I have just gone through 4 sd cards, all of different brands, about to get my 5th so I figured I give a little insight on class ratings, cost and brands of microSD to help people deciding on which to buy.
The comparisons are among a Sandisk 16GB class 2, Sandisk 2GB class 2, PNY 4GB class 4 and RiDATA 16GB class 6.
Somewhat surprisingly, both of the Sandisks performed significantly better than the other 2 SD cards. My standard transfer rates to and from these were averaged at 4.5 to 5 MB/s, whereas the PNY was typically 2MB/s and the highest I saw was 3.2MB/s, while the RiDATA was actually the worst at consistent 1.9-2.2 MB/s. While the cheapies (PNY, RiDATA, Komputerbay, etc.) seem appealing at a sometimes lower price, they definitely do not perform anywhere near as well as Kingston and Sandisk, which seem to perform above and beyond their specs. Funny thing is I have been seeing the higher end sd cards from the cheap brands, like 16GB class 4 and up, being the same price as Kingston and Sandisk. I am about to receive my next SD, a Kinston 16GB class 4, and have seen nothing but great ratings on as well and is rated by consumers to have a consistent transfer rate of at least 6MB/s. I have also seen reviews on the Transcend SD cards having the same issues as these other low grade brands, but the reviews are definitely mixed because some people report having "quick transfer rates", but I have never used one of these so I cannot say for myself what is true of these.
But in my conclusion, unless you are getting a Sandisk or Kingston, you will be disappointed to find that the card you bought is definitely not even worth a class 2 rating most of the time.
I know some will probably say "Well so-and-so did a speed test on such-and-such card and it did well on it." Well, those do not apply to real world situations where someone is actually transferring differentiating amounts of data to/from the card so I couldn't give a crap about those anymore. I personally have used many SD cards and watched the transfer rates of each one, differing from transferring anywhere between 30MB to 10GB at a time and seen the same transfer rates in each of these cards.
So do not be swayed or fooled by the seductive price and "high rating" of the low brand microSDs, spend a couple extra dollars and get what you're paying for.
The comparisons are among a Sandisk 16GB class 2, Sandisk 2GB class 2, PNY 4GB class 4 and RiDATA 16GB class 6.
Somewhat surprisingly, both of the Sandisks performed significantly better than the other 2 SD cards. My standard transfer rates to and from these were averaged at 4.5 to 5 MB/s, whereas the PNY was typically 2MB/s and the highest I saw was 3.2MB/s, while the RiDATA was actually the worst at consistent 1.9-2.2 MB/s. While the cheapies (PNY, RiDATA, Komputerbay, etc.) seem appealing at a sometimes lower price, they definitely do not perform anywhere near as well as Kingston and Sandisk, which seem to perform above and beyond their specs. Funny thing is I have been seeing the higher end sd cards from the cheap brands, like 16GB class 4 and up, being the same price as Kingston and Sandisk. I am about to receive my next SD, a Kinston 16GB class 4, and have seen nothing but great ratings on as well and is rated by consumers to have a consistent transfer rate of at least 6MB/s. I have also seen reviews on the Transcend SD cards having the same issues as these other low grade brands, but the reviews are definitely mixed because some people report having "quick transfer rates", but I have never used one of these so I cannot say for myself what is true of these.
But in my conclusion, unless you are getting a Sandisk or Kingston, you will be disappointed to find that the card you bought is definitely not even worth a class 2 rating most of the time.
I know some will probably say "Well so-and-so did a speed test on such-and-such card and it did well on it." Well, those do not apply to real world situations where someone is actually transferring differentiating amounts of data to/from the card so I couldn't give a crap about those anymore. I personally have used many SD cards and watched the transfer rates of each one, differing from transferring anywhere between 30MB to 10GB at a time and seen the same transfer rates in each of these cards.
So do not be swayed or fooled by the seductive price and "high rating" of the low brand microSDs, spend a couple extra dollars and get what you're paying for.
