SanDisk 16 GB Mobile microSDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDQ-016G-AFFP

by SDSK9

• Available capacities: 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB
• Seamless speed and performance with microSD/SDHC compatible device
• Class 4 Speed performance rating (based on SD 2.0 Specification)
• Tested under the most extreme conditions
• Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 0.3 x 0.6 x 0.4 inches ; 0.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B007KFXIDO
• Item model number: SDSDQ-016G-AFFP
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,978 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)
  • #20 in Electronics > Accessories & Supplies > Camera & Photo Accessories > Digital Camera Accessories > Memory Cards > Micro SD Cards
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 1, 2012

Product Description

Size: 16 GB | Product Packaging: Amazon Frustration-Free

Capture more photos, record more Full HD videos and play more music on your mobile phone with reliable SanDisk microSDHC memory cards. By adding more memory to your mobile phone, you can transport and store more photos, Full HD videos and music - so you can get the most out of your mobile phone. Do more with SanDisk mobile memory cards.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

758 of 778 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This Sandisk 'class-4' micro-SDHC card is faster than a PNY 'class-10' December 2, 2011

By NLee the Engineer HALL OF FAMETOP 10 REVIEWER

Product Packaging:Retail|Size Name:32 GB

I purchased a SanDisk 32 GB microSDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDQM-032G nearly two months ago, for use in my VIZIO 8-Inch Tablet VTAB1008. At the same time, I also purchased a higher-priced PNY 32 GB microSDHC Card (P-SDU32G10-EFS2) which is supposed to be a 'class-10'. My benchmark results, however, show that the Sandisk class-4 card is actually faster - most of the time.

I used two sets of benchmark programs. One is called 'Flash Memory Toolkit v2.0', which measures the random read/write speed of files between 1MB and 15MB. The other one is called 'H2testw v1.4', which measures the sequential read/write speed using 1GB files. Here are my results: (see my uploaded charts in 'Customer Images' section for details)

- For smaller files (1-5MB), the Sandisk class-4 card gives an amazing write speed of 15-17MB/s, while the PNY 'class-10' card can only get 1-6MB/s

- For larger files (10-15MB), the Sandisk and PNY cards are about equal at around 8MB/s for write

- For huge files (1GB), the PNY did better at 9.5MB/S, while the Sandisk dropped to 5.5MB/s

- The read speeds of both cards are equally high at around 18MB/S (this number may be limited by the maximum speed of my card reader used)

What the above shows is that: When used in a typical digital camera (with file size 3-5MB), this Sandisk 'class-4' card is at least twice as fast as the PNY so-called 'class-10' card.... But when used in a HD video camera (sequential writing of huge file), then the PNY card should perform better.

For a card to be marketed as a 'class-10', it must maintain a MINIMUM write speed of 10MB/s. So by this definition, the PNY card does not qualify since it cannot even achieve a MAXIMUM write speed of 10MB/s. This Sandisk card, on the other hand, exceeds the requirement of 'class-4' by a huge margin.

Sandisk seems to be the only flash memeory manufacturer that still gives honest, conservative speed class ratings. Any other manufacturers would have labeled this card a 'class-6' or even higher. As a matter of principle, I rather give my money to a company that promises less but delivers more, instead of to others that do the opposite. At the present cost of about 1 buck per GB, this is an unbeatable deal!

[Aside]
The capacity of this card, as reported by my computer, is only 29.7GB. Note that this is actually normal, because compter people define one 'Giga' as '2 to the power 30', which is 7.4% greater than 1 billion. So 29.7GB comes to just about 32 billion bytes, which is '32GB' according to marketing people.

[Update Dec 3, 2011]
I re-tested the two cards above, using the CrystalDiskMark v3.01. The results are consistent with my previous finding. See my newly uploaded charts in 'Customer Images' for details. Read more ›

132 of 143 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great price on a genuine product February 27, 2012

By Doug

Product Packaging:Retail|Size Name:32 GB

This is a great price for a 32GB SanDisk micro sdhc card. Don't let the 10 people who gave this a 1 star rating scare you, this is a great price for a good product. Anyone who works with computers or technology in general knows that you will occassionally have a device that just fails. I work a computer helpdesk and see it with hard drives all the time, it happens. That's why any good manufacturer warrants their product, so if you have a failure like this, you get a new one. These types of failures are unavoidable.

