4GB of Memory for your Nokia N95

[Rafe]

The new 4GB SDHC microSD cards are now becoming available at a variety of online retailers. The cards will work with the Nokia N95, but may not work with other S60 phones. MyMemory currently has stock and is selling the cards for £51.99. 4GB is enough for 4 days of music or for you to take one 5 megapixel N95 picture a day for the next 10 years!

Read on in the full article.

Can't seems to find them anywhere.

I heard O2 shops have them instock but I can't get to one.

[Rafe]

Yikes - looks like the stock is gone a already. More arriving in the UK at the end of June.

I bet this big memory cards might not work unless they release an OS update... you better test before purchasing ;-)

SDHC is actually a different format from regular SD. Even if you get a small capacity SDHC card, it won't work unless your device specifically supports SDHC.

Despite the referring to Nokia's non-support, I can't understand how allaboutsymbian can speak with such certainty. OK, Sandisk has confirmed that its 4GB microSDHC is compatible with N95, but along with a footnote of "Based on SanDisk internal testing". With which firmware they tested? Who knows? As most of you know Nokia released a firmware update, and it might have precluded the use of microSDHC. Who knows?? You might think that I am creating some sort of conspiracy theory, but we cannot know whether Nokia is considering to release a device in the short term which would be compatible with microSDHC, whereas worse than N95 on some other respects, so that as a sales strategy they may put its consumers to a compelling position, scaling the cons and pros between that device and N95. Doesn't this always happen??? Also don't forget that, if you run the presentation of N95, you will notice that it says that it is compatible with microSDs that are up to 2GB, which is in accordance with the device's specifications posted in official websites of Nokia.

I think there is another issue which needs to be discussed! The manufacturer's of SDHCs + the SD Association itself claims that regular SD cards are manufactured up to 2GB. What about Samsung's announcement in May 2007 in which they say they created 8GB microSD cards, and they are planing to ship it in 2008??

I wanna draw your attention to something at this point. The manual of my Sony DSC-G1 camera says that the device is compatible with up to 8GB Memory Stick Pro Duo (though Memory Stick Pro Duo can be manufactured up to 32GB, as far as I know) As you can see there is a limit.

In this respect, if we assume that N95 would be really compatible with Sandisk's 4GB microSDHC and Samsung's 8GB microSD and that it is not compatible with a greater size of both microSDHC and microSD, which one would you prefer???
Another issue is that, microSDHC's are going to be released with Class codes of 2, 4, 6 according to their speeds. I am not an expert of this stuff, but I am wondering whether the Class codes would be an issue in terms of compatibility to N95. For instance, Kingmax is also considering to release a 4GB microSDHC soon, but unlike Sandisk, which is going to release a Class 2 microSDHC, it is going to release a Class 6 microSDHC.

Aside from the afore-mentioned things, unless mymemory.co.uk changed their website upon noticing their mistake after reading allaboutsymbians's posting, it is a shame for allaboutsymbian that they informed that the item is currently in stocks of mymemory.co.uk. In their website it is clearly seen that the item can be only pre-ordered. The sadder part is that the image posted in mymemory.co.uk does not even bear a company's name or similar sign or information. I highly doubt the information given in mymemory.co.uk's website.

Shortly, if I were you, I would be weary against the highly expected microSDHCs in terms of their compatibility to your N95. As you can see, this issue is much more surprising than you think! (Who could expect that; in an environment where the manufacturer's of microSDHCs and even the SD card Association, which determined the specifications of these flash memory cards, excitingly say that regular microSDs can only be manufactured up to 8GB; a company would come up with a 4 times higher capacity 8GB microSD???)

[Rafe]

My understanding of microSD was that because of the file addressing or similar the maximum capacity within the current specs was 2GB, hence the need for SDHC. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card

The compatibility is based upon a reliable third party report (well actually more than one, you'll see this repeated in a number of forums).

Obviously I included the caution, but I am confident that it will work.

When originally posted the site did show as having stock. I've used MyMemory in the past and their prices have been competitive / good delivery tiume. Given some of the issues with fake memory cards I'd recommend buying from a reputable dealer (others I've used include mobymemory.com)

[robgreb]

The Register has reviewed this card, and stated that it's compatible with the N95.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06...4gb_microsdhc/

The only drawbacks now are the price and the lack of availability...

Surely the answer is for someone who has an E90 to stick the card in and see if it works - alternatively as SanDisk?

OR wait until the ordinary MicroSD is released as 4GB

[robgreb]

Hi

Ordinary SDs (and minis and micros) won't see a 4GB version.

Ordinary cards use FAT16, which limits the addressable memory to 2GB.

SDHC cards use FAT32, and need devices that work with the card's interface to control that file system.

(There are 4GB cards that use FAT16 and 64K clusters or nonstandard interfaces, but support is so patchy you're better off avoiding them.)

Page 18 of the E90 manual on line says that it uses both 16 and 32 bit cards. However it then states micro SD with no mention of SDHC. Confused I am !

Frankly I need 4GB but I have now discovered that neither PC nor Laptops available today will read the SDHC which is yet another source of frustration.

[plinkykev]

Just to confirm that if the OS is configured for over 2GB the card should work fine. I'm using a Motorola Z8 with this card and it works fine, and is quick too.

[Dogmann]

Hi all,

As i have just purchased a N95 i did consider these 4gb cards for a few minutes and then decided as the N95 supports hot swapping of cards. I would be better off just buying 3 x 2gb cards and still saving £15. As i am only really using the N95 for MultiMedia it really is no hassle to put Films and Video's on one card and Music and pictures on another. Just my preferred solution to storage giving me more storage for my ££'s.

Marc

Well there we are listed in mymemory are the 4 gig cards for E90.

Not available yet but clearly this answers the question.

13.30 14th June

I have E90 with latest OS version (210.34.75) running on it. A month ago I bought 4 GB Apacer SDHC. E90 is able to access 4 GB memory however, recently I have noticed some issues with the card / E90. I'm not sure it is because of the size of the card or something wrong with my E90 (I did do hard reset and fresh installation of my E90). A few times I've seen card being automatically formatted wiping all my installed applications and data from the card. With the use of 4 GB card startup time of E90 is also dramatially increased. I have not seen anywhere Nokia officially supports 4 GB cards though.

Just wondering if anyone is using E90 with 4 GB SDHC and having similar issues.