Best Tablet With Micro Sd Card Slot
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This page discusses how I added a microSD card to my reMarkable tablet. I did this because I want to develop software for my rM without wearing out the internal eMMC. I chose an external card because I want to be able to swap them easily; it also makes backups faster.
Contents
Opening the Case
The aluminum back panel is held to the plastic case with glue. I have not yet determined what melts this glue, or how to “properly” take the back off. I was able to lift it off, by starting slowly in a corner. Thereafter, I used a putty knife to slowly peel it away. The panel bent, but I was able to bend it mostly-flat again.
Next, there is a magnesium chassis screwed to the plastic case. Underneath the rubber feet are six silver screws. There are also XX black screws, that must be removed.
The epaper display is glued to the magnesium chassis; don’t try to pull it apart. There is also a white silicone-like substance around the edge of the epaper panel, which seems to disintegrate and flake off. I think it fills the gap, and perhaps offers a little waterproofing. This is non-replaceable. The screen can be pushed apart from the plastic chassis. It is held on the perimeter with plastic latches, so split it with a spudger and go slowly.
Fastest Microsd Card
With the case off, the guts can be removed. There are five connectors to the logic board. In clockwise order starting at top-left: power button, touch panel, antenna, epaper display, USB daughterboard and buttons, and Wacom digitizer.
Finally, the logic board can be removed. It is held with six small screws and washers. Underneath the logic board is a plastic tape, a section of which must be removed around the SD pads.
Positioning the Card
The bottom-right seemed like an appropriate placement for the card socket, because the area is already spacious. The right side was easier to route the cables to, because of the channels cut in the white plastic case. I reassembled the reMarkable prior to soldering, to ensure no bulges or deformities appered.
Soldering the Wires
Using ten 30 AWG wires and plenty of flux, I connected the board to the socket. The board indicates which pin is first. The board has a ninth pin, which is used for card-detect. This gets pulled low when a card is inserted.
To keep things as flat as possible, I used cellophane tape to mate the wires to the board. They feed out beneath the digitizer’s FFC cable in one beautiful ribbon. This also prevents elecrical contact to the grounded chassis.
Cutting the Case
I drilled the SD slot by-hand with a rotary tool. Starting with a carving bit on the inside, I first hollowed out the area to give me a thin veneer, measured with a flashlight. Once I felt it was thin enough, I drilled from the front with a pointy sanding bit, and cut longitudinally.
The magnesium chassis had a small section removed, which was easy with a tiny wire cutter. While it sacrifices a little bit of strength, it makes up for it in storage capacity.
After testing the fit once again, I fillited epoxy around the edge of the socket, gluing it down. I was careful not to get any inside the socket.
Loading the Kernel
The stock rM kernel doesn't enable the SDHC1 slot, which is how these pins are designated in the device tree file. I recommend first being comforable with this remarkable-flash guide, the NXP porting guide for the i.MX6 processor, and the i.MX Yocto user guide.
The rM is a mostly-vanilla i.MX6 board (many share similaries, including the Hobbitboard). As such, it shares the same SDHC interface. What the microSD slot connects to, and what the stock kernel does not activate, is the SDHC1 interface. This can be enabled in the device tree, and the kernel may be recompiled to include support for an SD card.
By default, the sdhc1 interface is disabled in the device tree. Enabling this is the first step. Copy the arch/arm/boot/dts/zero-gravitas-factory.dts
over arch/arm/boot/dts/zero-gravitas.dts
. Then, edit it to enable the sdhc1 interface like shown in the diff below.
Next, make zero-gravitas_defconfig
and edit the .config
file produced to include the following drivers.
Once done, rebuild the Linux kernel with make
. Copy the artifacts to the rM's /boot
directory: arch/arm/boot/dts/zero-gravitas.dtb
and arch/arm/boot/zImage
. I have included my artifacts here for posterity, but it is foolish to install a kernel that someone else compiled.
Reboot the rM, to make sure xochitl still runs. Then, check dmesg grep ‘mmc0’
to ensure the card was detected, and double-check it with fdisk -l
. Partition your card as you like, then change the /etc/fstab option to mount that partition at /home.
Reboot, and bask in the increased storage capacity.
Ending Notes
- Now, the aluminum back is held on with gaffer tape. I am afraid to glue it shut, in case I want to access the guts again.
- Maybe the white stuff that came out around the bezel can be replaced with calk
- I wish I had used multicolor wires, because it was difficult following them with my eyes.
- I didn’t cut close enough to the top of the plastic case, and so my SD slot is taller than it needs to be, but it isn't very noticable. I shimmed the extra vertical space with a folded up business card for a tighter fit.
- Before using solid-core wirewrap wire, I tried making my own ribbon cable with magenet wire and masking tape. This didn’t work well, because the enamel was hard to remove from just the ends, and the masking tape was too thick. The wirewrap wire turned out much nicer.
- Technically, I think the IMX needs to be changed too (and re-wrote over /dev/mmcblk1boot0) but I didn’t do this, and it seems to work alright. I'm fine using it just for the data partition so my OS updates work.
More Images
Don't peel the screen off!