This is a geniun SanDisk product, sold by Amazon.com and not some third party seller. Buy with confidence.

329 of 367 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A deal, but, if given the option CHOOSE (RETAIL PACKAGING) OR YOU WILL RECIEVE A COUNTERFEIT ITEM. No joke. July 22, 2012

By Benjamin Anderson

Product Packaging:Amazon Frustration-Free|Size Name:32 GB

***
Update: As far as I can tell, there is no more non-retail packaging option on this product... hopefully they realized what was going on and changed it. But if the option is there again, make sure the item you add to your cart is (retail).
***

I meant to order "retail" packaging the first time, but I rushed and I wasn't careful enough. I got the crappy "hassle-free packaging" one instead. Huge mistake. However, I WAS NOT AWARE THAT AMAZON INTENDS FOR THIS TO HAPPEN THE MAJORITY OF THE TIME BECAUSE THEY ARE ACTUALLY SELLING YOU A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PRODUCT THAT IS MUCH, MUCH CHEAPER FOR THEM TO MAKE. Although, I assume that's part of how Amazon offers low prices.

The amazon page for this item secretly contains 2 items:
SDSDQ-032G-AFFP (Default item. Counterfeit. Poor chances of receiving a card that's not a knock-off/counterfeit/lesser-quality item, OR an item that was previously returned/refurbished/slightly-damaged-but-good-enough-for-hassle-free-packaging.)
SDSDQM-032G-B35 (Retail item. Legitimate. Excellent chances of receiving a new, legitimate SD card.)

Amazon (immorally) tries to get as many people to buy the non-retail one as possible. For example:
#1 Your browser automatically refreshes the web-page to this item whenever you do ANYTHING other than clicking "Add To Cart", after you have selected "Retail". I confirmed this after getting a crappy card.
#2 When you click on *ANY* link to the current SanDisk 32GB class 4, it'll take you to the COUNTERFIET one (SDSDQ-032G-AFFP) no matter if you clicked on the Retail one (SDSDQM-032G-B35) or not!!!
#3 The reviews for the two items are combined.
#4 When you select "Retail", the only picture that changes is one of the SD cards changes to a red retail packaging one.... It's extremely subtle on purpose, and I don't even think that's real retail packaging, but whatever.
#5 Search the 1/5 and 2/5 star reviews. Note how they are mostly people who bought the counterfiet one (SDSDQ-032G-AFFP)? And people who bought the retail one (SDSDQM-032G-B35) are more likely to give a good review, with a higher read & write speed??

It's obvious... Do not buy SanDisk cards that have 'Bulk' attached to the name, or 'Frustration-Free', or anything else other than "Retail"!

Also, here's a short guide for repartitioning/reformatting with GParted, if you were unlucky enough to get a lesser-quality card, or are having issues with one (I'm sure there's Windows software too, just Google it):
Short version:
1. Insert your SD card into a microSDHC USB adapter (commonly comes with SD cards, also on Amazon for a few bucks).
2. Plug the adapter into your computer and make sure the SD card is recognized.
3. Download and Run: GParted. (Free, comes with Partition Magic, you may need to boot into it).
4. Select the drive in GParted, and click "create new partition table" in MSDOS (erases drive).
5. Re-partition the drive in whatever filesystem your device requires (look it up, usually FAT32).
6. The size of the partition can be your entire card, except the first 500MB. Make sure that you leave about 500MB of unallocated/free space BEFORE the rest of the partition. You'll end up with a 28.5GB card instead of a 29GB card, but your speeds, stability, and compatibility GREATLY increases. Note: This is also true with many other flash drives and external storage. Read more ›

164 of 186 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars No Problems, Works as Advertised, and Came With a MicroSD Card Adapter! March 8, 2012

By narfybob

Product Packaging:Retail|Size Name:32 GB

So I read some of the reviews about this microSD card and I wanted to chip in my experiences.

