Note 20 Ultra 512 and Micro SD cards

[hennmann]

Since my Note 20 Ultra 512 accepts Micro SD and my nearest Samsung Authorized service center mentioned, if I remember correct?? EVO Micro SD? Anyway I have seen rumors around the web including I think from Tom's hardware, that if you run an SD card, it slows down your phone? Any truth in this? Then I was then told, "you have 512gb of memory" and my response was due too having a cRapple diePhone with a pathetic amount of memory has gotten into the habit of being frugal with use of memory with a 1$ per month iCloud account still in use!

My reasoning for an SD card is VERY important pictures and downloads can be placed inside of it, AND I can even even use it as a Smart Switch backup method including my computer. I'm still getting used to Smart Switch after almost 4 years vs iTunes and iCloud backup and should use it on a monthly basis!! 

Now back to the rumors of having an SD card in the slot and slowing it down? Is there any fact in this which I find hard to believe? I have multiple hard drives in all of my computers except laptop and netbooks including external hard drives for quick ease of moving large amounts of video data from my main desktop to my streaming computer and I notice no slowing down in performance whatsoever! I only notice slower transfer of data to my slower archive hard drives and I figure it is pointless having a 7000 or 10,000 HD for storage and mechanical is advisable over solid state. I have solid state for the primary OS on my enimic hardware because it makes them run faster. The cons I have read are unless they are powered on, on a routine basis, data loss and corruption can occur on SS hard drives that need power to retain info. 

[DexFinity_Skies]

It's shouldn't slow down the phone unless it's corrupted

[realaud]

Back in the old days, people used to run apps off an SD card. The SD card being slower to read/write, would slow the performance of the app.  Google started disallowing the running of apps off the SD card because of all the complaints (plus people losing or corrupting or encrypting the SD card).  Now, in phones that still have an SD card slot, you can still redirect your photo, document storage and backups to it.  There is no reason for the SD card merely sitting in the slot waiting to be fed to slow down anything with the phone.  Just don't encrypt it, or you won't be able to use it on any other device, such as transferring it to a new phone, or inserting it into your computer.

[hennmann]

Thanks and that is what I thought and even after almost 4 years, this Note is still a learning process, whereas my previous phone was learning what I couldn't do🤣

Further reading on this topic resulted in the recommended Micro SD being a UHS-I with some mentioning the faster UHS-II working well, and the more I read about SD cards, the more I learn and presently am still using the full sized with the next size smaller as well in my computer card readers or in my older pocket camera.

Being an iPhone user  or veteran for 12 years without SD card capabilites has made me have to learn on these new capabilities😂 including how to use an S Pen. I have only used about 120gb out of my 512 but my way of thinking is it would be nice to be able to segregate my important photos into their own folder or directory and perhaps an extra method of Smart Switch. This and perhaps a place to put my downloads into as well and being able to actually download and save a download😃wow. 

If I had no storage capacity for running the OS, yes I could see running an APP on an SD card. Reminds me of my iPhone 5C's one with 8gb and one with 16gb and the IOS took up 1-2gb of space😢. 

Where I used to work, with hundreds of coworkers, it was easy to spot us iPhone users and Samsung users😂🤣. Us iPhone users would have our screen brightness down so low, to save what little battery life there was, that they were barely visible, along with being plugged in every coffee break or where ever there was an outlet😂. The Samsung users, we needed sunglasses to look at their screens🤣 along with the laughing at us and those were Samsung Galaxy S7 and S8.  

[realaud]

I keep all my photos and music on the sd card, I dont remember if I directed downloads to it, but I do move them over. I have been moving the same SD card from device to device for years without any missing or corrupted data and, believe me, it's probably the cheapest card on the market and it's held up well, so don't worry about what brand to buy.

[hennmann]

Ah great, I got realaud back👍.

I was told Samsung EVO but I see Samsung Pro plus is faster on read with same speed on write speed and currently EVO+ has the same speeds as Pro. Also now I find out there is UHS-I and a while back I see some Note 20 users using UHS-II  with no problems. I won't bother with a 1tb as they are harder to find than wooden rocking horse droppings and 512 would be more than good enough. 

BTW using Samsung support chat was filled with errors such as a maximum size of 512gb, including they only support Canadian devices and then I pointed out to them my SM-N986W was purchased from Samsung Canada🤣 in October 2020. They had no clue on SD card options as well so here I'm back again. 

It was like if I was asking for product support for my  74 year 1950 Mercury sedan built by Ford I have been driving for 40 years now😄

[realaud · Accepted solution]

My thoughts on the SD cards are if you are only using it for storage, speed does not matter, and the speed difference is negligible anyway, so don't break your neck looking for the "best" one.  Like I said, I've been using the same card since 2001 and have switched it from phone, to tablet, to phone, to phone, to phone , to phone with no losses or damage.

[hennmann]

Hi again realaud

I actually found one of your earlier posts from a couple of years ago on this exact topic mentioning about these cards. Yes you are correct about the speed and giving it some thought, yes all it is, is storage and another method of Smart Switch backup if desired! Some Note and S owners were actually attempting to run apps on their card and this is actually why a phone running slower can result with the total misinformation and rumors about putting in an SD card causing slowdown or poor performance. 

On another forum one member was complaining about pathetic speeds despite having a "high end high speed card" and it was pointed out with fake or intentionally over rated bottom grade cheap cards being faked or counterfeit as expensive high end and warnings about eBay or Amazon and when asked where he got it, it ended up he got it on Alibaba Express and my thought was he answered his question on why his card was **bleep**!! If you want such a card, that is the place to go! With 128gb or in my case 512gb of storage, I cannot understand why anybody would want to run apps on their card?? It was pointed out that if this is done, some mentioned when the card was removed with files being possibly altered or corrupted, when the card was in a computer, resulted in the OS of the phone literally crashing and needing to be reset and restored🤣. 

As for Amazon, I see some sources of the Samsung EVO SD cards are indicated as being sold by the Samsung Store so that is likely as safe a place to purchase as any! The Samsung cards in product comparisons have a higher transfer rating than numerous others as well with reasonable prices. 

In reality when first looking into all of this, the information Samsung provided was actually quite inadequate to say the least. Their tech support using chat, one rep mentioned 512gb was the largest SD card that could be used which is false. He was actually looking at the capacity of my internal storage!!