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Samsung announces 32GB microSD card capable of 12MBps write speeds
Go shopping online for a microSDHC card and you'll find that while manufacturers don't hide the speed specs, they're not exactly crowing about 'em either. Make no mistake, though: Samsung is mighty proud of its new 32GB number, which boasts a class 10 speed rating and read / write rates of 24MBps and 12MBps -- ideal numbers for those of you who plan on making good use of your phone's 1080p camera. If you're a storage buff, you know that class 10 is the highest speed category for SD cards at the moment, and that it sits above classes 4 and 6 -- the tiers covering many other microSDHCs on the market. No word just yet on pricing, but we think it's safe to say you'll be dishing out a premium.
Kingston's Class 10 microSD family gets bigger, stays tiny
Kingston is putting an extra boost the smallest of its tiny memory cards. The popular provider of flash storage is upping its 4GB and 8GB microSDHC cards from Class 4 specifications (up to a 4 MB/s transfer rate) to a whopping Class 10 spec and all of its 10 MB/s goodness. The newly announced models join a 16GB version that has been available for several months. By completing the family tree of Class 10 cards, Kingston is offering faster all-round performance for file transfers on smartphones, quicker write times for microSD-wielding cameras and basically a few seconds of your life back -- at lower prices than before, though you'll still be paying a premium compared to slower cards. Our microSDHC-accepting devices are itching to hop aboard this speedier train of data storage, and luckily we won't have to wait long. The two memory cards start shipping at the end of March and are being offered with an available Mobility Kit, which includes an SD adapter and a USB card reader. But, if you want a full-fat 32GB model, you'll have to wait for Q2 of 2011 like the rest of us. Pricing starts at $22 for a 4GB model up to $138 for the 16GB model -- check after the break for full breakdown of prices and more in the PR.
Lexar unveils 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card, quick-fingered Android users celebrate
Lexar. It's Where Memory Matters. And it's also the only game in town to introduce a Class 10 microSDHC card. For those currently using an Android phone with a user-accessible microSD slot, you've probably gritted your teeth on a number of occasions waiting for your current Class 2 or Class 4 card to catch up with your demands. It's one of the downfalls to removable storage, but thankfully, the device you see above looks to us like a glistening solution. The 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card promises a minimum sustained write speed of 10MB per second and a read speed of nearly 20MB per second, which should all but eliminate any lag from loading up your favorite playlist. Lexar plans on shipping this guy with preloaded software to manage and sync stored images and videos, and speaking of shipping, it should be available right now on Amazon for $149.99.
Lexar Media reveals 64GB and 128GB Class 10 SDXC cards
Man, it feels like yesterday that we first heard of SDXC and its mythical promise of providing 2TB of storage along with 300MBps transfers. Truth be told, that was at CES two years ago, and here we are 24 months later oohing and ahhing over 128GB. Ah, the pains of (sluggish) progress. Griping aside, we're fairly sure that professional video junkies will be more than elated to hear of Lexar Media's two newest cards. The 64GB and 128GB Class 10 SDXC cards "offer minimum guaranteed speeds of 133x (20MB per second)," and ship with a limited lifetime warranty. If all goes well, they'll be splashing down into retailers later this quarter, with price tags set for $399.99 (64GB) and $699.99 (128GB). Just to put that into perspective, SanDisk shipped a Class 4 (15MB/sec) 64GB SDXC card right around this time last year for $350, and it's now going for half of that on the street. Yeah, ouch. %Gallery-112350%
Samsung first with 20-nm NAND Flash: cheaper, faster SD cards on the way (update)
Let it sink in, 20 nanometers. It wasn't that long ago when 45-nm manufacturing processes were all the rage. Now we've got Samsung following Toshiba with a sub-25nm flash memory announcement all its own. Samsung's 20-nm class 32Gb (gigabit) MLC NAND is sampling now, however, for use in embedded memory solutions and SD memory cards ranging from 4GB to 64GB. In addition to increasing densities and decreasing manufacturing costs, Samsung's 20-nm class NAND is claimed to be more reliable and 30 percent faster than the 30-nm MLC chips forming the core of its existing 8GB and higher SD cards. That translates to cheaper class 10 (20MBps read, 10MBps write) SD cards when these ship to consumers later this year -- always a good thing. Update: There's a chance that Samsung is playing fast and loose with words here. It repeatedly says "20-nm class" without specifying the actual node size. Is it 20nm, 22nm, 27nm? We're digging for details and will update this post when we have them. Update 2: Samsung's response: "Unfortunately, we are not disclosing the actual process node for our memory devices. Thank you in advance for your understanding." Yeah, we understand: Samsung's process node is likely larger than the 25nm threshold set by Intel and Micron.
Kingston whips out speedy Class 10 16GB microSDHC card
While some camps are pumping out larger microSDHC cards, Kingston's done the world a favor by working on speed instead. The result is this Class 10 16GB microSDHC card -- possibly the world's fastest of its kind (at a minimum data transfer rate of 10MB/s). Who would need this, you ask? Well, there's the speed freak in your own self that you're trying to suppress, for starters, and don't forget all those snazzy phones that can do 1080p video recording. As with most nice things in life, this blistering card will cost you a fair bit -- $138 for the card sans adapters. Oh, go on, it's totally worth your liver.
SanDisk's 32GB class 10 SDHC card competes for world's fastest
When it comes to claims of being the world's first or fastest, there's a big difference between announcing product and actually delivering it for retail. So let's be clear, SanDisk might be announcing the world's fastest 32GB SDHC card today, but it won't be shipping until August. It's not even the first 32GB class 10 SDHC card announced since Panasonic did its unveiling more than a month ago -- and this is where SanDisk's speed claims get confusing. That "class 10" logo is supposed to be a standard means of identify the card's speed as rated by the SD Association. Yet SanDisk claims a max read/write speed of 30MBps whereas Panasonic claims a max of just 22MBps. Guess we'll have to see head-to-head benchmarks to know the truth. Regardless, it is fast and that makes it suitable for capturing 160 minutes of full HD (1920x1080 pixels) video recorded at 24Mbps.
Panasonic's Class 10 SDHC cards make the wait for SDXC easier
A full 15 months after Panasonic dropped jaws with its 32GB Class 6 SDHC card, the company is hitting us up with another world's first. Announced today over in Europe, the outfit has revealed a new line of SDHC memory cards that boast a Class 10 speed rating. Said spec was recently given the green light as part of the SD Card Specification v3.0, and as you could likely surmise, the increase in transfer rates should enable the cards to better handle all that HD video your DSLR seems to be capturing these days. Still, the boost is relatively minimal (particularly compared to the forthcoming SDXC format), with Class 10 promising maximum speeds of 22MB/sec and Class 6 cards already offering top-end rates of 20MB/sec. Mum's the word on price, but Panny expects these to ship next month in the UK before heading to other markets sometime later.
