SanDisk fesses up to 16GB microSDHC and M2 memory cards

What's been keepin' ya, SanDisk? We knew these little buggers were legit late last week, but for whatever reason, the outfit chose to keep its trap shut until today. Finally, SanDisk has confessed in painful detail that its 16GB microSDHC and M2 cards are for real, marking the largest capacity available in both formats. Of note, even Sony doesn't have a 16GB M2 card on the market, though it's possible the firm is too busy dealing with all those other proprietary formats to mess with this one. At any rate, Best Buy Mobile and Verizon Wireless stores will be your go-to place for either one, though we'd be prepared to shell out $99.99 (16GB microSDHC) or $129.99 (16GB M2) when they land in November.

[Ahmad Ansari @ Sep 29th 2008 3:00PM]

Wow, Really $129.99 for the 16MB M2? Sounds like a rip-off to me! LOL

[Juxtah @ Sep 29th 2008 3:05PM]

Seems about right to me, because they're porbably paying Sony quite a bit for the 'privilege' of using their format.

[John @ Sep 29th 2008 3:09PM]

no, see, he's pointing out the flagrant typo about it being a 16 MB card instead of 16 GB, as it says in the a) read link, b) picture, c) article title, and d) earlier in the article.

[uwaga dude @ Sep 29th 2008 3:09PM]

16 mb. MB. megabytes.thats way more than 16gb. its well worth the 130

[Juxtah @ Sep 29th 2008 4:35PM]

Damn, *learns not to skim read*

[thedesolate1 @ Sep 29th 2008 8:34PM]

2 things : Supply and demand and the "premium" for the Sony format -_-. SD cards have been notably cheaper than memory sticks in the past. I recall when the psp first came out memory sticks were alot more expensive than SD cards even at lower memory sizes. Fast forward a few years later and the psp has helped spread adoption of the format and thus SD and Memory stick prices are almost equal. ALMOST. Just remember Sony always charges a premium for their products. Does it make it superior? no. Is it a pain in the ass to have many kinds of formats? yes. But is the competition good? Definitely.

[Wwhat @ Sep 30th 2008 1:20PM]

I noticed that reporters do it too a lot with the bail-out thing, they say "700 dollar... 700 billion rather" a lot, makes you wonder if it's wishful thinking.

[avester @ Sep 29th 2008 3:05PM]

That is tiny 16gb right there.

[EMoShunz @ Sep 29th 2008 3:07PM]

$99.99 for micro sd 16gb seems way too good to be true. i'd buy it in a heartbeat if it really is that price.

[Will @ Sep 29th 2008 3:16PM]

Yeah, I'm pretty tempted to pick one up for my phone. I'm still using an old 2gb.

[EMoShunz @ Sep 29th 2008 3:22PM]

if it would work with this, i may finally have found a flash drive i want:
http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00241
anyone know of any possible compatibility issues?

[broli @ Sep 29th 2008 3:42PM]

I wouldn't jump the gun that fast. If the trend keeps up the price will plummet fast.

The capacity is quite amazing for its size. I couldn't believe its physical size when I had a 8gber in my hand.

[Nick @ Sep 29th 2008 4:15PM]

I'm currently using a 4gb card and find it hard to fill with content I actually want. I guess I'll have to pick this up to go with my G1 when I get that in the mail http://htcsource.com

[Martin @ Sep 29th 2008 3:09PM]

In Switzerland, this card is already available since about one week, see: http://www.digitec.ch/ProdukteDetails2.aspx?Reiter=Bilder&Artikel=155811. "Abholbereit" means "ready for collection", so it's available.

[Pierce @ Sep 29th 2008 3:11PM]

I hope Microsoft makes a new Zune with two of these chips in side them making it 32gb
with a touchscreen and touchpad and a 3.5 inch screen. Selling at 200$

[Lowest Ranked @ Sep 29th 2008 3:17PM]

Keep dreaming buddy.

[chefgon_ign @ Sep 29th 2008 3:23PM]

I don't know the specs on these cards, but I find it highly unlikely that their write speeds are fast enough for an MP3 player. Every low-end flash card I own takes hours to write multiple GB to, which is pretty unacceptable for a mainstream MP3 sync.

[Funkstar @ Sep 29th 2008 5:18PM]

@chefgon_ign: Dumped about a 9GB of MP3s onto one of these when I got it. Didn't take long, 20min or so, can't remember. Certainally wasn't hours.

[Eric Law @ Sep 30th 2008 9:25AM]

I have an 8GB microSDHC card from sandisk in my sansa e260 and it's plenty fast enough for both MP3 audio and even MPG video (albeit on a rather tiny screen). Although I'm referring to the read speeds, not the write speeds, but it doesn't take hours to write to mine. Maybe you are on USB1.1?

Also, I see no mention of which class these devices are rated at.
My 8GB microSDHC is a class4.
class2 would be slower, class6 would be faster.

[Wwhat @ Sep 30th 2008 1:23PM]

Many memory card readers are limiting the speed, as do those nasty USB issues that make USB2 ports slow down to USB1.1 mode, ouch.
Anyway it's easy to think it's the card that's so slow when in fact it's not.

