Memory Card Benchmarks | Samsung Galaxy S10 / S10+

An in-depth speed comparison between all the most popular memory cards tested in the Samsung Galaxy S10 / S10+.

Use this guide to find the fastest and the best micro SD memory cards for your Samsung Galaxy Phone.

Samsung Galaxy S10 / S10+ Specs

Interface: UHS-I
Maximum Write: 75MB/s
Maximum Read: 83MB/s
Video Specs: H.265 4k60 at 72Mbps ( 9MB/s) / 4k30fps 48Mbps ( 6MB/s)

Best Micro SD Cards Samsung Galaxy S10 / S10+

If you’re looking for what memory card to buy for the Samsung Galaxy S10 / S10+, or any of the Galaxy phones for that matter, this guide will help you.

I tested each memory card in the Samsung Galaxy S10+ using Disk Speed Test. 

I usually use A1 SD Bench, but it no longer works properly so Disk Speed Test gives the closest to very accurate results in a reasonable amount of time.

Since the hardware controller for the Samsung phone doesn’t change dramatically between each iteration, I’ve decided to keep just one page that will work for all the phones. One phone isn’t going to give dramatic results over the other and this benchmark allows us to see how each card is performing in comparison to other cards, but I will continue to test each new phone and add it to this list.

Note: None of the Samsung Galaxy Smartphones utilize UHS-II technology, so don’t spend your money on such cards.

Memory Card Benchmarks | Galaxy S10 / S10+

If you have the Samsung Galaxy S9 or S8, this chart is still relevant, but you can see my old test with the Samsung Galaxy S8 here.

I’ve tried to update this test with all the latest cards but also tested many of the older cards, like all the older Samsung cards in case you have some laying around. Samsung is completely schizophrenic when it comes to branding and rebranding their cards so it’s tough to keep up.

Note About A1 and A2 cards

Although A1 and A2 cards are supposed to allow faster application performance for things like random read and write access, I was not able to find any test that could show any difference in speed between A1, A2 or non-A cards in Android. I only see a drop in performance in the Galaxy S10 when using A2 cards with sequential read and write speeds compared to what I’m seeing when testing with Crystal Disk or BlackMagic Speed Test on a desktop.

It’s possible Android is using the A2 cache even for the sequential read and writes, whereas Windows 10 and OSX ignore this.

This comes down to some decision making. You have to decide; improved application support with A2 cards, or faster sequential read and write speeds with non-A cards.

5 Recommended Micro SD Memory Cards | Samsung Galaxy S10 / S10+

Recommending cards for the Samsung Galaxy can be a little tricky because of the performance difference we’re seeing between different types of cards. For example, A2 cards are supposed to be faster for applications but they show a slower speed when doing sequential read and write tests, but only with Android.

If you’re going to run applications off your card, go with A2 cards. There are a few options and looking at the results we’re seeing almost identical performance between the Sandisk Extreme A2 and Sandisk Extreme Pro A2 cards in Android. So consider the current price when looking at those two cards. Also, the A2 cards performed on par with the non A cards when doing file transfers into a PC or Mac, they only slowed down in Android.

Sandisk Extreme Pro A2 128GB

Available At: Amazon

If you plan on using applications, the Sandisk Extreme Pro A2 is all around the best card available. Although performance is the same as the Sandisk Extreme A2 cards, it does perform faster in other systems, but only with write speeds. So keep that in mind.

Sandisk Extreme A2 128GB

Available At: Amazon / Adorama / BHphoto

The Sandisk Extreme A2 is probably the best bang for the buck. We’re seeing the same results as the Pro card in Android at a cheaper price. The Sandisk Extreme cards also work great on other devices like the GoPro Hero 7, or even the Hero 5 which sometimes was not compatible with the Pro cards.

Sandisk Extreme Plus or Pro

Available At: Amazon

If you just want raw speed with reading and writing data sequentially then the Extreme Pro or Plus card is the way to go. If you’re justing using your external card for photos and video this is all you’ll really need and you’ll get the best performance when transferring files around.

Usually, the Sandisk Extreme Pro is easier to find and often the same price or cheap, so just go with that unless you see a better deal on the Plus.

Samsung EVO Plus

Available At: Amazon / BHphoto

If you’re not into Sandisk, Samsung is a great option. Their line of micro SD memory cards has always been very popular even though they change their naming and branding every other month. Currently, it looks like the EVO Plus is their flagship card with reading performance very similar to Sandisk. It’s also their fastest card for read speeds. Some of the older Samsung cards were writing a little bit faster but they are hard to find.

PNY PRO Elite

Available At: Amazon

PNY isn’t a brand that makes my lists very often but the PNY Pro Elite is one of the few cards besides Sandisk and Samsung that perform well in the Samsung phones. They also have an A1 variant that could also be considered, although the Sandisk A1 cards perform a lot better.

