14 DAY TRIAL // With smartphones, HD cameras and other host devices constantly demanding more, better and faster memory products, storage-solution developers are making their own strides. One of the more recent mobile-storage products was released by Kingston Digital, the Flash memory affiliate of independent memory-product developer Kingston Technology Company. The manufacturer has developed a 16GB microSDHC card that complies with the SD Association Specification 3.00 to meet Class 10 requirements.
The 16GB microSDHC will ship both as a stand-alone microSDHC as well as with Kingston's equally new adapters. More specifically, the company put together the SDC10/16GB (an SD adapter pack) and the SDC10/16GB-2ADP (SD and miniSD adapter pack). The SD adapter becomes a large-storage, fast SDHC card when the 16GB microSDHC is inserted. Similarly, end-users may insert a microSDHC into a miniSD adapter, which can then be used with devices that employ the miniSD form factor.
"With the new speed class, host devices such as high-definition cameras or the latest smartphones are being designed to optimize their write performance to take advantage of the more responsive memory card speeds," Wendy Lecot, Flash card business manager, Kingston, said. "Now that the Class 10 card specification is five times faster than a Class 2 card, users will see swifter copying and transferring of photos, music, videos and e-books when using a multi-format card reader such as the Kingston Media Reader or MobileLiteG2 with a PC."
The Class 10 16GB microSDHC measures 11mm x 15mm x 1mm, has a data-transfer rate of 10MB/s and is compatible with microSDHC, miniSDHC and SDHC host devices. It uses the FAT32 file format and may function at temperatures of -25°C to 85°C, with storage temperatures being of -40°C to 85°C. The card comes with a lifetime warranty and, according to the press release, is priced at $138 (stand-alone), $139 (with an SD adapter) and $140 (when sold with both the SD and miniSD adapters).