Which has a faster data transfer rate? WIFI (tablet or cell phone, not LTE) or MicroSD (Class 10)?

Question

Which of the two methods of dta transfer trasfers data at a faster rate for smartphones and tablets? Standard Wi-Fi, or MicroSD Cards?

I wonder if it would be actually faster to access data on external storage then it would be to have the MicroSD card in my smartphone or tablet.

Currently I have a class 10 32 GB MicroSD card in my cell phone. I am looking to get the new Google Nexus tablet but it does not offer expandable internal storage. I wonder if that's really a detriment; because if Wi-Fi is faster than MicroSD, then it would matter almost none at all that you couldn't expand the storage internally.

If the case is that Wi-Fi is faster, and people caught onto this, then people could save a lot of money on lower memory ipads/iphones/ipods, tablets, and smartphones!

Answer 1

802.11n is 600 Mbit/s
SD class 10 is 10 MB/s (80 Mbit/s)

However the former is a theoretical maximum (assuming 4 streams, 4 aerials). 74 mbit/s is more realistic with an ideal signal (no interference, no other nearby Wifi devices). The latter is sustained minimum write speed.

Here's a graph from http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/28/exploring_time_capsule_theoretical_speed_vs_practical_throughput.html

Of course, if the data in the phone is on the SD-card in the phone (or in flash memory with equivalent throughput), WiFi can only be slower than directly reading tha card.