I purchased mine from Amazon.com via the vendor "MemoryMogul." It arrived at my porch in a small envelope package and did not have any of the bulk packaging that one would find from a retail store. Inside this envelope was just a small plastic case holding the microSDHC card as well as a SanDisk microSD card adapter. This was surprising to me since it wasn't advertised that this microSD card would come with an adapter. I guess that's good in my case since I was going to purchase a separate adapter. The package did not come with an instruction manual, or any SanDisk packaging for that matter. [Please see the customer image I uploaded]

Apart from the unexpected package and its contents, everything about the microSD card works as advertised:
1. My Macbook and Dell laptops both recognized that 31.90 GB of space are available to use in my card. Some people have reported that they received cards with less available space.
2. Also relating to people's complaints, some have said that they cannot write more than 10 GB of data onto their cards. I am happy to report that I can in fact write more than 10 GB of data to my card (right now I have about 17 GB of music and JPEG files loaded onto my card).
3. Still relating to peoples' reported issues, my card has a read/write speed of 4.0 MB/s or higher, as it should since it's a class 4 microSD card. Some have reported that the read/write speed is less than that. To put it to the test, I did many benchmark tests and compared it to other SD cards I have. If you are interested, I included them at the bottom of this review.

All in all, I am satisfied with my purchase.... For $28 USD, this 32 GB class 4 microSDHC card is worth every penny. I will be using this product with my SanDisk SDMX22-004G-A57P Sansa Clip Zip 4 GB, Purple portable media player as an expandable memory option. Everything about the microSDHC card itself works as advertised according to the benchmark tests as well as practical file transfers. The included microSD card adapter was also a nice surprise to me and I no longer need to purchase a separate adapter.

________________________________________________________________________

And now for the boring stuff. You may skip this if you don't care about the benchmark tests and comparisons.

To be honest, I don't completely understand the results of the software benchmark tests, so if you can interpret them, more power to you. Because of this, I decided to do a bunch of real-world file transfers (copying) to test the write speeds of the [micro]SD cards. I chose various batch sizes for my tests to see if the size affected the cards' write speeds.

That being said, all tests were done using the same SD card reader, microSD card adapter, music files, source for files, and up-to-date software:
Targus USB 2.0 SD card reader
SanDisk MicroSD card adapter
Macbook 5.1 running Mac OS X 10.6.8 (for file copy, AJA, and Xbench tests)
Files were copied/transferred from an Other World Computing On-The-Go Pro portable external hard drive via USB 2.0 (500 GB Seagate 7200.4 RPM Momentus hard drive)
Dell Vostro 1400 running Windows XP Home Edition SP3 with the latest updates installed (for ATTO, CrystalDiskMark, and Flash Memory Toolkit [free] tests)

I'm not sure if it matters or not, but while doing these tests, I left the computer alone so that no other computer processes would interrupt the tests.

SanDisk 32 GB Class 4 MicroSDHC, brand new
Mac OS X 10.6.8
Music File Copy Tests:
10 MP3 files, 109.1 MB total, 26s = 4.20 MB/s
15 MP3 files, 167 MB total, 41s = 4.07 MB/s
15 MP3 files, 164 MB total, 40s = 4.10 MB/s
10 Apple Lossless files, 299.5 MB total, 71s = 4.22 MB/s
10 Apple Lossless files, 308.6 MB total, 73s = 4.23 MB/s
12 FLAC files, 375.3 MB total, 87s = 4.31 MB/s
14 FLAC files, 456.1 MB total, 105s = 4.34 MB/s
14 FLAC files, 543.4 MB total, 125s = 4.35 MB/s
47 FLAC + 15 MP3 + 6 JPEG files, 1.46 GB total, 342s = 4.37 MB/s
64 FLAC + 12 MP3 + 6 JPEG files, 2.12 GB total, 498s = 4.26 MB/s
129 FLAC + 10 JPEG files, 3.24 GB total, 757s = 4.38 MB/s

AJA Tests:
128 MB 720x486 8-bit video: Write 4.0 MB/s Read 18.3 MB/s
128 MB 1280x720 10-bit video: Write 3.8 MB/s Read 18.4 MB/s

