ADATA, PNY, and Team Group to Launch 512 GB microSDXC Cards This Summer
by Anton Shilov on June 7, 2018 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory Cards
- Trade Shows
- PNY
- microSDXC
- Team Group
- 512 GB
- Computex 2018
At least three well-known suppliers of NAND flash-based products — ADATA, PNY, and Team Group — are gearing up to start selling their 512 GB microSDXC cards next month. The products will offer similar performance-related specifications and will certainly not be cheap. However, with 512 GB microSDXC cards available from multiple suppliers, their prices will not hit the ceiling due to competition.
The 512 GB microSDXC cards from PNY and Team Group use the SD 3.01/UHS-I bus to deliver up to ~90 MB/s data transfer rate. The cards carry the Class 10 and UHS Speed Class U1 badges that which guarantee that they support at least 10 MB/s minimum sequential writing speed, which is enough for taking pictures and FHD videos. In fact, specifications of the cards are similar to those of a 512 GB microSDXC card by Integral launched earlier this year.
The 512 GB microSDXC cards from PNY and Team Group do not support any Application Performance Classes and therefore might not be suitable for huge mobile games or VR applications. Meanwhile there is a growing number of Nintendo Switch owners who want high-capacity cards to store their games, so the new cards may get popular among such people (provided that their performance is enough).
Although ADATA’s 512 GB microSDXC card also relies on the UHS-I bus and supports read speed of up to 100 MB/s and write speed of 85 MB/s, it has an important advantage over competing offerings from the three aforementioned companies: it carries the Application Performance Class 1 (A1) badge. The card provides a sustained sequential performance of 10 MB/s, a performance of 1500 random read IOPS as well as 500 random write IOPS. Therefore, ADATA’s 512 GB microSDXC card can be used to store and run applications.
Both Team Group and PNY intend to start shipping their 512 GB microSDXC cards sometimes in July. By contrast, ADATA plans to ship its 512 GB microSDXC product in August (a bit later, but with A1). As usual, actual availability will depend on the region and other factors. As for pricing, the three companies do not share their MSRPs just yet, but certainly such cards will cost quite a lot. For example, Integral charges around $350 per card, but at present it simply has no competitors and can charge any sum it likes.
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Valantar - Thursday, June 7, 2018 - link
The Adata card looks far superior. Not only is it A10 rated, but also V30, meaning pure write loads shouldn't dip below 30 MB/s. I can't see any markings regarding that on the Team Group cards, but the PNY is V10 only. Of course, this could mean that the Adata card can sustain 31MB/s writes and the PNY one 29MB/s writes, given that there's no tier in between here, but it's still likely that the Adata one is significantly faster.Still, with the V30 rating, assuming minimum write speed, it'd take 4,75 hours to fill the card (minus whatever space you lose in formatting, of course). At least the read speeds are better, but copying out the contents of a card like this sounds like a nightmare. "No, I can't back up the video from today, my laptop will run out of battery before it's done."
PeachNCream - Thursday, June 7, 2018 - link
It's about time! Having only 256GB of microSD storage in my phone makes it feel really cramped for space these days since the phone itself only has 8GB of internal storage and that forces me to keep almost everything on the SD. I don't really care about the speed as long as data can read fast enough for 720p playback.Death666Angel - Thursday, June 7, 2018 - link
That was a bit of a weird purchase, wasn't it. The 256GB mSD card must have cost as much as the phone. The last time I saw 8GB on a phone that wasn't a chinese brand was with the first gen Moto G.PeachNCream - Thursday, June 7, 2018 - link
Yup, the phone was around $30 when I got it last year and the microSD card was about $160. I figured the SD card could move to subsequent phones later. Then I started ripping my DVDs and downloading random videos from YouTube...ugh. 256GB would have been fine for just storing pics of my cat, the books and stuff I like to read, and all of my music. In fact, that all fits neatly inside 32GB, but the videos kind of blow that out of the water so now I'm looking forward to 512GB. At this point, I'm probably keeping my phone for another year and as I've already kinda blown the phone versus SD cost thing, I don't care anymore what the microSD card costs as long as I can double my storage space.Valantar - Thursday, June 7, 2018 - link
"Then I started ripping my DVDs and downloading random videos from YouTube"The former: why do you need all of them on your phone? Do you regularly spend 2+ hours on public transportation?
The latter: why? Why? Seriously, why download random YouTube videos and keep them on your phone? Does this activity have _any_ point?
PeachNCream - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Why not? My phone is my primary computing device to the point where if I didn't like to post the occasional stupid video to YouTube (which requires somewhat more capable video editing software than is currently available to Android) and need something to sit between the phone and my backup HDD, I wouldn't even need my current home laptop. I only turn that dinosaur on once or twice every week or two so it can check the Linux repositories for updates unless I'm working on a video project and those go in spurts when I'm feeling creative. It only makes sense to keep all of my stuff stored on a phone that I use all the time. I'm pretty sure a 512GB mSD won't cost more than ~$350 anyway so it's basically going to be a spontaneous buying thing to get one.damianrobertjones - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
400Gb has been available for awhile now.PeachNCream - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Yes, I've seen SanDisk had a 400GB card for sale and I admit I was considering buying one, but I still have about 31GB of free space on my 256GB card so it wasn't urgent just yet. The fact that I get an extra 100+GB of storage space with a 512GB card makes me happy that I held off. I can probably last another year or so before I start doing the potty dance about needing a 1TB card.damianrobertjones - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Looks like sales of the other card sizes has fallen... "Quick release the next one in the line of releases!""How should we price this?"
"Stupidly expensive!"
"Right oh"
nandnandnand - Saturday, June 9, 2018 - link
We are getting very close to running up against the 2 TB limit for the SD standard, which applies to both full sized SD and microSD cards (SD is up to 1 TB already). When will that limit be raised by the SD Association?