[chefgon_ign @ Sep 29th 2008 3:25PM]

Why do Memory Sticks still exist? It's the same story it's been for years - same capacity, same formfactor, significantly higher price. How can they possibly compete with SD cards? I specifically avoid any and all devices that use Memory Sticks because I'm not willing to pay the premium for them.

[PeterF @ Sep 29th 2008 3:38PM]

Because Sony keeps putting them in their devices.

[Samboini @ Sep 29th 2008 3:45PM]

Much like another format they push. Admittedly the other format is garnering more success of late.

[Adam H. @ Sep 29th 2008 3:27PM]

Ooo, November? That's just a little after my G1 lands on the doorstep! It's a blessing!

[Jon Doe. @ Sep 29th 2008 4:11PM]

The problem is that the G1's current documentation says 8GB max. Now there is question as to if this is due to 8GB simply being the biggest card out there or if this is a software issue, because its been reported that the G1's hardware IS MicroSDHD compatable. So....

[kyle.dille @ Sep 29th 2008 4:44PM]

If this is like any other of the SDHC cards, the phones will have to come out with new software to support these. Hell, T-Mobile hasn't even come out with software to support the 8GB SDHC cards in the BB Curve yet...

[Christian @ Sep 29th 2008 4:59PM]

This makes me wonder, do any of the released phones support this form of media yet? I meant above 8GB?

[Funkstar @ Sep 29th 2008 5:15PM]

The HTC phones do. I've had 16GB in my TyTN II since Friday :)

[Poom @ Sep 29th 2008 5:44PM]

If it supports 8GB, it will most probably support 16GB as they're both microSDHC.

[dannyboy414 @ Sep 29th 2008 7:23PM]

I'll wait until it drops below $80. Just picked up 8gb for $27 so I'll have something for my G1.

[Gregersonk @ Sep 30th 2008 1:05PM]

Be careful about buying cheap large cards if you want fast read and write speeds. There is a large difference between a extreme sandisk card and a standard one when it comes to speed.

[MIDIamore.com.au @ Sep 29th 2008 10:50PM]

I'm using a Sandisk 8GB MicroSDHC with my Nokia XpressMusic 5310 and couldn't be happier. Nokia claims that the phone supports max 4GB cards but I will confirm tha 8GB works like a charm. By the way; does anyone know a good easy software to rip CD's to HE-AAC. I'm currently using good old WinAmp...

Cheers
Espen
http://www.midiamore.com.au

[rav97 @ Sep 30th 2008 1:42AM]

Here in Europe they've been available for over a week, at about 50 euros + VAT. I got one for my Nokia N82 yesterday.
Finally I have enough space to hold my music (about 7GB), video podcasts (even at 320x240 and MP4-encoded, these take a lot of space; for example, each episode of MSNBC's Meet the Press is over 250MB), and pre-loaded maps of all Europe and NA (1.3GB and 1GB, respectively), with room to spare!

[Wwhat @ Sep 30th 2008 1:31PM]

lolz, you have a collection of meet the press videos that you save and carry around? Doesn't get weirder than that methinks.

[fairlight @ Sep 30th 2008 6:17AM]

uhm... it's been available for quite some time now..:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-16GB-M2-MICRO-MEMORY-STICK-FOR-C902-C702i-G900-G502_W0QQitemZ200251152326QQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

price: £59.95
Quantity: 46 available

[JohnM @ Sep 30th 2008 7:44AM]

A problem that is coming around though is that these 16GB microsdhc is that they seem to be only class 2. Where as you'll see lots of ebay guys selling them as class 4, when there isn't a 16gb microsdhc class 4 yet! So becareful, when buying, speed does matter as well.

I myself have picked up a sandisk 8GB class 6, cheaply!

As for those who wonder about SDHC / microsdhc, if your device can handle SDHC / microSDHC then it will be able to handle 32GBs if and when they come out! So if your device can handle 4GB SDHC/microSDHC then it will be able to handle 32GBs. But it really does have to be a 4GB SDHC, not 4GB SD!

Yes yes, it may be possible to push past the 32GB marker in years to come, and they still might work with SDHC (SD 2.00) but lets argue about that one, if we ever get that far!

[dave larom @ Sep 30th 2008 6:38PM]

JohnM, where did you get the 8gb class 6?

[m_chan1 @ Oct 23rd 2008 5:36PM]

Anyone know if it's a Class 4 or Class 6 card??

Here's some info from Sandisk:

Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™ ) 16GB
SDMSM2-016G-A11M

Price: $129.99

Features:

Dual voltage operation; 1.8v for new Sony Ericsson mobile phones, 3.3v for Memory Stick PRO Duo compatible devices
Controlled ejection design allows for easier removal
Sony MagicGate™ encryption technology support
Product Specifications:

Capacity: 16GB
Card dimensions: 0.59” x 0.49” x 0.05” (L x W x H)
Voltage: 1.8v, 3.3v