Judy Lau
Staff Writer
SanDisk is bringing external storage to a whole new level through the creation of the world’s fastest microSD card, designed for Windows and Android tablets and smartphones, capable of storing 128 gigabytes of information.
MicroSD cards are a portable form of storage for some Windows and Android devices. However, there is a limit on how much you can store on the 11-by-15mm card. So far, the largest in the market is the 64GB SD card, and SanDisk is looking to raise that bar with its 128GB card.
The firm claims that it was able to boost storage through “an innovative proprietary technique that allows for 16 memory die to be vertically stacked”; each die would be thinner than a strand of hair, according to ZDnet.
Revealed at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain, the 128GB microSDXC card would be able to write at twice the pace of ordinary memory cards, making it a very useful for HD videos and pictures. The memory cards can read at speeds of up to 80 megabytes per second and write up to 50MBps, which allows faster shot-to-shot performance and data transfer for photography such as continuous burst mode. SanDisk claims that the card is able to store up to 16 hours of full HD video, 7500 songs, 3200 photos, and over 125 applications, according to Droid Life.
According to the Inquirer, “The new SanDisk Ultra microSDXC card again demonstrates how SanDisk continues to expand the possibilities of storage so that consumers can benefit from our latest technology advancements,” said Susan Park, SanDisk director of retail product marketing. “With 128GB of removable storage, consumers will enjoy the freedom to capture and save whatever they want on a smartphone or tablet, without worrying about running out of storage space.”
The firm’s vice president of retail product marketing, Dinesh Bahal, spoke at the product launch in London and claimed that there were three demand drivers for bringing the new memory cards to market, the first being smartphones.
“In the next year or so, we are hitting roughly a billion new smartphones that are going to be sold, and the average capacity is going up from what was 6GB in 2010 to 24GB in 2015,” Bahal said.
Bahal also noted that the other two driving factors are the rise in the tablets used as personal devices for apps, music, photos, and videos, and the rise of advanced digital imaging. This means that people not only need to store more data, but also higher quality data before.
To meet these demands, earlier this month SanDisk also announced the world’s fastest memory card for 4K video. The SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC/SDXC UHS-II Card “offers up to 250MBps data transfer speed in burst mode and 280MBps under optimum conditions.” according to the Inquirer. The new card is the first of the Class 3 (U3) specification designed specifically for HD 4K videos. Fujifilm was keen to piggyback on this announcement by bringing attention to their first UHS-II compatible camera, the X-T1.
With the announcement of the 4K microSD card as well as the 128GB microSD card, it is clear that SanDisk wants to be a key player in the development of greater external storage. Although the prices can go up to $200 for their new products, the need for faster, portable, and larger storage may be enough for the new products to be successful worldwide.