SanDisk and Micron unveil 1TB microSD cards at MWC 2019

[Cal Jeffrey]

Why it matters: Mobile World Congress 2019 is here, and companies are rolling out and announcing all the newest mobile technology. It’s not just tablets and smartphones though. MicroSD technology had big announcements as well.

Earlier this morning we reported that the SD Association had announced the SD 7.1 specification at MWC, which offers faster PCI Express and NVMe interfaces for microSD cards. The new spec will allow microSD cards to have SSD-like performance.

Micron and Western Digital's SanDisk brand both had announcements that they would soon be releasing 1TB microSD cards. SanDisk says its card would have better performance than Micron’s with a read speed of up to 160MB/s versus 100MB/s. However, Micron has a slightly faster write speed of 95MB/s compared to WD’s 90MB/s.

Nintendo Switch owners may be happy to learn that they will soon have the ability to upgrade the capacity of their systems to be on par with Microsoft’s and Sony’s consoles. Unfortunately, unless they want to wait until prices come down, they will likely have to pay more for the cards than they did for their Switch. The new high-capacity microSDs will probably be more attractive to those recording a lot of 4K video.

SanDisk said will be launching its 1TB microSD in April. However, it won’t come cheap. Expect to shell out about $450 for that much storage. Micron did not have a definite date nailed down saying that its cards would be ready for market sometime in the second quarter. No word on price, but expect it to be priced competitively.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/78914-sandisk-micron-unreal-1tb-microsd-cards-mwc-2019.html

 

[Vulcanproject]

As ever, it'll come down in time. I just picked up a 400GB UHS-3 card for $90.

A mere 4 years ago almost to the day, Sandisk announced their 200GB UHS-1 card for $399.99.

https://www.techspot.com/news/59902-sandisk-latest-microsd-cards-whopping-200-gb.html

Tech waits for no man.

 

[D3z4R1]

As ever, it'll come down in time. I just picked up a 400GB UHS-3 card for $90.

A mere 4 years ago almost to the day, Sandisk announced their 200GB UHS-1 card for $399.99.

https://www.techspot.com/news/59902-sandisk-latest-microsd-cards-whopping-200-gb.html

Tech waits for no man.

I too recently picked up the 400 GB variant (at $100 CAD) for my Galaxy S9+. That price will definitely come down and I will no doubt be picking one up when it does. Hopefully it will happen when I upgrade my phone to a Note 12, maybe?

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

I remember being in awe seeing 5 GB compact flash micro hard drives... doesn't even feel that long ago. I love how (most) tech just keeps getting bigger & better.

Somehow though I don't think we'll reach 128 TB microSD by 2023....

 

[QuantumPhysics]

" The new high-capacity microSDs will probably be more attractive to those recording a lot of 4K video."

I prefer NAND flash built into my devices than Micro SD cards. The access speeds are far better.

And that's the one thing Apple continues to hold over Android with iOS iMovie. When I go on vacation to Thailand this April and shoot a travel video for 6 or 7 hours, I can finalize the entire video on my phone rather than being forced to upload to my desktop.

With my 256GB model I was able to make 4K 60fps videos for 5 hours straight, but little more. With this 512 I can do more than 8.

Once I can get 1TB, I'll be set...so long as the standard doesn't suddenly rise to 8K 60FPS...which it won't.

 

[D3z4R1]

By the time these 1TBs come down in price, hopefully SD 1.7 will be commonplace to offset any speed issues. But then again, I may be too optimistic. lol

 

[Uncle Al]

When it gets down below $100 it will be more realistic for the everyday user ......

 

[onestepforward]

I remember being in awe seeing 5 GB compact flash micro hard drives... doesn't even feel that long ago. I love how (most) tech just keeps getting bigger & better.

Somehow though I don't think we'll reach 128 TB microSD by 2023....

I remember being in awe seeing 5 GB compact flash micro hard drives... doesn't even feel that long ago. I love how (most) tech just keeps getting bigger & better.

Somehow though I don't think we'll reach 128 TB microSD by 2023....

You missed the days of the 5 1/4” single sided, single density, 120k floppy disks

 

[onestepforward]

When it gets down below $100 it will be more realistic for the everyday user ......

At which time 1PB devices will be the norm

 

[Danster1616]

I wish I still had my Droid turbo. It could handle a 2TB card.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I still have a case full of 32MB, 64MB and the coveted 128MB SONY Memory Stick Pro Duos.

I popped em into my desktop to copy all the available data off them.

1TB will soon be the gold standard for smartphone storage and will eventually be surpassed by 2TB.

Here's the thing: the only reason I need so much storage is because of the 4K video.

My entire music collection is smaller than 30GB.

My entire Photo collection is smaller than 30GB.

My entire App collection is smaller than 30GB.

The problem comes when I need to finalize 4K video.

My average video is between 1 and 2 hours but my travel videos exceed 4 hours.

To process that much video you need double the space on the iPhone.

4K 60FPS takes up a lot more space than 4K 30FPS.

The internet video standard (set by Youtube) is 4K 60FPS.

Facebook downscales everything to 720p so a 4K or even 1080p video is irrelevant.

So long as it doesn't change anytime soon to 5K or 8K, I'll be fine.


Apple should drop the 64GB option altogether and the base storage of their machines should be 128GB or 256GB.

512GB and 1TB are where the enthusiast needs to be.