB of data per second; and as you'd expect, class 6 cards cost a little bit more than class 4.

Class 2: 2 MB/s; Class 4: 4 MB/s; Class 6: 6MB/s

Transferring files to the card from your computer once you have it plugged in is very simple, the operating system recognises it straight away without having to install any drivers and it just shows up as an extra storage device on your 'My Computer' section to which you can then open and copy files and folders over either using the copy function, or by dragging and dropping. You can of course also move the items needed over, if you don't require another copy of them on your actual computer; this is done using the 'cut' function.

Once you have transferred your files, it's just a case of clicking the 'safely remove hardware' icon in your system tray (bottom right in windows XP) and then selecting the correct drive (note: do not remove your normal hard drives, make sure you have the correct drive selected) as although it's not the end of the world if you do, you'll just end up creating more work for yourself; and none of us likes making things more difficult do we haha. You can of course just remove the USB or SD card from the PC/card reader as I do myself, but for the sake of this review I thought I should tell you the correct way to do things too.

The card performs the functions of storage and allowing the devices I use it in to the standard that I would expect and I think most people would be suitably satisfied with it; I'm not sure I'd notice too much difference in a higher class card with regards to speed. I've never had a problem with my card *touch wood* so would feel happy to recommend it to anybody.

Just another note before I go, these cards come with a 5 year warranty which gives me peace of mind, although I've never had a problem with mine so never had to deal with Sandisk customer service *touch wood again*.

As of writing this review, December 2008, the cheapest I have found the 8GB card has been play.com costing £12.99 with free delivery, plus a small percentage cashback at Quidco or whichever cashback site you use.

I didn't think I'd have that much to say about something like this so have surprised myself at how much I've managed, I hope it's been of some use to you .

Some information from the website:

Advanced Features:
• The microSD / Transflash cards are universally compatible
• Comes bundled with an SD Adapter, providing universal compatibility with other devices using a full-size SD memory card slot
• Built-in security features enable users to download, store and play secure content just like an SD card.
• 5-year limited warranty

Note: 1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes; 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. Some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions, and thus is not available for data storage. Read more.