The best SD card for the Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge

The best micro SD that you can buy for the Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge is the one that combines good features and price. Considering this, if it is from a recognized brand such as Kingston, Sandisk or Samsung it will be enough.

The Galaxy S7 cell phone and S7 Edge they support a card with a maximum capacity of 256 GB. Any micro SD card of this value or less will be fine. Obviously, the more capacity the higher the cost. That is why you have to know the majority use that will be given to the phone. Samsung recommends a card of up to 2 or 32 GB if the priority is the photos. If we talk about video, a card from 64 GB onwards will be necessary.

Once the required capacity has been determined, it will be necessary to verify that the card has speed class 10 As minimum. Like the capacity, this specification is also indicated on the card, within a small circle. For example, speed determines how fast you can open or save files on the card. This is a critical point that, if not taken into account, can reduce the performance of the cell phone in these aspects. There are cards with UHS speeds that are higher than class 10, but in addition to being more expensive, they are not worth it for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. A more detailed explanation about this can be read below.

The best and cheapest card for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge
Considering the above, you just have to opt for a guaranteed brand that offers the lowest possible cost. On Amazon is available this 64GB card (SDSQUNC-064G-GN6MA) for $ 16. It has been purchased thousands of times and has a user rating of 4.5 / 5. It is Sandisk brand, class 10, as suggested before. It is the most economical in its range. On the same page you can buy the 128 GB and 200 GB version for $ 40 and $ 70 respectively.

Class 10 speed vs. UHS

As stated before, you don’t need to spend more money to buy a higher speed micro SD card than a class 10 for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. In fact, I think it’s not even worth it for any other smartphone these days.

In practice there is no difference between a class 10 and a UHS class, which offers higher speeds. At least that is what I have been able to verify during the tests done on a Galaxy S7 Edge. I have used a Kingston exclusively Class 10 (NO UHS) card and a Samsung PRO Select UHS 3 (UHS I Bus) card on the same computer. The differences on paper are certainly evident (and we detailed it ourselves in a previous theoretical article):

The theory

Samsung Select PRO UHS 3 (Bus UHS I)

Sequential Read: 74.46 MB / s
Sequential Write: 67.2 MB / s

Kingston Clase 10

Sequential Read: 33.85 MB / s
Sequential Write: 5.21 MB / s

In practice

Despite the overwhelming numbers of the Samsung card on the Kingston, during use there is no palpable difference between the two. I have tried a few things to determine this. Opening photos, files in general and playing videos, music, etc. Applications moved to the SD and run from there. Even 4K video recording. I have not found a difference between one and the other. Both open files at the same speed. The applications open just as quickly and work normally. 4K video shoots smoothly in both, and playback is just as smooth, too.

You would have to be extremely observant and demanding to see a difference in performance between one card and another. A slight delay may be noticed when opening the Android or Google Play application manager. Also a minor delay in starting the computer with class 10 memory. But nothing beyond that.

No need for UHS on Samsung Galaxy S7

It’s not that high-speed UHS cards aren’t better than a class 10 star. They definitely are and the numbers above confirm it. The point is that, for the tasks of a smartphone such as file storage, running apps or recording high-resolution video, the speed offered by a Class 10 is sufficient.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are apparently compatible with the UHS I bus, which allows a maximum transfer speed of 104 MB / s. On the S7 Edge, the maximum average speed it reaches is 75 MB / s for sequential read and 65 MB / s for sequential write for the data shown above and confirmed here Y here. A UHS I card would exploit that specification of the S7, but from what has been said before there is nothing to be gained in practice. Thinking of buying a UHS II card would be even more absurd. This standard reaches speeds of up to 312 MB / s and the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge do not even fully exploit the UHS I standard.

The similar case of multicore processors
This is a similar issue to that of processors in smartphones. There is currently talk of eight and up to ten cores, but in practice few applications will be optimized to exploit this hardware. There is no palpable difference for the user, as with higher speed UHS cards.

Conclution

I bought the 64GB Samsung PRO Select card for $ 43 in Amazon, which on paper indicates 95MB / s and 90MB / s in read and write speed. When comparing it against a Kingston Class 10 in my Galaxy S7 Edge in everyday tasks I have been disappointed, because I have not noticed any difference. At that cost you could have bought a 128 GB Class 10 card like the Sandisk suggested at the beginning, obtaining the same real performance.