Samsung unveils successor to MicroSD

[yt1993]

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/7/7/12115616/samsung-ufs-removable-memory-cards

 

Quote

The UFS cards have sequential read speeds of up to 530 megabytes per second — five times faster than the best microSD cards. That means reading a 5 gigabyte, full HD movie in roughly 10 seconds, says Samsung, compared to a UHS-1 microSD card which manages the same feat in around 50 seconds.

Write speeds are also significantly improved, with rates of up to 170 MB/s. That's nearly double the performance of the very fastest microSDs (this SanDisk Extreme Pro card, for example, has write speeds of up to 100 MB/s), but seven or eight times faster than the cards recommended to non-professionals.

Is it the end for MicroSD cards?
I'm just not very sure how long it'll take phone manufacturers (well, besides Samsung of course) to adapt to the new format - it's taking way too long for them to start using USB 3.1 as it is.

EDIT: quote from the article regarding backwards compatibility:
 

Quote

And while the design of the cards looks similar from the front, as you can see from the photo above, the PIN configuration on the back is non-compatible. 

 

2nd EDIT:
Link to the original source, the Samsung website, which contains more details:

https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-introduces-worlds-first-universal-flash-storage-ufs-removable-memory-card-line-up-offering-up-to-256-gigabyte-gb-capacity

 

Edited July 8, 2016 by yt1993

[Trixanity]

Without backwards compatibility, it will take some time to phase out microSD. Probably a decade at least and manufacturers of both devices and memory cards need to be onboard to even begin that transition.

[patrickjp93]

2 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

Without backwards compatibility, it will take some time to phase out microSD. Probably a decade at least and manufacturers of both devices and memory cards need to be onboard to even begin that transition.

No one but Samsung has to be onboard. The only decent competition is Sandisk, and Samsung can wipe Micron out purely on manufacturing volume alone. The others will reluctantly join whether they wish to or not.

[Goodman2265]

mfw my LG G Flex 2 can support 2tb MicroSD Cards and I bought this cause the fastest max storage i could find

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Select-Micro-Memory-256GB/dp/B01G7L03OS/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1467891985&sr=8-13&keywords=128gb+micro+sd+card+samsung+pro

[VerticalDiscussions]

Pretty cool thing to see appearing. This mostly solves the issues i and many had complained for long, because micro-sd cards just couldnt keep up at all with smartphones internal storage.

[Goodman2265]

6 minutes ago, VerticalDiscussions said:

Pretty cool thing to see appearing. This mostly solves the issues i and many had complained for long, because micro-sd cards just couldnt keep up at all with smartphones internal storage.

Do you mean speed wise?

Just get a Class 10 UHS-3 MicroSD card

[porina]

2 minutes ago, Goodman2265 said:

Do you mean speed wise?

Just get a Class 10 UHS-3 MicroSD card

That isn't necessarily fast. Class 10 only requires a minimum write speed of 10MB/s, and UHS-3 similarly 30MB/s. The maximum bus speed seems to be 104 MB/s for most, more for UHS-II devices if supported.

 

Sooner or later there is a pain point when a technology has reached its limits and there needs to be a change which breaks backwards compatibility. I'm still hanging onto a bunch of high end CF cards... the faster ones do around 100MB/s but I'm not sure there is a clear upgrade path beyond that yet. When SD started going into the camera space, performance lagged for a long time but they caught up.

[Goodman2265]

1 minute ago, porina said:

That isn't necessarily fast. Class 10 only requires a minimum write speed of 10MB/s, and UHS-3 similarly 30MB/s. The maximum bus speed seems to be 104 MB/s for most, more for UHS-II devices if supported.

 

Sooner or later there is a pain point when a technology has reached its limits and there needs to be a change which breaks backwards compatibility. I'm still hanging onto a bunch of high end CF cards... the faster ones do around 100MB/s but I'm not sure there is a clear upgrade path beyond that yet. When SD started going into the camera space, performance lagged for a long time but they caught up.

I mean like a Samsung Pro, They have like 95 MBps both write and read

[TriFlix Films]

Remember when Samsung thought they would replace h.264 with h.265 in the camera industry... Then the withdrew from the market because no one wanted their weird new format (even though it is much better than the predoccessor)   Not saying Samsung will withdraw from phone or storage, but that just because Samsung has an idea (even if its a good one), the world doesn't like change and it will be a long time before thiss becomes standard.

[porina]

13 minutes ago, Goodman2265 said:

I mean like a Samsung Pro, They have like 95 MBps both write and read

Fair enough, but based on the earlier spec you could have ended up with a 30MB/s card.

[Misanthrope]

It sounds great. But I fully expect Sony and maybe some others to jump in and go "No, THIS is the new standard!"

 

if it's Sony well we know what their format's are good for so no worries. If it's someone else well shit.

[LAwLz]

54 minutes ago, patrickjp93 said:

No one but Samsung has to be onboard. The only decent competition is Sandisk, and Samsung can wipe Micron out purely on manufacturing volume alone. The others will reluctantly join whether they wish to or not.

Micron (owns Lexar) is probably as big of a player in the SD card business as Samsung is. Luckily for all of us, Micron is on the board of directors for UFS. SanDisk is a contributing member as well.

 

I don't think UFS replacing SD will become a political issue (with some companies wanting to stick to SD, and some fighting back). This is not Samsung creating a new standard. This is Samsung releasing a product using a standard that all the big players already agreed on was the way forward.

 

Now we just need to know what the price premium will be like... Are microSD (and UFS) cards passive? As in, the controller is located inside the phone and not inside the card itself. If this is basically just some NAND with a plastic housing and some pin outs, then hopefully it won't cost much more than SD card cost.

