14 DAY TRIAL // SanDisk is usually the brand to turn to when in need of a microSD card for expanding the memory on board your device.
But this week, all attention turned to relatively unknown external storage solution maker Microdia, which just unveiled a whopping 512GB microSD card, thus topping SanDisk’s current 200GB offering (as seen at CNET).
Even if devices already advertise support for 2TB cards, because in theory, that’s how much the SDXC standard can bear, we are yet to see any memory cards with this fabled capacity grace the market. So when a manufacturer unveils a microSD with large storage capacity, it's hard not to notice it.
The Xtra Elite won't come cheap
The new microSD card has a name to match its beastly insides. Microdia baptized it the Xtra Elite, and as you can probably guess, it won’t be sold for a low price. The manufacturing company estimates that the card will cost around $1,000 / €889, and we should expect to see it arrive on the market in July.
Sadly, Microdia didn’t have a working card on the grounds at Computex in Taipei, but the storage solution maker should be ready to out the product in a month.
The card supports the UHS standard and promises transfer rates of up to 300MB/s. Older devices will only go half as fast, since the card is based on the SD 4.0 standard which adds a second row of pins. And even if the reader doesn’t support the 4.0 standard, you’ll still be getting around 150MB/s max speed.
Microdia targets professional photographers
Microdia says it expects its new microSD card to be used by professional photographers who will love the high transfer speeds and will welcome the extra space.
However, considering that the card is smaller than your fingernail but will cost you a pretty high amount of cash, you’ll need to be extra careful you don’t lose it or it doesn’t go missing.
While the pricing of the Microdia Xtra Elite is not final, we should remind you that SanDisk’s top-of-the-line microSD card with 200GB storage sells for $399 / €354 a pop. Which is definitely a lot less than what Microdia will be asking for its product.
We’ll keep an eye out for Microdia’s behemoth microSD when it comes out next month.