SanDisk 16GB Mobile Ultra microSDHC Card Review

Performance Testing and Conclusion

To see how quick the performance of the Sandisk 16GB Mobile Ultra microSD card is, we will be comparing it to the Kingston 8GB microSDHC Class 4 Flash Card (SDC4/8GB) using the SanDisk MobileMate USB 2.0 reader on both cards.

Using the Removable Storage Benchmark found in SiSoftware Sandra 2009 we were able to get a pretty good idea of the performance of the 16GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC card with various file sizes on our Dell M1730 gaming notebook. As you can tell from the chart above, performance generally increases as the file size goes up. The 16GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC card had impressive read speeds that reached 18.33 MB/s in the 2MB Files Test. That put the 16GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC card nearly 4MB per second or ~26% faster than microSD card that comes with the Kingston 8GB Mobility Kit in the 2MB Files Test.

When it comes to write speeds at 32kB, the Kingston 8GB microSD Mobility Kit had impressive performance numbers, but anything above 256kB was all SanDisk. With a 256MB file size, the 16GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC card was able to write at 12.80 MB/s, which is 50% faster than the Kingston card. The 16GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC card has very impressive performance numbers when compared to other Class 4 memory cards. It just goes to show that just because two cards have the same class rating that they don’t have the performance!

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

When Legit Reviews first started reviewing microSD memory cards back in 2006, the fastest 256MB microSD cards had a read speed of 11MB/Sec and a write speed of 5.5MB/Sec. Nearly three years later we have 16GB cards out on the market that have read speeds of 18.3MB/Sec and write speeds of 12.8MB/Sec. It is amazing how far microSD has come in terms of both capacities and speed in recent years. If you have one of the original 256MB or 512MB microSD cards from 2006, you can nearly double performance by updating to a newer card that has a faster speed rating.

When it comes to pricing, the 16GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC memory card carries a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $119.99. A quick search on Google Products shows that it can be found online for $92 plus shipping. While that price seems high, keep in mind that you are looking at one of the largest and fastest 16GB microSDHC cards on the market. If you shop around for other 16GB cards you will find the Kingston SDC2/16GB and the Patriot PSF16GMCSDHC23P, but remember, both of these are Class 2 cards. They are half the price, but also come with half the performance. As always, you pay for what you get. In general, pricing has drastically decreased in the Flash memory market over the past three years as you can get an 8GB card today for what you paid for that 256MB card just three years ago.

Legit Bottom Line: The 16GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSDHC memory card is the only class 4 speed rated card in the market for this size and it proved that you can have a fast microSDHC card with a large capacity!