 

34 minutes ago, TriFlix Films said:

Remember when Samsung thought they would replace h.264 with h.265 in the camera industry... Then the withdrew from the market because no one wanted their weird new format (even though it is much better than the predoccessor)   Not saying Samsung will withdraw from phone or storage, but that just because Samsung has an idea (even if its a good one), the world doesn't like change and it will be a long time before thiss becomes standard.

HEVC is slowly taking over the industry though. Haven't followed the camera industry recently but if what you said is true then Samsung were just ahead of their time.

[TrigrH]

This is the important part: (sauce)

Quote

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today unveiled the industry’s first removable memory cards based on the JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 1.0 Card Extension Standard*

Quote

*Samsung has taken a leading role in standardization of JEDEC Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 1.0 Card Standard, and filed seven design patent applications to USPTO (US Patent and Trade Office) which the company disclosed to all JEDEC members under the RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing) condition that allows manufacturers to develop UFS card products without royalty. Royalty payment usually encompasses a significant portion of other types of removable card manufacturing. For more information, please visit http://www.jedec.org/news/pressreleases/jedec-publishes-universal-flash-storage-ufs-removable-card-standard/

its a JEDEC standard.

[goodtofufriday]

1 hour ago, Goodman2265 said:

mfw my LG G Flex 2 can support 2tb MicroSD Cards and I bought this cause the fastest max storage i could find

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Select-Micro-Memory-256GB/dp/B01G7L03OS/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1467891985&sr=8-13&keywords=128gb+micro+sd+card+samsung+pro

Should have went with the 200gb models. their prices dropped to sub 100$ when the 256 versions came out. 

[samcool55]

Well if you can make a microSD slot compatible with UFS so you can choose it might get somewhere.

Also prices have to be dirt cheap, that's a strong point about microSD atm. 

If gb per dollar is at like 1 it might get somewhere but if it doesn't, then it will probably fail.

[corsairian]

 

Im excited. I need all the storage possible. It's funny that Samsung made these since they removed SD cards from the S6 and Note 5... These UFS cards look promising though, the clip things on the side seems like they would be locked in place with a mechanism, im glad because ive dropped phones before and had the SD card shoot out of it. 

. 

Also, the speed boost is a welcome sight. My experience with SD cards is that they are slow when transferring large files to them. I wonder if Nintendo will use these inside of their NX cartridges if that rumor proves to be true. I think these are faster than BDXL disks (bluray) If i recall correctly.

[ace_cheaply]

5 hours ago, Goodman2265 said:

mfw my LG G Flex 2 can support 2tb MicroSD Cards and I bought this cause the fastest max storage i could find

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Select-Micro-Memory-256GB/dp/B01G7L03OS/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1467891985&sr=8-13&keywords=128gb+micro+sd+card+samsung+pro

That price premium between 128gb and 256gb...holy crap. 

 

 

32gb-$9.99

64gb-$19.99

128gb-$39.99

256gb-$229.99

 

One of those things is not like the others. I mean, yeah, 80MB/s vs 95MB/s, but that is a huge difference. 

 

 

[Trixanity]

14 minutes ago, corsairian said:

It's funny that Samsung made these since they removed SD cards from the S6 and Note 5...

That's a bit irrelevant considering they backpedaled on that and put SD card slots on the S7 and will most likely also be present on the Note 7. So it has little bearing on their current strategy. Oh and there are other devices that use these cards. I'm certain they have cameras in mind especially.

[corsairian]

1 minute ago, Trixanity said:

That's a bit irrelevant considering they backpedaled on that and put SD card slots on the S7 and will most likely also be present on the Note 7.

Thats why I said S6 and Note 5. 

[Trixanity]

1 hour ago, corsairian said:

Thats why I said S6 and Note 5. 

Yes but it kinda loses it's significance to the matter of SD cards/expandable storage when it's no longer the case that they've removed SD card slots on products. If we were talking a year ago then, yes, it would be a bit funny that they would launch a new type of memory card after removing card slots on one of their most successful product lines but they seem to embrace it fully again considering the backlash from taking away options.

[yt1993]

1 hour ago, ace_cheaply said:

That price premium between 128gb and 256gb...holy crap. 

 

 

32gb-$9.99

64gb-$19.99

128gb-$39.99

256gb-$229.99

 

One of those things is not like the others. I mean, yeah, 80MB/s vs 95MB/s, but that is a huge difference. 

 

 

I would think it'll have more to do with the fact that not many people really need that extra 256gb.
Mostly people who really like their music in FLAC, or take a lot of photographs every day would actually need that much storage space on a day to day basis.

[SansVarnic]

Very interesting and nice.

[Doobeedoo]

These UFS cards are amazing indeed! Those speeds are quite a jump. Really great how smartphone storage internal and now external like this are like SSD speeds. Now with additional storage and also as fast it will be nice to see how transfers are fast. Or even write/read apps from these. The IOPS increase is neat!
I'll be getting one of these once available with new phone :3

[BuckGup]

Now can we make NVME SD cards? Apple has em why can't we buy them?

[corsairian]

10 hours ago, Trixanity said:

Yes but it kinda loses it's significance to the matter of SD cards/expandable storage when it's no longer the case that they've removed SD card slots on products. If we were talking a year ago then, yes, it would be a bit funny that they would launch a new type of memory card after removing card slots on one of their most successful product lines but they seem to embrace it fully again considering the backlash from taking away options.

I get what you're saying. But the Note 5 is still a flagship device.