The Fire HD 10 tablet doesn’t come in very large storage sizes — your options are actually pretty small in nature, giving you choices between 32GB and 64GB. That’s not a lot of space for photos, larger apps, movies, or TV shows. It fills up quickly, but luckily, you can easily add more storage space to your Fire HD 10 tablet through the microSD slot on the device. Inset a microSD card in there, and you’ll get instant access to a ton of extra space.
Memory Cards For Tablets
At A Glance: 5 Best MicroSD Memory Card For Fire HD 10 Tablet
- Our Top Pick
Best Tablet With Usb And Sd Card Slot
Product | Brand | Name | Price |
---|---|---|---|
SAMSUNG | Samsung 128GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSD EVO Select Memory Card | ||
SAMSUNG | Samsung 64GB MicroSDXC EVO Plus Memory Card | ||
SanDisk | SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC Memory Card | ||
SanDisk | SanDisk Extreme PLUS 64GB microSDXC UHS-I/U3 Card |
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Best Tablet With Micro Sd Card Slots
Now, there are a ton of different miceroSD memory cards available on the market, making it difficult to choose the right one for your Fire HD 10. So, what do you choose? We’ve assembled a list of five of the best available for you to choose from — here are our top picks.Best MicroSD Memory Card For Fire HD 10 Tablet
1. Samsung Evo Select
First on our list of choice from Samsung — their impressive EVO Select line of microSD memory cards. It’s a versatile line of cards, giving you plenty of performance and space at a price point that almost anyone can afford. Seriously — even at its largest size, the price is a whole lot easier to manage than the Samsung Pro+. With 128GB of space inside, you’ll have plenty of room to film, store apps, and more. You can actually get this in a 256GB option for on the cheap, too. The data transfer speeds are pretty good, with it available in 100MB in read and 90MB per second in write.
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2. Samsung Evo PLUS
Next, we have the Samsung EVO Plus card. This one is the perfect option for your Fire HD 10 tablet, providing you with plenty of extra space for offline content like movies, videos, and TV shows. Just slide this one in your EVO Plus’ microSD slot, and you’ll get an extra 64GB of storage space to use for photos, videos, apps, games, and more.
Since this is more of a budget microSD card, you do get slower transfer speeds inside of the EVO Plus. That said, the EVO Plus is still able to provide you with pretty decent rates as far as speeds in 2018 go.
3. SanDisk Extreme PRO V30
And coming in at third place on our list, we have SanDisk’s own Extreme PRO microSD memory card. If you want an affordable way to outfit your Fire HD 10 tablet with plenty of extra storage, this one will be right up your alley. This gives you an extra 64GB in capacity, adding plenty of storage space to your Fire HD 10 for extra movies, videos, apps, documents, and more. This one comes in as 4K ready, so you can use it to film 4K video as well. You shouldn’t have a problem loading applications quickly with this one, as the SanDisk Extreme PRO is fast. Data transfers are pretty impressive, coming in at 90MB per second in write speeds and 100MB per second in read speeds.
SanDisk has actually included a number of protections and resistances against water, dust, shock, and more as well.
4. SanDisk Extreme PLUS U3
And the fourth contender on our list is yet another choice from SanDisk — the Extreme PLUS microSD memory card. Insert this one directly into your Fire HD 10 tablet, and you’ll get a whole extra 64GB of storage space to play around with for apps, games, and offline content. On top of that, SanDisk includes a ton of extra resistances and proofing inside of the card — you can easily use this in adverse conditions without a risk of actually breaking it. There’s specifically water and dust protections here — so there’s no worries about dropping the card in a body of water and destroying it.
5. Samsung Pro+
We really like what the Samsung Pro+ has to bring to the table, though it admittedly might be a little overkill for the Fire HD 10 tablet since you cannot do much with 4K content on the device. That said, the Samsung Pro+ is still one of the best that you can buy today, bringing you top data transfer rates — you actually get a whole 95Mbps in read speeds and 90Mbps in write. On top of that, you get a massive 128GB of extra capacity to use with your Fire HD 10 tablet — there will be plenty of room for extra offline content. Of course, Samsung’s Pro+ card does come 4K-ready, so you can easily pop it out of your Fire HD 10 tablet, and use it in a device that can film 4K as well.
Best MicroSD Memory Card For Fire HD 10 Tablet Verdict
So we’ve shown you five of the best options available for the Fire HD 10 tablet. Now, which one do you pick up for the device? If you want only the best with your tablet, the Samsung Pro+ will definitely be up your alley; however, the EVO Plus or EVO Select are likely much better and more manageable prices, while still giving you plenty of storage space and performance.
Do you have a favorite microSD memory card, or one that you prefer for the Fire HD 10 tablet? Let us know what it is in the comments section below!
Product | Brand | Name | Price |
---|---|---|---|
SAMSUNG | Samsung 128GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSD EVO Select Memory Card | ||
SAMSUNG | Samsung 64GB MicroSDXC EVO Plus Memory Card | ||
SanDisk | SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC Memory Card | ||
SanDisk | SanDisk Extreme PLUS 64GB microSDXC UHS-I/U3 Card |
* If you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. For more details, please visit our Privacy policy page.