Reporting the Sandisk 8 GB microSDHC for the N95 classic.

Hi Folks,

I bought a Sandisk 8 GB microSDHC for in cherished N95 classic. It came with a cool tiny usb card reader. The microSD card an the usb card reader seems to work all right. Yes Sandisk reported it to work. Still I was a bit sceptic. Nokia itself seems rather reticent to verify the compatibility.

First of all. Woohaa 8 GB folks. Thats 8 hours of video recording with the N95, a whopping 146 hours of 128kbit music.  Over a 8000 pictures with the N95 with the very lossy compression of the N95 and so on and so on. Realistically. It only takes 25% of my CD collection at 128kbit. Only 16 movies at tv-quality mp4 (1400 kbps, 500MB each) converted from my 100+ DVD collection. So what should I stuff on it? What do I want to take with me. What do I need to take with me?

• All the Europe maps (1.5GB)  of the known world according to Nokia (4GB) ;-)
  
• 4 GB of music synced through Windows Media player. Compressed with that terrible distorting wma-format giving me 26 hours of music (350 songs).  And Microsoft automatically sets drm when you store it on the phone. So I can't use it as a soundtrack for a personal video I am editing on the phone. Manual copy seems much more versatile. But not today.
  
• A couple of 320x240 video's I keep handy against boredom. About a 0.5 GB worth. I cycle through my DVD tv-series and such.
  
• The installation sis-files for all the N95 applications I cannot do without. So if my N95 goes on a blink. I can do a full factory reset on the road and reinstall each and every application I really need without requiring a network connection! Yeah Fring is there too!
• I suppose a phone memory backup is required too. No more than a lousy 128 MB ;-)
  
• A couple of essential documents. Some contain configuration information for e-mail and SIP accounts.
  
• A directory with selection of portable apps.Using the N95 as a usbstick I can run Open Office, Skype, a mp3 Player and more on any Windows PC. Several java programs for images, music i.e. that will run on any full fledged desktop OS from Apple, Microsoft, Sun, Linux, FreeBSD etc.
  
• That leaves about 1 GB free with all the other junk caused by podcasts and videocenter. The GB is used for pictures and good for about a single hour worth of new video.
  

In case I need more cardspaceI can delete entertainment data: music and videos. Of course I still have my two old 2GB cards and 1 GB microSD card as a backup. If  I am travelling without a laptop I can backup new data (movies, photo's etc.) onto the 2GB cards whenever I find a PC to use.

Sorry no speed tests this time. I did switch on the card encryption and it works flawless too. With encryption on, I can only read the card while in the/a phone.  Rendering any speed above 1MB/s write/read speed pointless.

Just one tip. Plug the N95 in to the charger. Copying 6 GB to the phone via USB sucked the battery dry ;-)