PNY SDHC Optima 16 Go Class 4

Product Survey: SD and SDHC Cards

PNY has two different ranges of SDHC memory card: the Standard and Optima ranges. Cards in the Optima range are Class 4, which supposedly ensures a minimum write speed of 4 MB/s. However, PNY's website boasts even higher transfer speeds of 8 MB/s in write mode or 20 MB/s in read mode. The actual transfer speeds rarely come close to those given by the manufacturer, but this memory card proved to be an exception. With files such as photos, the Optima SDHC 16 GB memory card even managed to outperform the manufacturer's stated value with a write speed of 9.4 MB/s. It therefore outperforms the lower-capacity models (4 & 8 GB) which, under the same conditions, have transfer rates of 7.2 and 5.4 MB/s respectively. When it comes to read speeds (card > computer), the 16 GB version once again outperforms the smaller models. It transfers data to a computer at 18.7 MB/s, compared with 17 and 17.7 MB/s for the 4 and 8 GB versions.