Samsung and SanDisk are looking to one-up each other when
it comes to expandable memory for smartphones and any
other device that supports a microSD card. SanDisk made a
200GB card last year that is quite affordable, and then
Samsung came up with a 256GB model . A few weeks ago,
SanDisk matched Samsung's 256GB card with two new
microSD options of its own , both more affordable than
Samsung's card. But Samsung stepped up its game and killed
the microSD card completely.
The company's latest memory offering is a UFS 2.0 storage
solution that will work with any device that has microSDXC
support, but it offers the same lightning-fast storage
experience as the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7. In fact, these new
cards are just as fast as SSD drives.
Samsung last year switched to UFS 2.0 storage for high-end
mobile devices , with the Galaxy S6 being the first to get these
new ultra-fast memory chips. Short for Universal Flash
Storage, UFS can significantly improve the smartphone
experience, allowing faster access to the contents of a phone.
Expanding UFS 2.0 support to swappable cards seems only
logical for Samsung, and the move would let diehard Android
fans to take advantage of Android's adoptable storage feature
– here's how to enable it on the Galaxy S7 .
Oddly enough, Samsung does not mention Android devices in
its press release , saying the new memory card has been
designed for "mobile shooting devices such as DSLRs, 3D VR
cameras, action cams and drones." Samsung did not
announce actual release dates or pricing details for the UFS
2.0 memory cards either, but it did reveal performance details.
The cards offer "more than five times faster sequential read
performance compared to that of a typical microSD card," as
they're able to read sequentially at 530 MB/s, which is on par
with SSD sequential read speeds.
"With this UFS card, consumers have the ability to read a 5GB,
Full-HD movie in approximately 10 seconds, compared to a
typical UHS-1 microSD card, which would take over 50
seconds with 95MB/s of sequential reading speed," Samsung
writes. "Also, at a random read rate of 40,000 IOPS, the 256GB
card delivers more than 20 times higher random read
performance compared to a typical microSD, which offers
approximately 1,800 IOPS."
UFS cards will read a 5GB Full HD movie in 10 seconds,
compared to 50 seconds for a microSD card that can do up to
95MB/s sequential reading.
As for write speeds, the 256GB UFS card reaches a top speed
of 170MB/s, or almost twice the speeds the fastest microSD
card can achieve. "To shoot 24 large/extra fine JPEG
photographs (1,120 megabyte (MB)-equivalent) continuously
with a high-end DSLR camera, the 256GB UFS card takes less
than seven seconds, compared to a UHS-1 microSD card
which typically takes about 32 seconds, at 35MB/s," Samsung
explains.
Well, SanDisk, the ball is in your court now.
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