Prep for Lumia 950 & 950 XL: Getting the best microSD card

The Lumia 950 and 950 XL both come with 32GB of internal storage, but they also have microSD slots for even more storage. Both phones support micro SDXC 3.01 standard-compliant cards.

Ready to hear something crazy? The maximum capacity that exists for the card technology is 200GB, and you can get one right now from SanDisk. And theoretically, both phones can take up to 2TB microSD cards, although those are not on the market just yet

Buy the SanDisk Ultra 200GB microSDXC card

With 200GB of storage, SanDisk says you can store up to 20 hours of Full HD video. When it's time to move your data from the card, read speeds of up to 90MB/s allow transfer of up to 1,200 pictures a minute from card to PC. Getting this card, however, will cost you about $160 on Amazon.com.

If 200GB is too much storage, or if you want to spend less, there are microSDXC cards with lower capacity that are more affordable. For example, you can get this Samsung 64GB EVO microSDXC card for less than $20 at Amazon.com.

Notes

  • microSDXC cards currently range from 64GB to 200GB, but it can theoretically go up to 2TB
  • microSDHC cards are older than microSDXC cards and range from 4GB to 32GB
  • microSDHC cards should work with the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL
  • The Lumia 950 and 950 XL support Ultra High Speed, Phase I (UHS-I). Look for cards that support UHS-I for maximum performance.

What to look for

The Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL supports microSDXC cards with UHS-I. Therefore, when getting a card, look for these terms and branding on the labels.

Regarding buying cards on eBay, just remember to check the seller's ratings. MicroSD cards, especially the high capacity ones, are notoriously counterfeited and faked. Make sure you are buying a reputable card from a trust-worthy source with a money-back guarantee.

In terms of raw performance, the SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB (Read Up to 95MB/s; Write Up to 90MB/s) for $49 is likely your best bang for your buck. Sure, you're not getting 200GB of storage, but you do get very fast read and write times. We'll be taking a closer look at both the Extreme PRO and the 200GB Sandisk next week.

Buy SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB from Amazon.com for $49

I hope this helps when buying a microSD card for your Lumia 950 or Lumia 950 XL. What capacity card are you going to grab? Let us know in the comments!

Have any other microSD card tips? Share them in comments.

Mark Guim

Mark Guim is Video Editor at Windows Central. He switched to Windows because the MacBook Pro isn't Pro enough. You can follow him on Twitter at @markguim.