My SD LED is an Android app from the developers at Myportablesoftware.com. It is a simple utility for Android users to see when and how frequently their SD card or internal storage is being accessed. It rests in the users’ notification area and blinks an image of an SD card, just as a computer’s I/O light would blind whenever the HDD or SSD is in use. The idea behind the app is for users to be able to see whether or not their phone is using their internal storage or SD card as they should be doing. Irregular or erratic behavior could help users figure out whether or not there are apps in the background accessing and taken up storage on their devices when they shouldn’t be. My SD LED can also be a good way of understanding why a device is running slowly for whatever reason.https://youtu.be/_2ZT5L4UTQI
It doesn’t matter whether or not you have an SD card or are just using the internal storage inside of your device as My SD LED works with both. It’s a quick download from the Play Store, and while it isn’t a free app, its asking price does mean that it doesn’t feature any ads or anything like that.
This is all that resides in the menu – or what there is of a menu – as there aren’t many options here with My SD LED. In fact, it feels pretty limited in terms of options, although it does allow users to choose what color they want the notification “LED” to be.
It was difficult for me to actually capture a shot of the LED in action, but I did manage to get one or two of it in action, and the below is one of those shots. In the top corner (near the SMS notification) the SD card silhouette can be seen in the chosen red color.
There’s also a persistent notification to go along with this LED SD card lookalike, which may or may not be annoying to users.
This also functions as an LED indicator as well, and will constantly blink just as you’d expect an HDD or SSD LED to do so on a computer. There doesn’t appear to be much in the way of other settings or such, which is interesting, but we suppose that it gets the job done and delivers on its promise.
My SD LED is the sort of app that will be most useful to only a small percentage of users. I can only really see users looking to troubleshoot their devices as well as see just how often apps or games access their storage needing something like this. While my inner-geek, who grew up with massive IDE hard drives understands the importance of an I/O LED, such a thing isn’t quite so necessary any more. The struggle of needing to either listen to an HDD to see if its moving and therefore actually doing something or not is not lost on me, but it’s nowhere near as relevant any more. Still, power users will find the extra information provided by My SD LED helpful, and it can be a good way of monitoring your device when idle to see if there’s something fishy going on in the background. In that regard, My SD LED could prove to be quite useful, but for the average user, this isn’t necessary, but then again it’s not designed for the average user, nor marketed towards them. Is it a little pricey for what it does? Well, that’s debatable, but considering that this only needs to do one job well, not having ads come along with it is a nice touch and Google does take a sizeable cut of this.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Neither using My SD LED or getting it set up takes any time at all, and whatever process it uses seems to keep up 100% – or as close as is possible – to the read/writes going on in your system.
- Theme (4/5) – There’s not much to say here, because there’s not much to look at; and that’s kind of the point. Everything looks good here, and the SD card cutout in the notification tray is subtle and can be whatever color you want.
- Features (4/5) – Being able to see when and how frequently your internal storage or SD card is in use will be helpful to some users, but I can’t see this sort of thing being helpful to everyone. Having said that, power users and those that need to troubleshoot something should find some value in My SD LED.
- Overall (4/5) – While it might not win any awards for functionality or creativity, My SD LED does what it says it does and is a great tool for power users and the curious to add to their repertoire.
Pros
- Does exactly as it says it does; offers users a simple and straightforward way of seeing when and how often the SD card or internal storage is being accessed.
- Allows players to choose from a number of colors to customize the overall look and feel of the “LED”.
- Doesn’t appear too obtrusive and blends in quite nicely with Android overall.
- Simple and light application that doesn’t add any extra memory usage or anything like that.
Cons
- Might not be all that appealing to the average user.
- Could be considered a little pricey considering the relatively simple task it performs.
All-in-all, My SD LED is the sort of app that not everyone will need or want, and that’s fine, the beauty of Android is the vast amount of choice out there. For power users as well as those that want to troubleshoot something on their device, My SD LED will certainly get the job done and work well. My SD LED is a good utility to give a try.