There's a 512GB microSD card coming in July, but you likely can't afford it

Even as internal storage on smartphones keeps increasing, the amount of space on microSD cards also continues to grow. This week, the California-based company Microdia announced plans to launch a microSD card with a new storage milestone: 512GB.

The Microdia Xtra Elite was announced during Computex 2015, but, as CNET reports, the company didn't have any working versions of the card available for attendees or the press to check out; only its packaging. It adds:

"The Xtra Elite will use version 4.0 of the Secure Digital standard, and feature an Ultra High Speed (UHS) bus with data transfer rates of up to 300MBps. Because it's using SD 4.0, the card features an additional row of pins below the standard ones."

The card will go on sale sometime in July, with Microdia claiming that the price tag will be somewhere around $1,000, although an exact retail price has yet to be decided. What would you do with a microSD card inside your smartphone with all of that storage space?

Source: CNET

210 Comments

Well..
I have the 128gb and it's already filling up well.
What do you put on it that takes so much space? That's about how much is on my Windows 10 install right now, which I'm using exclusively.
Probably RAW photo files
Apps, videos and pics taken with the phone (I have the 1520), songs, e-books, map downloads, and backups of other personal files from my computer.
I have the 1520 with a 64gb it is class 10 and I a m seeing some slow down? Are you experiencing the same? I'm at about 80% capacity
Wear and tear i suppose
I'm not at 80% yet and the card seems running fine
Yes. Lumia 1520 with a 64GB card. I have around 18GB free and I'm experience a bit of lag. I usually have most of my apps in the card along with music, video and pics.
Keep your apps on the phone....you have 32GB of fast storage after all.
Consider phone storage to be an SSD, and micro SD storage to be like a mechanical hard drive. Store data accordingly :)
@fbendotti 128gb with about 7gig free, still running fine occasions hiccup but no real big issues. And before anyone asks it has a couple of anime series on it, a ton of apps and YouTube videos downloaded for offline viewing.
It is not about the class. You phone supports a maybe speed of 40MB/s on a good day. Most will get sustained speeds of about 25MB/s. Check out phone benchmarks to see what i mean. Whereas your internal memory will be 300+MB/s. And yes, the more you put on the card the slower it will be as it has to look through all that data.
Any damn thing you.
Some of us don't have have internet access so the ability to have all your media in your pocket is great
Just a matter of time when these will become common in market they will sell for too low like other SD cards and I can wait for a while XD
I could watch offline movies while traveling by bus or car.
4k video
Same here. I reserved only 100 GB for the install and storage and while I haven't tried, on my main partition I use about 90 GB out of 700. I did just delete my stash of "work files" though so maybe that's why in have so much free space!
Probably Full length 4k resolution porn. Jk Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Exactly. I'm thinking camera...
Big thing comes in small package?
I just read this info and I'm waiting for w10m to support 500gb sd slots than I shall get one
SDXC support is already there, so in theory, there should be no reason why this shouldn't already work. Same thing with phones that say "only 64GB" but we put 128GB in there with zero issues.
Danny is really smart
It wont support the extra speed though. These new cards have extra layer of pins.
What do you mean of the extra layer of pins? If you mean that SDXC have more pins than SDHC ones, then you're wrong. See this: https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/capacity/
No he means it's a SDXC card with an UHS-II bus which is a SD version 4.0 card. These SD cards have an extra row of pins to raise the data transfer rate. But most phones still don't support UHS-I let alone UHS-II. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#Ultra_High_Speed_.28UHS.29_bus
Yeah, I've been reading as I have understand of what he said earlier. Well, let's leave alone UHS-II for another purpose :)
Does that work the same with phones like the win HD that the description says only supports 32 GB?
Probably not. SDHC tops out at 32GB. SDXC go up to 2048GB or 2TB. You need to see which format it uses.
Every Nokia and Microsoft Lumia support SDXC up to 2TB (2000GB, 2.000.000MB) you don't have to wait...
Only access times will suck
All SD cards have the access times of 1 ms or less, but if you mean the acces time required to open the app, then it depends on SD card speed.
I paid quite a bit extra for one of SanDisk's top of the line cards, and saving photos and videos to it is definitely still shower than internal memory. I don't know where the bottleneck is, but it's there. I assume something about the phone hardware is not taking advantage of the high quality memory.
