Samsung Updates PRO Plus UHS-I Memory Cards with Improved Speeds
by Ganesh T S on April 11, 2023 10:00 AM EST
Samsung has been marketing SD and microSD cards for a few years now under the PRO Plus lineup in the UHS-I category. We looked at the 2020 lineup in detail a few years back. In 2021, the company updated this product line with increased read/write speeds of 160 MBps / 120 MBps. Today, the company is announcing new updates to the lineup with increased speeds of up to 180 MBps reads and 130 MBps writes. The new cards come with a V30 video speed class rating, guaranteeing a minimum write speed of 30 MBps even under worst-case conditions.
On the microSD front, Samsung is touting A2 application performance class for the new cards. These cards guarantee a minimum of 4000 random read IOPS and 2000 random write IOPS under all conditions. Given the increase in number of use-cases for microSD cards over SD cards - mobile devices, game consoles, drones, and action cameras, the PRO Plus microSD lineup includes a 512GB SKU for the new speeds. The PRO Plus SD lineup with the new speeds tops out at 256GB.
| Samsung 2023 PRO Plus SD and microSD Lineup | ||||||
| microSD | SD | |||||
| Capacity | 512GB | 256GB | 128GB | 256GB | 128GB | 64GB |
| Launch Pricing (Card) | $60 | $30 | $19 | $38 | $22 | $13 |
| Launch Pricing (Card + Reader) | $65 | $38 | $26 | $50 | $30 | - |
| Interface | UHS-I | |||||
| SD Standard | SDXC | |||||
| Performance | 180 MBps (R) / 130 MBps (W) | |||||
| Speed Class | U3, V30, A2, Class 10 | |||||
The company is also having select SKUs available with a bundled USB 3.0 card reader. Note that UHS-I officially goes up to 104 MBps only. The higher speeds that make an appearance in the new SKUs' packaging is enabled by proprietary extensions (other manufacturers such as SanDisk and Lexar also adopt a similar strategy). Standard UHS-I card readers may not ingest from / write data to the new cards at the higher speeds.
The PRO Plus lineup continues with its promise of durability (ability to withstand extreme handling and storage conditions). Combined with the 10-year warranty, Samsung continues to target professional users with the lineup updates.
Source: Samsung
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shadowjk - Saturday, April 15, 2023 - link
The super simplified version is that devices that still use full-size SD cards don't use that much storage. Full-size SD card average capacity per sold card is much lower than microsd. It's an afterthought for manufacturers these days.dubyadubya - Wednesday, April 12, 2023 - link
Looks like Samsung has a 512GB SD. Just click on the link to Samsung and have a look.https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-announces-impr...
LiKenun - Thursday, April 13, 2023 - link
It’s only in the picture. Further down in the same page, no full-sized variant of the 512GB capacity is listed. It only goes up to 256GB same as stated by this article.QuietOC - Wednesday, April 12, 2023 - link
It would be nice if the SD Association would standardize these actual faster UHS I speeds instead of creating standards that no one implements.R7 - Friday, April 14, 2023 - link
Yep. Most devices are limited to UHS-I even tho users can buy UHS-II or now SD Express cards.Silver5urfer - Wednesday, April 12, 2023 - link
The irony of this is, none of the Samsung so called "Flagship" phones have an SD slot. I use a budget phone and it has a memory card slot and I bought this for discount at $42 launch price, 512GB, and meanwhile the uber Ultra editions and Notes and etc are rotting away. Once this device is deemed irrelevant or gets damaged, I can safely move the data without worry of BS backups into cloud etc.Also my LG V30 ESS Sabre powered DAP will also get this new Memory card once BF sales hit. Same for my iPod Video with SD adapter.
I find it extremely stupid that none of the OEMs except Sony are making ARM processor Flagship phones with SD Slots. To make things worse, Android's Scoped Storage disaster continues to wreck havoc onto the Filesystem that user can control in Performance and Productivity.
PeachNCream - Wednesday, April 12, 2023 - link
Its very nice to be able to relocate a SD card between phones to move data without pushing 100+GB of data upstream and its comical that, yes, if you want to do that sort of thing or have any kinda utility in your phone, you have to buy a budget model. Same goes for removable batteries and headphone jacks. You can buy a cheap phone today with all that stuff, but those things are omitted at the high end which makes the most expensive phones in some ways the least functional handsets out there.Threska - Thursday, April 13, 2023 - link
Or use a USB cable and a computer.PeachNCream - Thursday, April 13, 2023 - link
Not always an option if your phone is deceased.R7 - Friday, April 14, 2023 - link
Still slow even at 10-20Gbps speeds when talking about moving hundreds of gigabytes of data. Especially if that data is small files.