Other Cards To Consider

Kingston and PNY have rolled out A1 cards, but honestly, if you want application support, just stick with A2 and right now Sandisk is the way to go for A2 memory cards. Sandisk is the leader of A technology and it will still be a little while until other brands adopt this tech.

I guess you could say it’s not really a tech, but a performance rating but companies have to upgrade their tech to increase this rating. 

What Card I Use

I personally use the Sandisk Extreme A2 128GB card. It has good enough performance for photos and videos, which is mostly sequential read and writes but it also gives me the same performance as the more expensive the Sandisk Extreme Pro A2 card.

The Sandisk Extreme A2 should also give me improved application support in case I ever decide to run a game or something off of my card.

There are a few more Sandisk Cards out there, but I’m having trouble getting them. I order the A1 variant and they still send me the A2 variant on Amazon, there are also Sandisk Extreme Plus A1 and A2 card, but I’m having trouble finding them here in Japan. I’ll grab them next time I’m in the US.

Memory Card Ratings and Number, What It All Means

To help guide you with your next memory card purchase, here is a list of all the ratings and vocabulary you may find written on memory cards and what it all means.

A1 vs A2

A1 and A2 are new advancements in memory card technology to better support memory expansion for application support.

If you want to install applications or set up something like a cache to your memory card, A1 and A2 offer superior performance.

There is a difference between A1 and A2 and it is important.

A1

A1 was the first version or first rating system that was dedicated to random read and write speeds. A1 memory cards have a minimum random read speed of 1500 IOPS and a minimum random write speed of 500 IOPS with a minimum sustained write speed of 10MB/s.

A2

A2 offers improved random read-write performance by including a data caching system. 

A2 memory cards have a minimum random read speed of 4000 IOPS and a minimum random write speed of 2000 IOPS with a minimum sustained write speed of 10MB/s.

What are IOPS?

IOPS stands for “Input Output Per Second.” It’s a measurement of how quickly the card can access the data and is not related to the rate at which that data that transferred. This is relevant because applications often read and write a lot of small bits of data, rather than large chunks like with photos and videos. During these processes, the bottleneck comes down to how quickly the card can get to that data.

How do Micro SD Cards Compare to SSD drives?

Modern SSD drives like the Samsung 850 PRO have excellent performance with IOPS in the 100,000 range. The better drives can have IOP performance of around 500,000 reads.

By comparison, our micro SD cards are only doing 4,000 reads.

So if you’re doing some really demanding work on your phone or tablet, you always have the option to run an external SSD drive.

U1 / U3 / V30 / V60 / V90

The U1 to V90 class has to do with minimum performance with write speed in actual data transfer rates. The number represents a guaranteed minimum write performance.

U1 is 10MB/s, U3 is 30MB/s, v30 is 30MB/s, v60 is 60MB/s and v90 is 90MB/s

Some older cards also show a circled 10. This means it is a class 10 memory card and has a minimum write performance of 10MB/s, similar to U1.

UHS-I vs UHS-II

I have yet to see a micro SD device that supports UHS-II micro SD cards. It’s common for cameras to support this speed class but rare for smartphones or tablets.

UHS-II memory cards have a second row of pins which allows the memory cards to read and write significantly faster, sometimes up to 3x faster, it also improves the IOPS.

The only reason I could see justifying buying a UHS-II micro SD memory card is if you wanted to also use it in a camera via a micro SD to SD UHS-II adapter. The ProGrade cards come with this adapter.

Do You Need A1 or A2 Memory Cards

Whether you need A1 or A2 memory cards really depend on how you plan on using your cards. Most phones today come with enough memory now to support the installation of any app you would ever need and the phone’s memory is usually dramatically faster than what you get from these micro SD cards. There are some exceptions with some devices like the Kindle, but for the most part, internal memory all around performs better. 

So you could install all your apps on your phone, then only send your photos and videos to your SD card which would eliminate the need of A1 or A2 micro SD memory cards since photos and videos only write sequentially. 

However, if you plan on running some apps off your memory card, or even if you do a lot of photo or video editing on your phone and your memory card is being used as some type of cache or external storage buffer to help with this process, then A1 or A2 cards can be helpful.

I personally would just go for A2 memory cards.

Best Memory Cards Samsung Galaxy S10 / S10+ | Conclusions

There are a lot more cards out there, but memory card brands and their branding, change like the weather and I try to stick with the most popular brands of micro SD memory cards that are readily available. Or at least cards that are popular in the United States and Europe.

It would seem Sandisk and Samsung are still the best brands when it comes to memory cards and sticking with them is the way to go.

I’ll continue to update this list as I collect more cards or upgrade cards as micro SD memory card technology improves. If there is a really cool card I’m missing or something new I’m missing, let me know.

All these links are affiliate links which provide me with a small commission of a few cents with these inexpensive cards. Doing posts like this is very expensive and very time-consuming so do what you see fit. I know a lot of people are against using affiliate links but articles like this could not exist without the income made from them. Thanks!