2GB MS Pro Duo Shootout - Sony vs. Sandisk

**Green_Hawk** · October 16th, 2005, 07:17

The Sandisks aren't nearly as stable though.

**Odie** · October 16th, 2005, 14:10

Originally Posted by Psphreak

Is it in the formatting or something that gives the Sandisk more room? I remember the Sony 1gig gave 960 or so megs after formatting while the Sandisk gave 949 megs. Glad to see Sandisk being on top.

Nope, the card appears to physically have more bytes of capacity to begin with (as reported by Windows explorer). Both cards come formatted with FAT16, but that doesn't affect the capcity figure shown in bytes. 40MB is a considerable amount of extra space.

Originally Posted by Green_Hawk

The Sandisks aren't nearly as stable though.

Could you please explain what you mean by that?

I've had extensive experience with different flash memory cards over the past few years and the only other time I have been as disappointed with the performance of a card as I was with the 2GB Sony MS Duo was when Sandisk used to put out some very poor SD cards which were prone to data corruption in some PDAs, but that was a long time ago now. I've had about 6 different Sandisk MS Pro Duos since I got my PSP in January (not due to any fault, I just tend to buy and sell a lot) and I've not had a single issue so I'd be very interested to know what you mean when you say they're not "stable".

**Humbug** · October 16th, 2005, 16:06

for reliability ive found sony are quiet good but for speed use san disk

**YourStillWithMe** · October 16th, 2005, 19:26

Wait so Sony is a lot more "stable" and probably less likely to become corruput? I had a Sandisk 1GB and it went dead or got crrupt or whatever in like 3-4 months i was pissssssssstttttt. LUCKILY i had all my game saves and eboots and stuff BACKED UP on my pc like you all should incase something like that happens to you. Sandisk is faster and Sony is less likely to become corrupt? I just got 2 1GBS for 30 bucks a pop so i think thats a good deal

**Odie** · October 17th, 2005, 16:24

I seriously doubt the Sony cards are any more stable than the Sandisk ones. The fact that the speed is so poor tends to suggest that the memory chips used in the Sony ones are of lower quality, that doesn't exactly scream "stable" to me.

**blublu** · October 18th, 2005, 09:52

Anyone noticed the new Sony Pro Duo's with high-speed on it?

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6451_7-6296352-4.html

The one the OP tested was the Sony pro duo that didn't have High-speed on it right? There's definitely 2 versions out there so just wondering how this new one would compare to Sandisk...

**Odie** · October 18th, 2005, 13:33

Yes, there is a High-Speed Sony card, but there is also an "Ultra II" Sandisk High-Speed model as well. The two "regular" version cards I tested are comparable price-wise so the test was fair.

In the PSP it's possible that there will be little or no performance increase with the "High-Speed" cards because I remember reading something awhile back about the device having to specifically support the high-speed MS Duo specification which the PSP doesn't. I could be totally wrong though as I think the info is a few months old.

Either way, the 2GB High-Speed models from Sony and Sandisk cost considerably more than the standard ones (I've seen the Sandisk for ~190 quid)