Along with a full line of new solutions, SanDisk announced a microSD card that it claims is the fastest high-capacity option on the market.
While the camera industry has largely moved away from microSD cards — with the notable exception of the new Nikon Zf which features a second card slot that uses the format — they are still common in smartphones, drones, and small cameras like the GoPro Hero 12.
It is for those applications that SanDisk has produced what it claims is the world’s fastest 1.5TB high-capacity UHS-I microSD card. Of note, that isn’t a claim that it’s the fastest microSD card or even the fastest “high-capacity” card, only that it is the fastest at the 1.5TB capacity.
The company says that the new card can reach read speeds of up to 150 MB/s. SanDisk does not state how fast the card can write (it’s not in the company’s official press materials, product page, or written on the card itself) and also stipulates that the promise of 150 MB/s can only be reached when it is paired specifically with its MobileMate USB 3.0 microSD card reader. Suffice it to say there are caveats to its claim, as those speeds will not be reachable by a capture device, and read speeds are not as important as write speeds when it comes to a device’s performance.
Still, it’s a number that SanDisk can hang its hat on. The new cards are available now for $230 and come with a 10-year limited warranty.
“We understand that peoples’ storage needs continuously evolve, from personal photos, videos, and files to professional content, which is what pushes us to redefine the limits of what’s possible,” Susan Park, Vice President, Consumer Solutions at Western Digital, says. “Our goal is to continue creating easy-to-use, trusted solutions that people rely on today and tomorrow, and we hope the solutions we are launching today inspire people to keep creating.”
In addition to the new microSD card, SanDisk also announced a new Pro-Cinema brand CFexpress Type B card. Promising sustained write speeds of 1,400 MB/s, the company says cameras can shoot 8K video without dropping any frames. The new card is available now for $400 for the 320GB capacity and $700 for the 640GB capacity.
SanDisk’s brand has seen better days. Rampant issues in its portable SSD products, which are showing far higher than normal failure rates, have severely hurt the brand’s rapport with the photography community. SanDisk is even being sued over it. While the SD, microSD, and CFexpress division is likely operated separately from its portable SSD division, it’s an issue that will likely be a factor for those looking at memory card options.