Internal Storage vs SD Card performance

[yanpaulo]

It's been a while since I'm searching for a comparison between phones' (specially Lumia devices) internal flash storage and a SD card but found nothing more than "Internal flash memory is faster than SD card memory".
So I have some questions:

1) How faster is a Lumia phone internal memory compared to a fast SD card (say, class 10)?
2) How's that extra speed gonna impact in my experience? (thins such as apps loading faster when on phone memory, faster file browsing, etc)
3) Will there be a significant diferente for my experience for me to use a faster SD card? (say, swap a class 6 for a class 10 card)

Of course you don't need to answer all of those questions. Opinions are welcome, to

 

[N_LaRUE]

1) They are similar types of memory (NAND) but it's the controller and the actual way the memory is attached to the device that makes the difference. Because the SD card is easily removed the compensation is the loss in speed. Relying on surface contacts is why this happens. Where as the internal memory is soldered to the main board so the losses are minimal by comparison. There are always losses in electronics we just can't notice them unless they are extreme.

2) Whether you'll notice any form of lag using a SD card is probably unlikely so long as you buy a quality SD card. The newer cards are significantly better than older ones.

3) Yes there will be a big difference if you use a Class 6 vs a Class 10. Suggest using Class 10 if you plan to run apps and as fast as you can get.

 

[yanpaulo]

Nice, so I think I will buy a new SD card, class 10 this time (mine is class 4).

 

[yanpaulo]

Oh!
One more thing: I guess Lumia phones do support UHS micro SD cards, but it will also use its full speed (48Mb/s for Sandisk UHC-I, for instance) ??

 

[N_LaRUE]

I would like to say yes to that question but the truth is I don't know. It couldn't hurt to have a fast card, the transfer speeds will just be reduced to match the device. I would suspect the newer Lumias to have faster access but I honestly don't know.

 

[njstol01]

Good to know- fortunately the 32gb card I just ordered from Newegg was class 10. As my phone memory fills up, I do want to put most new apps on the card.

 

[njstol01]

Just received my 32gb class 10 sd card and it works fine. Backed up the old sd card to the laptop and copied over most of everything to the new card, with one exception- the maps folder wouldn't copy over to the new card for some reason- guess I'll have to redownload those. Then moved most of my apps over to the new card, keeping most of the original microsoft ones on the phone memory, and all the apps that I had tried work fine off of the SD card. Freed up almost 1 gb of phone memory by doing so!