Hardware Bistro

Product: SDC4/4GB & SDC4/8GB
Manufacturer: Kingston
Supplied by: Kingston
Price: 12.6USD/RM45, 23.8USD/RM85
Launch Date: NA

 

Secure Digital (SD) card should not sound new to you if you have any gadget like digital camera, smart phone or similar devices that requires external storage as SD card is being widely used since last old years ago. SD card has quite number of advantages such as small size and low cost. Today we will review Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC which is an ideal storage media for mobile phone.

 

Company Profile

Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world's independent memory leader.
Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and cell phones. In 2007, the company's sales exceeded $4.5 billion.

With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,500 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the "Best Companies to Work for in America" by Fortune magazine, Kingston's tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston's success.

 

Features/Benefits:

• Compliant - with the SD Specification Version 2.00
• Versatile - when combined with the adapter, can be used as a full-size SDHC card
• Compatible - with microSDHC host devices; not compatible with standard microSD-enabled device/readers
• File Format - FAT 32
• Reliable - lifetime warranty

Specifications:

• Capacity** - 4GB, 8GB
• Dimensions - 0.43 x 0.59 x 0.039 ( 11mm x 15mm x 1mm)
• High-Speed Class Rating Class 4: 4MB/sec. minimum data transfer rate
• Operating temperatures - -13°F to 185°F (-25°C to 85°C)
• Storage temperatures - -40°F to 185°F (-40°C to 85°C)
• Weight - .05 oz (1.4g)

 

Package & Contents

 

Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC are packed in a standard memory card packaging where it is slim and small enough to be kept inside pocket. The whole packaging can be seen through and sealed to ensure users get the original contents from the manufacturer. Users need to take note the memory card capacity which is written on the right top corner of the packaging.

 

No specific user's manual is available for Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC as most of the time users will only interest with the memory card capacity and the speed. Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC have lifetime warranty which is fabulous and these cards are assembled in Japan too.

 

Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC

Before we proceed with a closer look on Kingston microSDHC let us recall some basic history of SD card. SD card (32 x 24 mm) was launched in year 1999 and followed by miniSD (21.5 x 20 mm) and microSD (11 x 15 mm). Different capacity of SD card will have different naming; SD (4MB~4GB), SDHC (4GB~32GB) and SDXC (32GB~2TB). SDXC will be the major SD card in the following years as memory card is getting cheaper nowadays and furthermore multimedia storage is getting higher and higher. Now let us stick back with these Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC.

SDHC can be categorized into three types according to its speed; Class 2, Class 4 and Class 6. The number of the category is representing its MB/s (transfer rate). Example Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC are Class 4 which means that these cards are having 4MB/s data transfer rate which is suitable for MPEG2 (DVD), H.264 (HDV), Hi-speed D-SLR and mobile phone. If you are not familiar with 4MB/s then you can just refer it as 26x speed.

 

SD card is based on MMC (MultiMediaCard) format but SD card has its own advantages such as wrong insertion error proof. microSD card is much smaller and thinner than SD card which makes it so popular especially for phone maker. Although SDHC plus the card adapter has same dimension with a SD card but it is not compatible with older devices that only support SD card.

 

As we know SD card will come with an optional write protect tab for security and protection purposes. However micoSD doesn't have this write protect tab due to its size limitation. Most of the removable storage & memory cards come in FAT or FAT32 format and this is same for Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC. As we mentioned before Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC have average read & write speed so it will be suitable for moderate usage but it will be good enough to be used for mobile phone.

 

SD card adapter is important as most of the card readers will require this adapter in order to transfer data from a microSD. The micoSD card can be inserted and removed from the SD card adapter easily. Besides that this SD card adapter has the write protect tab which is missing in the microSD card.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC are a plug and play memory cards which are same with other memory cards and honestly there isn't any specific installation guide is required except "safely remove hardware". As Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC are purposely designed for mobile phone, we have tested these cards on Nokia E71 which is one of the popular smart phones lately.

 

Test Bed

Notebook: Dell Inspiron E1720
Processor: Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T7500
Memory: Kingston 4GB HyperX 666MHz DDR2
Hard Drive: 120GB 2.5" 5400RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
Optical Drive: DVD RW
Operating System: Microsoft Window XP SP2
Benchmark Software: HD Tach, CrystalDiskMark
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

 

Here are the useable storage sizes for Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC accordingly; 3.68GB and 7.41GB.

 

(Kingston 8GB microSDHC)

 

(Kingston 4GB microSDHC)

 

(OEM 1GB microSD & PenDrive 512MB SD)

In order to find out the performance of Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC, we have included an OEM 1GB microSD which comes along with Nokia E71 and a PenDrive 512MB SD card. All of them are having similar performance with avarage read; 6.0MB/s. 6.0MB/s is better than what is stated in Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC where its rated speed is 4.0MB/s.

Besides the benchmarking results, we also tested Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC on Nokia E71 and so far we still didn't encounter any stability issue except a clean format is required as exact copy from previous microSD card will cause some instability issue for certain applications. We also tested Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC on Canon IXUS camera (old gadget) but it is not compatible as what we have stated in above.

 

Conclusion

There is no doubt that Kingston 4GB & 8GB microSDHC are one of the great choices when selecting a microSD card with its great performance and cheap price. microSDHC will still be the major SD card for at least these 2 years then it will be slowly moved to microSDXC which supports larger capacity. If you are looking for a microSD card for your mobile phone or similar gadget device then you may consider these 4GB & 8GB microSDHC from Kingston. Moreover these cards have lifetime warranty from Kingston.

 

Pros:

* Cheap for such large amount of capacity
* Suitable for mobile phone
* Lifetime warranty
* Adapter is included

Cons:

* None

 

Thanks to Kingston for providing this sample for us to review.

 

Only registered users may post a comment.

There are currently no user submitted comments.