A flash memory card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles. They are small, re-recordable, and they can retain data without power.
Flash memory cards types: Secure Digital (SD), MiniSD Card, CompactFlash (CF), Memory Stick (MS), MultiMediaCard (MMC) xD-Picture Card (xD) and SmartMedia (SM).
SD cards are now the most popular flash media type and getting bigger (up to 32GB) and faster (up to 150x speed and beyond) all the time!
4GB Flash Memory Cards:
Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card (TS4GSDHC6E)
(Price on Amazon.com: $6.75)
Kingston 4GB Class 4 SDHC Flash Memory Card (SD4/4GBET)
(Price on Amazon.com: $6.88)
Sony 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo Flash Memory Card (MSMT4G)
(Price on Amazon.com: $10.58)
Sandisk 4GB Secure Digital SDHC Flash Memory Card (SDSDB-4096)
(Price on Amazon.com: $7.08)
8GB Flash Memory Cards:
Transcend 8GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card (TS8GSDHC6)
(Price on Amazon.com: $13.50)
SanDisk 8GB Class 2 SDHC Flash Memory Card (SDSDB-8192)
(Price on Amazon.com: $7.16)
Kingston 8GB microSDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card (SDC4/8GB)
(Price on Amazon.com: $9.55)
16GB Flash Memory Cards:
Transcend 16GB Class 10 SDHC Card (TS16GSDHC10)
(Price on Amazon.com: $27.84)
SanDisk 16GB microSDHC Flash Memory Card (SDSDQ-016G)
(Price on Amazon.com: $23.99)
32GB Flash Memory Cards:
Transcend 32GB Ultimate Speed SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card (TS32GSDHC10)
(Price on Amazon.com: $49.59)
These are the ratings of some currently available cards:
- Class 0 cards do not specify performance, which includes all legacy cards prior to class specifications.
- Class 2, 2 MB/s, slowest for SDHC cards
- Class 4, 4 MB/s
- Class 6, 6 MB/s
- Class 10, 10 MB/s
The Speed Class Rating is the official unit of speed measurement for SD Cards, defined by the SD Association. The Class number represents a multiple of 8 Mb/s (1 MB/s), and meets the least sustained write speeds for a card in a fragmented state.