Although all R4 cards look the same, they vary from card to card. They are also known under a variety of names such as ds cards, r4 revolution, r4 adaptors, r4 adapters, ds card or the very simplest is just an r4. A simple device such as the R4 card has taken the world by storm due to its ability and its enhanced functionality when combined with consoles such as ds and ds lite consoles. The addition of an r4 card in a console turns the console into a multimedia station that is capable of being used to store media such as mp3's, videos and ebooks. The r4 card itself does not have its own memory storage capacity so the r4 card is itself acts an adapter that communicates with the console and the memory card that is inside it. Memory cards that are used with the r4 card range from 2GB to 32GB.

For DSi and DSI XL console owners there is the r4i card (just another term for a particular r4 card) that is most suited for these consoles. They are commonly also referred found when typing search terms such as r4 dsi, r4i dsi, r4 for dsi etc.

Every r4 card is is a slot 1 device flash card which in simplistic terms means it just fits into the space given for a standard console game at the rear of the console. The dimensions of the r4 card are exactly the same as any other original games cartridge therefore meaning its difficult to determine whether your using a original games cartridge or a r4 card just by having a quick glance. The main characteristic of the r4 card that distinguishes it from a standard original cartridge is its ability to accommodate a micro SD card which is also known as a memory card. No R4 Card, r4i card, or r4 3ds card comes with any on board storage capacity. It’s therefore a must that your r4 card is coupled together with a suitable memory card so the r4 software or r4 kernel as it’s known can be added to the memory and then the memory card is inserted into the slot in the r4 card itself.