Hi, I am looking to purchase a 4GB Micro SDHC card for my VZW 8830. This is my first purchase of this kind, and I don't understand all the options available to me. For example, some come with "MicroMate USB 2.0 Bundle," some say "Ultra II" while others do not (from the same company, SanDisk).

I will use the card to load on music, and maybe some videos. I am looking for the most basic card that will still meet my needs.

Any advice is much appreciated.

It all depends on how much music and videos you will be putting on the card. If you truely want the most possible, than go with the 4GB sandisk that Verizon carries.

The Ultra II card you are seeing from sandisk is a high-speed card. Meaning it will read/write faster. So when you're sitting there uploading music and video expecially, you wont have to sit there as long because it will write at 10MB/second where as the standard cards (the 4gb sandisk) will write at 3MB/second. So you get just over 3 times the speed from a Ultra card.

I actually had a standard card and when I switched to the Ultra in my 8830 it made putting media onto my phone so much more enjoyable. Video will struggle the most obviously, because of the file sizes so you will benefit from Ultra II. Although currently the biggest Ultra II card available is 2GB. So you'll be cutting your capacity by half if you want the speed.

It's up to you...I'm loving my Ultra II. PS, I got my Ultra II 2GB SanDisk from amazon.com for like $28 + $6 shipping, best deal you'll find.

If you want the 4GB, the best spot to pick one up in a hurry is Verizon. They're tough to get else where.

And the micromate usb 2.0 bundle I believe comes with the ability to turn the MicroSD into MiniSD and than that into Standard SD. Basically if you were uploading video/music/pix through a memory card reader or printing from a printer w/ a memory card reader, chances are you will not see the ability to put your lil baby sized MicroSD card into the device so they give you adapters so you can make it the most standard read card, regular SD. MiniSD is for other types of phones, Motorola Q, LG VX8100...etc. Basically, don't buy it unless that's how the 4GB comes because it usually runs you another $20 just for the extra miniSD adapter.

Hope that helps.

Thanks so much for your reply, you have helped me out tremendously. I have one question left then: In your opinion, would you buy a 2gb ultra II for $29, or a 4gb for $75, both are listed on amazon Amazon.com: Sandisk Ultra II 2GB microSD Micro Secure Digital Memory Card (Retail Packaging): Electronics and Amazon.com: SanDisk 4GB MicroSD / Transflash with SD & Mini Adapter BULK Packaging: Electronics

I guess I'm unsure because I don't know how much time the ultra II saves (I know you said 3X as fast, but since I've never loaded a media card before I have no frame of reference), and because I am not sure how many songs can fit on each card respectively. So, while I know it depends on the quality of the music file, what is approximate storage difference between the two?

Thanks again!

Well if you filled it with music only, you're looking at an average song is 4mb than you take that vs 2gb or 4gb.

2048/4= 512 songs

4096/4= 1024 songs

Than you're looking at each song should realisticly take you just over one second to upload.


So to fill a 2gb card you looking at about 9 minutes. High speed would take you about 3 minutes.

Obviously the same type of uploading times would apply with a video file.

The main question here is, do you have patients? I personally do not

Thanks again for the quick rely. I think I will go with the 2gb ultra II, as 500 or so songs will be plenty, and I can save some money, and some time while loading. While I have your ear, so to speak, I have one further question...

All of my music is in iTunes. Is it right that for those songs that I did not purchase from iTunes, but instead loaded onto my computer from a CD, I can just drag and drop those files on to media card (with mass storage device enabled), but for those songs which were bought from iTunes (but not from the drm free iTunes plus section) I will have to burn the songs onto a cd first, and then reload them onto my computer? If that is the case, do I burn the songs as regular audio, data or mp3 files on to the cd? After I burn them onto a cd and put that cd back into my computer, what do I do with those files that are on the cd? Just save them to the desktop?

Thanks for any help, and feel free to add any other useful tips I may like to know during this process.

If you imported songs from an actual CD that were not perchased from Itunes I believe you will be able to just locate the folder, probably: "C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music" in the BB Desktop Manager and drag n' drop them onto the BB.

Although if you have purchased songs from Itunes I'm not 100% sure on how you could place them onto the BB. Based on what you're saying it looks like it would make sense, burning the itunes songs onto a cd than ripping them back onto the computer but again, I'm not possitive if that's a loophole around itunes purchased songs or not. I haven't tried it. If it was not so late here I would test it for you so if no responce by the time I check back here tomorrow, I can test it for you hopefully. If it did have to be burned to CD first, I'm assuming it would be best to make them mp3's (which they probably already are).

Maybe someone else could chime in here and help out with this itunes format/loophole question.

Yes, burning the iTunes purchased music to a cd and ripping it back into iTunes removes the DRM from the music and you can put it on other devices.

Thanks to you both for your input. Just ordered my memory card, so I'm almost ready to start transfering.

The one question that I have remaining then, John Clark, is that when you say to burn the songs onto a cd and then reload it back into iTunes, do you mean to burn the files as regular audio files (meaning I can fit about 18-22 songs per cd), or as mp3 files (fitting probably like 200 songs per cd). It would obviously save me a lot of time and money on cds if the latter is the case. Thanks again!