Have you formatted the SD card first before inserting it into your phone? I think because of the reformatting by the stock OS format functions, they do less. --> https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/
I formatted it from the phone, which should be ideal.
Yep, bus speed will be your bottleneck. The hardware possibly doesn't even support UHS-1...and if it's anything like my Asus tablet, will max at 25Mbp/s.
Still a v.usable speed - but things like apps should be installed to the internal storage if possible.
The bottleneck is most likely in the bus speed.
I want the XKCD guy to do an updated version of the FedEx vs Internet with this MicroSD card in mind.
Don't tell me what I can't afford! * looks at price* ... I can't afford it. :(
Lol I was the same way
I felt the same way, I think it would have been in better taste to say its super expensive
Like the 1tb swiss army knife
+1000 :-p
A $1000 card?
Better I buy a phone and then buy a 64GB card instead of this card.
But technology sure is advancing.
Damn right. In this price one could buy a iPhone.
About an iPhone and less than half an Apple watch. Stupid elitist fruit company.
Food for a month
*Gourmet food for a month. At $1000 I could eat normal food for at least 2-3 months.
Haha :D
You might want to not include Maggi in your diet anymore ;)
Haha.
Lead: "Bitch please, I don't have time to be in Maggi."
The internal storage in smartphones keeps increasing? Well, not in Windows phones...
What?
Microsoft continues to pump out 32 GB windows phones while Samsung and apple have the option for 128gb internal.
This is why I think memory cards won't be needed in the near future. We'll end up having this much space built into the phone.
Not so sure about that... phone makers try like crazy to cut costs. And if they make extra memory as an option, they'll charger you an arm and a leg for it like Apple.
4K video says no.
Card are cheaper
They want you to use OneDrive
Samsung and Apple don't have SD card slots though, so that point is pretty much invalid.
That won't be the case in the future, sine whiny bitches complain about no SD card slots
What he means is that the best we can have is 32GB. Even upcoming flagships seems to be 32GB (only).
Apparently with Microsd card support.
Considering a 2tb external costs around £60 I think I will pass....
Size DOES matter.
This
Only if yours is bigger.
That's what she said!
That's bigger than my hard drive on my laptop.
Lol my surface pro 3 has 512gb storage.
I upgraded the SSD in my Dell venue 11 Pro from 256 to a 512GB for $220 and I still have an open MicroSD Slot open.
Mine has 128gb lol but with a 64GB SD card
Before article:
John, you buttwipe, don't call me poor
After article:
Oh.....
+1520
Kudos for "buttwipe" usage. Needed a chuckle.
Something like this used with the fantasy Surface Phone device would be a bit of a game changer. We can dream!
Of course I CAN afford it but that's not my priority. Don't tell me I can't afford it.
Touchy aren't we
Very.
It said 'likely'......
Nice
It would be better to buy a Surface Pro 3 at that price
Exactly
You could buy a bigger otg flash drive for that price when w10 compatible hardware cones out
Porn!... No Problably Bluray quality movies, 4K movies etc
?
On a sub 6" screen? Sounds like a waste of space to me (and money!)
I wanted a microSDXC card for a while now but I only have a 32GB microSDHC card and its almost full!
Good story...
Just buy an SDXC card then. They're cheap as chips. I got a Samsung UHS-1 from 7DayShop in the UK for £13 the other week. It's working flawlessly.
I can get 2 xbox....
Lol
Is $1000 a lot of money?
It depends on you socio economic status. For me it is PLENTY.
For most people in most nations its a heavy amount (for a sd card)
Yes, it is.........
Makes my 130 gbs on Onedrive look sorta crappy. Well at least it's free. And i do appreciate it Microsoft :)
Nyan Cat, 100 year loop.
"What would you do with a microSD card inside your smartphone with all of that storage space" Eating Ramon noodles for a month......
There's nothing in this world that I can't afford.
They see me rollin, they hatin....
You can't afford to lose all that money
I'm a royal blood. I earn money just by being existent.
As the song says, "Money can't buy me love." True love, that is. That's worth more than money. I'm sure you can't afford to buy Microsoft or Apple either. The richest people in the world don't have that kind of money. Just sayin'. Probably best to say you can afford to buy whatever you would like to have. That's a bit more realistic, I think. I can easily afford the 512GB card, however, it would be silly, seeing as how I have a 64GB now that after 8 months have finally managed to fill 14GB on it. I have no need for it. I'd rather spend the money on my family. Perhaps a Windows 10 mobile flagship later on, if I can justify a need as more than just a toy for me. I don't believe in being wasteful with what you have.
This.
The world doesn't need more materialistic people seeking purpose in possessions. You only have to look at the state of the environment (and the shit washing up on distant atolls) to see that needless consumption is a poison.
