Product - 256GB Micro SD Card plus Adapter. Amplim 100MB/s MicroSDXC Card V30 A1 U3 Class 10 MicroSD Memory Card for GoPro, Cell Phones, Samsung Galaxy, LG, Sony Xperia, DJI, Drones, Cameras, Nintendo. Yes, Samsung is yet to make the Galaxy Note 10 official. Still, it does seem the microSD slot is going away, along with the 3.5mm headphone jack. 256GB base storage a good way to make up for no microSD slot? Not all is lost, however: It’s said that both the Note 10 and Note 10+ will have 256GB of storage on the base variant. We had discovered.
Microsoft Surface is a great piece of hardware that has a beautiful 2-in-1 form factor, great performance, and the most cutting-edge technologies. When it comes to storage option you will be limited to choose from some preset configurations that sometimes don’t fit your needs. Fortunately, most Microsoft Surface models except the Surface Laptop are all come with an SD or MicroSDXC card slot that you can use to expand your device’s storage.
There are several things to consider when you’re choosing a MicroSD card for your device. MicroSD card’s capacity, speed, type, and price are the most important things you need to know about when it comes down to the final decision.
According to the SD Association, here we have an overview of memory’s sequential write speed information for different speed classes of MicroSD cards.
Minimum Write Speed | Speed Class | UHS Speed | Video Speed | Max Video Recording Quality |
---|---|---|---|---|
2MB/sec | Class 2 | SD Video | ||
4MB/sec | Class 4 | SD Video | ||
6MB/sec | Class 6 | V6 | SD Video | |
10MB/sec | Class 10 | U1 | V10 | SD Video |
30MB/sec | U3 | V30 | Full HD Video | |
60MB/sec | V60 | 4K Video | ||
90MB/sec | V90 | 8K Video |
*UHS = Ultra High-Speed
There is also another standard that is being used for application performance classification. This standard will show you the random read and write performance as input/outputs per second (IOPS).
Application Performance Class | Min. Random Read | Min. Random Write | Min. Sustained Seq. Write |
---|---|---|---|
Class 1 (A1) | 1500 IOPS | 500 IOPS | 10 MBytes/s |
Class 2 (A2) | 4000 IOPS | 2000 IOPS | 10 MBytes/s |
You might want to know as well about what is the maximum MicroSD card’s capacity that your Surface can support. Here is the SD card capacity standard.
SD Slot Standard | Compatible SD Cards | Memory Capacity |
---|---|---|
SD | SD | Up to 2 GB |
SDHC (High Capacity) | SDHC, SD | 2GB to 32GB |
SDXC (Extended Capacity) | SDXC, SDHC, SD | 32GB to 2TB |
Since all Microsoft Surface devices are using MicroSDXC host controllers, so your Surface technically can support MicroSD card with capacity up to 2TB. Learn more about Microsoft Surface specifications by downloading the Microsoft Surface RT User Guide.
Now you have a better understanding of MicroSD Card’s speed and capacity standard. Here, we have round up the best MicroSD cards that are compatible and work well on Microsoft Surface.
To learn more about individual Micro SD card, here we have listed the specifications and our thought on each item here:
SanDisk 200GB Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-I Memory Card with Adapter - 100MB/s, C10, U1, Full HD, A1, Micro SD Card - SDSQUAR-200G-GN6MA $26.99 |
Samsung 128GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSDXC EVO Select Memory Card with Full-Size Adapter (MB-ME128GA/AM) $19.49 |
Lexar Professional 1000x 128GB microSDXC UHS-II Card $51.65 |
BASEQI Aluminum MicroSD Adapter for Microsoft Surface Book & Surface Book 2 13.5' (Model-350A) $24.99 |
If you want fairly big storage for your Surface, you can get this 200GB MicroSDXC card at an affordable price while it is on sale. The Sandisk MicroSDXC UHS-I card features a class 10 speed rating.
It can support faster data transfer speed up to 100MB/s which is great for playing large videos. As the rated as A1 App Performance, it is able to run most apps and games without any slow down. This Sandisk MicroSDXC also has great protection with waterproof, temperature proof, shockproof, X-ray proof and magnet proof.
The next one is from Samsung, The EVO UHS-3 card also rated as a class 10 and UHS-3 transfer speed. It can transfer up to 100MB/s and 90MB/s read and write speeds respectively. It is also able to record the 4K UHD video recording and handle most apps and games without any problems. It does come with a MicroSD card adapter so you can use it in any computers with a full-size SD card slot.
If you need the fastest expansion storage on your Microsoft surface devices, you can count on this Lexar Professional 1000x. It using the latest UHS-II/U3 technology that can deliver the fastest transfer speed up to 150MB/s.
It will let you work on big documents or projects file that needs the high speed of both input and output. It’s verified to work great with GoPro cameras for capturing 4K UHD videos.
If you are looking to expand the storage of your Surface Book and Surface Book 2, the only thing you can do is using the SD card slot. Since it is a full-sized SD card slot, you will need a full-sized SD card or SD card adapter. However the depth of the slot is about half-length of the card, so it’s not a good idea to use the full-sized SD card as a permanent solution to expand the storage.
Fortunately, there is a MicroSD Adapter made by BASEQI that is firm and nicely fit the Microsoft Surface Book card slot without sticking out. With that said, you can now use any microSD card to expand the storage on your Surface Book. It has the same color and aluminum designed just like the Surface Book’s chassis.
Those are the best MicroSD cards in terms of capacity, speed, and price. If you want the most affordable large MicroSD card, we recommend the Sandisk Ultra 200GB Micro SDXC UHS-I card or Samsung 128GB EVO UHS-3 MicroSD card. If the speed matter you the most the Lexar Professional microSDXC are what you should consider. Finally, if you have Microsoft Surface Book you will need additional special MicroSD adapter made specifically for Surface Book.