Best Micro SD card for Xperia XZ2 / XZ2 Compact

William Judd

When it comes to choosing the right Micro SD card for your Xperia XZ2 or XZ2 Compact, there are plenty of valid questions to ask:

  • Which cards can handle 4K or ultra slow-mo video recording?
  • Which are the best for running apps from the SD card?
  • What card offers the best value for money?

Let’s answer these questions, right now.

Best Micro SD cards for 4K or ultra slow-mo video

Recording 4K HDR videos or 1080p videos in ultra slow-mo requires an incredible amount of data, so much so that most Micro SD cards on the market just can’t keep up.

That’s why there are SD speed standards, so you can know which cards are fast enough to work well with 4K footage. Using our earlier calculations for the Galaxy S9, we can see that for 4K, we’re looking for cards that meet the UHS Speed Class 3 standard, which is marked with a little 3 in a U shape. That refers to a minimum write speed of 30 MB/s, three times faster than the old 10 MB/s Class 10 standard. Ideally, our cards should also be capable of hitting even faster speeds, such as 50 MB/s, to fully keep up with 4K video recording over an extended period.

Therefore, our recommendations here are limited to two cards: the Samsung Evo Plus, which has write speeds up to 60 MB/s, and the Sandisk Extreme Plus, which has write speeds of up to 90 MB/s. The Samsung card is available in multiple sizes — 64GB, 128GB, 256GB — while the Sandisk card is only available as a 64GB model.

Best card for running apps

When it comes to running apps from the Micro SD card slot, read speed is the most important metric. That’s why we recommend the Sandisk Extreme, which was tested as having read speeds up to 92 MB/s. That’s extremely quick, and you won’t be able to find anything significantly faster on a smartphone until we start seeing phones with UHS-II slots.

Best value-for-money card

Next up we have the value stakes. If you’re not writing 4K video or running apps from the SD card, you don’t really need to spend extra to get a super fast card. Instead, look for one that offers more storage at a lower price. In our reckoning, the best option is the SanDisk Ultra, which offers a whopping 200 GB for £90 — half the price of the Samsung 256GB card we looked at earlier.

If that’s a little too much for you, then you should consider Kingston’s line of Class 10 cards, from the 16GB Class 10 at £13 and the 32GB High Endurance Card at £20 and the 64GB Class 10 at £28. These cards offer similar performance at a much more reasonable price.

Wrapping up

We hope this examination of the best Micro SD cards for the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact was helpful to you! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to get in touch via the comments below.