What is the difference between a microSD card and a TF card? Important information before choosing between them
Regardless of the mobile devices manufactured by Apple, such as the iPhone or iPad, most electronic products on the market have a small memory slot through which the storage space can be expanded. Although installing compatible memory into these slots is not complicated at all, there are several types of memory that can cause some confusion.
The two most popular and widely used memory cards are microSD and TF. With some differences between them, they are indistinguishable at first glance, so knowing how one differs from the other requires some technical knowledge.
If you have these two memory cards or are thinking of buying one, this article will be very useful for you. Here we will put these two memory cards head to head and analyze all the differences between them.
- What are the differences between microSD card and TF card?
As we mentioned a few paragraphs above, the visual differences between these memory cards are nil. Likewise, it is necessary to point out that both are compatible with all devices that have memory expansion slots.
One of the most important differences is in their names. TF cards are known as TransFlash cards, and they got this name because at the time they wanted to offer a smaller version with better dissipation than the well-known SD memories.
For its part, the SD abbreviation for microSD memory cards stands for Secure Digital. The meaning of these words indicates that they are more secure than traditional SD cards, and they are also smaller in size (micro).
The remaining differences that you can find between one card and another are those mentioned below:
- The size of TF card is slightly smaller than that of microSD card.
- MicroSD and TF cards work differently: a microSD card is a semiconductor flash memory that tends to heat up a bit more, while a TF card is a smaller flash memory that is internally smaller and heats up less.
- There are different companies that have collaborated to create these cards: microSD is the result of a collaboration between Toshiba, Panasonic and SanDisk, while TF cards are manufactured by SanDisk and Motorola.
- Released in different years: TF cards are the latest generation of memory cards and were released in 2004, while microSD cards were released in late 1999.
Without adding much in this regard, if you are thinking of changing the expandable memory of your device or camera, you should keep in mind that in addition to these models, there are a large number of versions. Of course, do not worry if it is a microSD or TF card, both will be 100% compatible.