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Having been caught out myself a couple of times trying to
source a real memory card bargain, I'd like to share my experiences and
recommendations.
Your first idea for buying a memory card for your
smartphone or PDA will be in the high street and computer shops. Avoid
these on cost grounds, their mark up makes these way too expensive in almost
all cases.
Your second idea will be eBay, where you'll see a huge
number of memory cards, some apparently with top brand names (e.g. SanDisk) and
all offered from local premises with 'too good to be true' prices and over-high
postage costs. Even if the combined final price is still nice and low, you're
running a big risk. My 1GB 'SanDisk' card, for example, was advertised as
shipping from the UK. I placed my order with the eBay vendor. And sat back. And
waited and waited. The card was actually being sent from Taiwan and the vendor
had explicitly lied about his location on eBay (don't worry, I reported
him). Even worse, the card turned out to be a clever fake:
- a no-name card of the right capacity but without
components of the right spec to work properly in cutting edge machines
- made to look like a SanDisk product but without the
right embossed serial number
- very poor gold edge contacts - the real thing has
shiny, quality contacts that will last a lifetime
- more chinese characters on the packaging than the real
thing
Your third idea will be to take my advice (below) and buy
from the web site of a reputable local (in my case UK-based) memory card
vendor, but going for the lowest cost card they do. Again, this is a mistake.
Cards such as the Kingston range simply aren't as good as the top spec
cards from the like of (the real) SanDisk. Yes, they'll be good enough for
storing applications and MP3s - which may be all you want now, but there will
come a time when something doesn't work properly because the card's components
aren't fast enough. Trust me - get the fastest card you can if you've any
ambitions of using the card in a future device, which may well see you
streaming movies from the card or recording video onto it. As with most things
in life, you get what you pay for!
My recommendation
Find an Internet-based memory card vendor that's based in
your local country (e.g. the UK), whose site you like and who you can phone up
or return goods to if there's a problem.
You can start with
My Memory if you like, who I've been happy with in the UK. |
