Difference Between SD And Micro SDHC Class 10 Cards

Posted by franklintom289 on December 5th, 2014

There are many differences between SD and micro SDHC cards. SDHC cards offer greater capacity, better read and write speeds and unmatchable overall performance as compared to SD cards.

 Secure Digital (SD)

The secure digital standard for memory cards was introduced in the year 1999 and succeeded the then popular multimedia cards (MMC). There are hundreds of brands that are currently using SD technology in their products.

SD cards can be further classified into other categories based on their capacity. These four categories are SDSC, SDHC, SDXC and SDIO. Further, there is also a classification based on the physical dimensions of SD cards- standard size, mini size and the micro size.

Therefore, if you find a memory card that says- Mirco SDHC Card Class 10, then you will now understand that significance of both micro and SDHC in the name.

 Difference between SD and SDHC cards

Compatibility

Since SDHC cards are derived from the older generation of SD cards, a device that supports SDHC cards can run SD cards as well, but devices that support SD cards cannot support SDHC cards. So if you are looking to buy a new memory card for your old mobile or digital camera, then make sure you get the right one.

 Capacity

There is a lot of difference in the capacities of SD and SDHC storage cards. While SD cards come with a limited storage space of around 4 GB, SDHC cards presently available in the market support storage of up to 128GB. This is because SD cards use byte addressing and SDHC cards use sector addressing in their storage.

File System

SD cards are formatted using the FAT16 file system and SDHC cards are formatted using the FAT32 file systems, but both SD and SDHC cards offer support for other types of file systems like the ext2 and the UFS2.

 Speed

SD cards are slower in comparison to SDHC cards. SDHC cards come in classes of 2, 4, 6 and 10, with micro SDHC class 10 cards being the fastest of the lot. These cards offer impressive read and write speeds, making them a perfect match for fast-processing digital devices such as smartphones and DSLR cameras.

 Buying Micro SDHC Cards

Micro SDHC cards of class 2/4/6/10 are available almost everywhere these days. They can easily be bought online as well. With increase in size and class speed, the price of the Micro SDHC cards increases.

Micro SDHC cards offer a number of benefits over standard SD cards, which is expected due to the vast difference in the technology used in making both of them.