Xbench Disk Tests:
Sequential:
Uncached Write 4.30 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 4.04 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 3.63 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 19.48 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random:
Uncached Write 0.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 0.56 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2.80 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 19.05 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Windows XP Home Edition SP3
ATTO Tests (1 MB to 8 MB, total length 256 MB, queue depth 4:
1 MB Write 4.86 MB/s Read 17.70 MB/s
2 MB Write 4.92 MB/s Read 17.69 MB/s
4 MB Write 4.92 MB/s Read 17.83 MB/s
8 MB Write 4.93 MB/s Read 17.66 MB/s

CrystalDiskMark Tests (50 MB, 9 test average):
Sequential: Write 5.392 MB/s Read 19.21 MB/s
512k: Write 1.511 MB/s Read 18.70 MB/s
4k: Write 1.053 MB/s Read 2.578 MB/s
4k QD32: Write 0.846 MB/s Read 2.933 MB/s

Flash Memory Toolkit [free] Tests:
File Benchmark
1 MB Write 13.21 MB/s Read 15.80 MB/s
2 MB Write 14.45 MB/s Read 16.30 MB/s
3 MB Write 14.77 MB/s Read 16.46 MB/s
4 MB Write 11.46 MB/s Read 16.56 MB/s
5 MB Write 12.12 MB/s Read 16.58 MB/s
10 MB Write 7.98 MB/s Read 16.46 MB/s
15 MB Write 6.64 MB/s Read 16.49 MB/s
________________________________________________________________________
SanDisk 8 GB Class 2 SDHC, 2 years old
Mac OS X 10.6.8
Music File Copy Tests:
10 MP3 files, 109.1 MB total, 23s = 4.74 MB/s
15 MP3 files, 167 MB total, 29s = 5.76 MB/s
15 MP3 files, 164 MB total, 24s = 6.83 MB/s
10 Apple Lossless files, 299.5 MB total, 56s = 5.35 MB/s
10 Apple Lossless files, 308.6 MB total, 58s = 5.32 MB/s
12 FLAC files, 375.3 MB total, 74s = 5.07 MB/s
14 FLAC files, 456.1 MB total, 86s = 5.30 MB/s
14 FLAC files, 543.4 MB total, 117s = 4.64 MB/s
47 FLAC + 15 MP3 + 6 JPEG files, 1.46 GB total, 270s = 5.54 MB/s
64 FLAC + 12 MP3 + 6 JPEG files, 2.12 GB total, 399s = 5.44 MB/s
129 FLAC + 10 JPEG files, 3.24 GB total, 591s = 5.61 MB/s

AJA Test:
128 MB 1280x720 10-bit video: Write 5.0 MB/s Read 9.9 MB/s
128 MB 720x486 8-bit video: Write 4.4 MB/s Read 9.2 MB/s

Xbench Disk Tests:
Sequential:
Uncached Write 5.31 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 5.08 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2.44 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 9.84 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random:
Uncached Write 0.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 0.94 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2.34 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 9.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Windows XP Home Edition SP3
ATTO Tests (1 MB to 8 MB, total length 256 MB, queue depth 4:
1 MB Write 6.24 MB/s Read 9.48 MB/s
2 MB Write 6.28 MB/s Read 9.65 MB/s
4 MB Write 6.28 MB/s Read 9.55 MB/s
8 MB Write 6.28 MB/s Read 9.55 MB/s

CrystalDiskMark Tests (50 MB, 9 test average):
Sequential: Write 6.402 MB/s Read 9.772 MB/s
512k: Write 2.004 MB/s Read 9.786 MB/s
4k: Write 0.022 MB/s Read 2.359 MB/s
4k QD32: Write 0.036 MB/s Read 2.455 MB/s

