On your marks...
Often overlooked, SD and MicroSD cards are an absolute must
for many of today's gadgets. From phones to laptops, cameras and quadcopters,
SD cards are required to store data and gather images and footage from the heart
of the action. After being sent one of their new Elite Performance 32 GB MicroSDHC
Cards, we wanted to pit PNY's kit against another leading flash storage
provider, Kingston. Let the transfers begin!
The device we chose was the Samsung Galaxy S4 (as we had two
of the same specification and age available) while the file was a 300MB .avi
Simpsons episode, ripped from the DVD. It was a simple case of transferring the
file to both phones via USB cable, then inserting the PNY card into one phone,
and Kingston card into the other.
Using the phones' native Samsung File Manager, we set both
phones to transfer the Simpsons episodes to their waiting SDs, tapping copy at
the very same time. This would test the cards' write speed, the speed at which
data can be copied onto them.
The winner... well, after 11.5 seconds of copying, the PNY
card won the race, with the Kingston coming closely in second with a time of
12.9 seconds. And in case you were wondering if it was the phones that made
that crucial difference, we swapped the cards in the handsets and set the transfer
going once again. This time the PNY won at 11.9 seconds, and the Kingston came
in at 12.5. So, in terms of the write speed, the PNY has it.
Next we removed both cards from the phones and inserted them
both into the same model of MicroSD card reader. Don't ask us the make of this
reader - they were picked up cheaply on Ebay several years ago for a few pence
each, but have stood the test of time very well ever since (the same model of
which enjoyed a repair job courtesy of Sugru right here).
Both readers were then inserted into neighbouring USB ports
on an Acer Aspire One laptop, and the copy of the Simpson episodes was started.
Clearly both cards can be read from much quicker, as this time the PNY scored a
impressive 4.1 seconds, while the Kingston was just piped at 4.4 seconds.
Barely anything in it, but still it was an interesting experiment.
So do check out PNY's range of cards as they have the honour
of receiving our seal of approval. We know... a pretty big deal, yeah?
Visit www.pny-europe.com