Memory Cards, Part 2: SDHC Cards From 8GB To 16GB

Samsung Plus MB-SP4G (8GB SDHC, Class 6)

Samsung does sell memory cards as retail products, but you'll have to hunt for them. We found them under camera accessories on European sites, and it appears that this product is not yet available in the U.S.

The MB-SP4G is referred to as an SD Plus card, with Plus suggesting that it is more durable than other products when it comes to mechanical and magnetic influence. The specs say that you can bend the cards with up to 60 N and apply a torque of up to 900 Nm (663 lb-ft). The cards also withstand up to 50 G, and are waterproof thanks to a protective epoxy molding compound. Samsung utilizes metal instead of a plastic SD card housing to achieve this higher durability. The firm says the card is even resistant to X-ray radiation, withstanding up to 4,000 Gauss.

All of this is great, but the card is a Class 6 model that doesn’t deliver on the promise of being 25% to 40% faster than the competition. The price for Samsung's solid design is performance. The 8GB Samsung Plus MB-SP4G card is limited to a maximum of 16 MB/s throughput, Still, it consistently maintains at least 15 MB/s for reads, keeping it close to the competition. Writes are clearly slower, even though Samsung outperforms the Class 6 specification (6 MB/s).