Survey: 7 new SD and SDHC cards

It's not worth making do without memory any more : the price per GB is falling fast.  We found this 2 GB Transcend card, for example, for only 2.28 € (not including shipping).  Even at the other end of the scale, 16 GB cards are becoming much more affordable. 

So, a simple question: are all of these cards the same?  They must all work at the same speed, right?  No, actually.  There are huge differences between cards, which can end up meaning it takes ten minutes or so longer to download all of your photos.

Another question posed by our selection of SD cards is the compatibility with micro SD cards.  The PNY 4 in 1 we tested shows that using a MicroSD with an adaptor can be an attractive solution if you have lots of devices (compact digital camera, GPS, mobile phone …), but the transfer rates aren’t as good as with dedicated SD cards.

The new tests we’ve added to our ongoing survey are as follows:

• Lexar 2 GB and 4 GB
• PNY 4in1 4 GB and Optima 8 GB
• Transcend 2 GB
• Verbatim 8 GB and 16 GB

> Ongoing survey: SD cards