What happens if I put an SD card bigger than what the phone can use?

[Windows95]

I have an Galaxy S7 Exynos, apparently S7 tops at 200 GB:

 

https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/what-size-memory-card-does-my-smartphone-accept/

 

So what will happen if I buy a 512 GB one?

 

Im a bit dissapointed, I thought this phone would have no problems with a 512 card. I was going to buy this one but im not sure anymore

 

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Memory-MB-MC512GAEU-Micro-Adapter/dp/B07H1231S8

 

What's interesting is in amazon i've found this from buyers:

Quote

Yes, it works for the Samsung S7. After system files it has about 476 Gb available.

Quote

Bought two and placed one in an old Samung S5 and the other in a Samsung S7 for playing opera videos in the car. Saw 476GB available. I think that it is a myth that the phone operating systems limits the capacity of the card. Writing directly to the chip out of the phones, I saw write speed of about 73MB/s and read speed of about 93MB/s.

So why is Samsung listing it as 200 GB tops?

[Tasha Godspell]

I believe that 200gb is the amount they verified and that they know for sure will work. also, it is safe to assume that they do so on the basis with what the at the time is available and/or more common maximum capacity which would tops at 200gb. as long as the pins are compatible, it should be safe to run it. it might also be not since they do not test it with those capacities.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Correct, the same way motherboard manufacturers will list a top RAM stick size based on what they verified, but often you can use newer RAM sticks that are double what they claimed.  (this is particularly relevant in small form factor PCs with only two slots where you'd be stuck with half the chipset maximum if you followed the guidelines)

 

Basically they won't guarantee it will work but in most cases it should do.

[RageTester]

SD card should work, but there is a chance you will only be able to access amount of memory supported. Rest might be unavailable.

[RejZoR]

Every phone that I had accepted SD card way larger than officially supported. One thing is what vendor officially supports and has tested, but you can usually use way larger. But if it doesn't work, they are off the hook as they clearly state the "tested" capacities.

[Windows95]

it may be that 512 cards didnt even exist when s7 was released so it was untested

[Anomnomnomaly]

It's a little bit of a hit and miss.... but normally if the spec is up to or greater than 128GB... it should take larger cards... but isn't guaranteed.   It's more of an issue with lower capacities... where the specs are much lower and simply can't handle it.

 

My dash cam for example is only rated for 32GB, but has a 64GB card in it... my old phone from 8yrs or so ago was only rated for 32GB and refused to accept anything larger.

 

My current phone has 128GB onboard and can take up to 512gb more... but it's just got my other 64GB added for extra music storage.

[kokosnh]

If your Phone suports SDXC, then it should work. The old phones before smartphones could be laggy when having too big SD cards, but if it's android, and there's no internal locking of it, it should work.

[kokosnh]

the official spec of my LG G4 https://www.lg.com/ca_en/cell-phones/g4/tech_specs 

 "External Up to 2TB microSD Card Support" 

probably because of SDXC that is up to 2TB.

 

the largest SD card standard is SDUC, it's up to 128TB