SanDisk has to temporarily step down from the top as their 400GB microSD card is no longer the highlight of the market now that someone has taken their place. Integral Memory, a company out of the UK, have announced a new 512GB microSD card to challenge the competition with and light some fires in the ever-moving race for greater capacity.
The new card from Integral offers a V10 class standard (SDXC V10 UHS-I U1), making sure that it will be a good fit for devices recording in Full HD resolution (1080p). Although it won’t offer as fast of a transfer speed as the SanDisk card has, it will be quick enough to keep up with video devices making it perfect for action cameras (ie, GoPro), drones, DSLRs and camcorders, security cameras, smartphones, tablets, dash cams and more.
“Consumers have been clear in their call for increased storage, as mobile devices have become essential to many in everyday life,” said James Danton, marketing manager, Integral Memory. “The need to provide extended memory for smartphones, tablets and a growing range of other mobile devices such as action cams and drones has been answered. As a company, we are very proud to be the first to achieve the 512GB capacity milestone in microSDXC, worldwide”.
It will offer a max transfer speed of up to 80MB/s, allowing these devices to continue recording without any interruption, and offering plenty enough capacity for a full day of shooting. Of course that changes if you want to lean towards 4K, as the resolution requires a lot of throughput to keep up with it. Thankfully, most devices supporting 4K and microSD are mostly limited to a 4K compressed feed (which means this card might still be able to keep up).
The new card will be launching next month (February) for an undisclosed price. It will be available, but it is uncertain which marketplaces will see it first. You can see what is currently available from Integral Memory on Amazon here for the US market. Chances are, the price tag is going to be pretty high for this card. SanDisk’s 400GB card still falls around $240, so you can get this new 512GB chip will be more than that.