Flash Memory Toolkit [free] Tests:
File Benchmark
1 MB Write 2.49 MB/s Read 8.82 MB/s
2 MB Write 5.30 MB/s Read 8.86 MB/s
3 MB Write 4.00 MB/s Read 9.10 MB/s
4 MB Write 5.37 MB/s Read 9.17 MB/s
5 MB Write 4.63 MB/s Read 9.03 MB/s
10 MB Write 5.03 MB/s Read 9.12 MB/s
15 MB Write 4.78 MB/s Read 9.10 MB/s
________________________________________________________________________
PNY 2 GB Class ??? MicroSD, 6 years old
Mac OS X 10.6.8
Music File Copy Tests:
10 MP3 files, 109.1 MB total, 26s = 3.90 MB/s
15 MP3 files, 167 MB total, 49s = 3.41 MB/s
15 MP3 files, 164 MB total, 49s = 3.35 MB/s
10 Apple Lossless files, 299.5 MB total, 74s = 4.05 MB/s
10 Apple Lossless files, 308.6 MB total, 75s = 4.11 MB/s
12 FLAC files, 375.3 MB total, 86s = 4.36 MB/s
14 FLAC files, 456.1 MB total, 101s = 4.52 MB/s
14 FLAC files, 543.4 MB total, 128s = 4.25 MB/s
47 FLAC + 15 MP3 + 6 JPEG files, 1.46 GB total, 342s = 4.98 MB/s

AJA Test:
128 MB 1280x720 10-bit video: Write 6.2 MB/s Read 20.3 MB/s
128 MB 720x486 8-bit video: Write 6.1 MB/s Read 19.9 MB/s

Xbench Disk Tests:
Sequential:
Uncached Write 5.30 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 5.45 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 4.12 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 20.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random:
Uncached Write 0.04 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 1.62 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 3.33 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 19.46 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Windows XP Home Edition SP3
ATTO Tests (1 MB to 8 MB, total length 256 MB, queue depth 4:
1 MB Write 7.40 MB/s Read 17.74 MB/s
2 MB Write 7.46 MB/s Read 17.66 MB/s
4 MB Write 7.43 MB/s Read 17.63 MB/s
8 MB Write 7.50 MB/s Read 17.65 MB/s

CrystalDiskMark Tests (50 MB, 9 test average):
Sequential: Write 6.746 MB/s Read 19.43 MB/s
512k: Write 2.929 MB/s Read 19.16 MB/s
4k: Write 0.039 MB/s Read 3.414 MB/s
4k QD32: Write 0.051 MB/s Read 3.585 MB/s

Flash Memory Toolkit [free] Tests:
File Benchmark
1 MB Write 3.88 MB/s Read 15.70 MB/s
2 MB Write 5.01 MB/s Read 16.30 MB/s
3 MB Write 5.64 MB/s Read 16.42 MB/s
4 MB Write 6.02 MB/s Read 16.64 MB/s
5 MB Write 6.32 MB/s Read 16.62 MB/s
10 MB Write 6.53 MB/s Read 16.53 MB/s
15 MB Write 6.00 MB/s Read 16.48 MB/s

This concludes my benchmark tests
________________________________________________________________________

So as you can see from these results, despite the 8 GB SanDisk SDHC card being rated as a 'class 2' SD card, it clearly performs much better than that for most of the benchmark tests, perhaps fast enough to be rated as a class 4 card. Although the 32 GB SanDisk class 4 microSDHC card didn't outperform its class rating as much as the 8 GB SDHC card did, it still did everything as advertised (meaning 4+ MB/s write/read speed).

I use my 8 GB SanDisk 'class 2' SDHC card in my Nikon Coolpix digital camera and it works really well for its purposes. I use the 2 GB PNY microSD card in my R4 flash cart for my Nintendo DS Lite gaming device and I have not had any problems with it.

As a wrap up, based on my benchmark tests, I would highly recommend purchasing the 8 GB SanDisk 'class 2' SDHC card if you need a speedy SD card, such as for a portable digital camera. I would also recommend purchasing the 32 GB SanDisk class 4 microSDHC card for its reliable write/read speeds. Given the fact that the regular SD card seems to outperform its given class rating more so than the microSD card, I would recommend using an SD card before the microSD card if I had the choice. However, for a mobile phone, or in my case a portable media player, that only accepts microSD cards, I would definitely recommend this class 4 SanDisk microSDHC card.

<< Thank you for taking the time to read or glance through my review, and I hope it was helpful some way or another. >> Read more ›