I pity those that flash their cash as if it is something the rest should envy.
Seriously that's even more costly then most laptops, the memory on my 925 is even more then enough for me, still have like 7.03GB free
Music, music, music, games, games, games, movies, movies, movies, other, other, other
Don't tell me what I can't afford peasant.
Hahahahahaha
Yeah! You tell him!! Get one and get ME one too! That will show him!!
Wow that's a lot in such a small device, we really are living in the future. Couple of years be reasonable price for consumers
I'll just wait for Amazon to put I on sale for $24 ;-)
Exactly. Haha.
That's what I did with my Sandisk Ultra Extreme 64GB. Except it wasn't Amazon. I got it for $23.49 on a one hour "Door Buster" sale, while supplies last. Had to get in the door quick. Fast little card, too. Love a good sale!
Awesome! Congrats on the win! Wish I would've got the 64g card off amazon during the last sale.
Is my phone even capable of 300mbs lmao
Shoot videos, load it up with all the music I wish was already there, but can't because of space concerns, transfer my camera roll over from my older phone. Switch all non-essential storage to the card and off the phone. Ya. 500 gigs, that'd be awesome. Not worry about space again.
I still think 128GB is more tham enough
It took me 3 years to fill my 8GB SD card. Now have a 32GB one. Of which more than half is empty
The camera on my 1020 compels me to take photos...so I'm routinely chucking gigabytes of photos and videos at OneDrive. Fortunately, I've got the 64GB version....I would definitely find 32GB a struggle!
And what would you put it in ?
I can make a box too.
Ha ha no
Yeah, the man is right, I can't afford it.
I doubt if microSD cards will be prevalent in the near future. Devices are becoming more capable, and we'll soon see this amount of in-built storage in phones as well. Just my two cents.
even if my phone had 1tb internal storage, upgradable storage is always a good thing. you cant have enough space to save files. never!
512 Gb Memory Card oh my God what to do with that much of memory in a Smart Phone..
Technology is really Growing Brilliant..
I still remember using 512Mb memory card in 6600 & Nokia Engage .. But 1000$ [ Around 60,000 ₹ ] is too much..
Can buy a I phone / Pc with that money..
True bro. I just upgraded from 4gb to 32gb sd card. And here they are selling 512gb.
What a wo r ld!
Why do we use the price of an iPhone as a reference point? Even if I put aside that kind of money for a phone, it would never be an Apple one!
Porn
And plenty of it!
Whaaaaaat!
My PC HDD is 320gb and u guys r making a sd card of 512gb.
Correction, Micro SD lol
why would someone spend a fortune on something he/she doesnt even need ? Nobody sensible would ever need a 512 GB card in his phone, and probably also in a computer. A normal desktop does just fine with modern 160 gb drives, and external hdds are great. Micro SD cards are prone to loss of data and general failure. 1000 bucks for a memory card ? U gotta be kidding me.. I wouldnt even spend 50 dollars on a mem card. Instead, a slew of 20 dollar 32-64gb cards are best, if you really want those.
Lol 160gb is like 4 games in my steam collection. I have a 240ssd for my OS and certain games where I want to skip reloading of things (civ 5) and then a 2tb spinning drive for my media and other games (using about 500gb of that)
Ha yea I have a 2tb hdd, a 256gb ssd and a 250gb ssd. Its crazy how real games can take up so much space.
How did your school results go 'kids' ?
& let me guess youd spend $100 on half a dozen cheap ssd's that will crap out in a year
160gb? GTA V, Battlefield 4 and AC Unity will laugh about you. and then i have Games which take in total at least 2 TB of space... even if i wouldnt have so much games, i would buy at least 2TB hdds, to have enough space for every occasionthinkable... i would love to have 512 gb on my phone
Could a L630 hold this card?
Apparently, yes
About how long would it take a phone to scan the card in File Explorer?
Exactly my thought most phone OEMs use the barebones chipset to cut costs(even on premium phones)
Haha xD maybe Months
It would do it once - probably take 10 minutes....and then it would be cached and fast! Not a concern really - on our Windows Phones at least (with Windows 10 search technology).
I have a 64gb that's over half full. Mostly thanks to "other" taking up 12gb. Can I just go in and delete that?
Yes, you can clear the others by formatting your sd card from the settings. But, you'll lose all the installed apps and data stored. You can backup but not all games have online saving.
Who the hell told you I can't afford this
Your username kind of suggests this is probably out of your price bracket ;).
Who needs so much local storage with 10Tb/ unlimited storage being available on OneDrive?
Someone with out a decent data plan
not anyone want to have their data in the cloud
I personally don't want all my stuff on cloud controlled by anyone other than me. So local storage for me is the way I go.
For 1000$ you could get a Surface Pro 3 with 128Gb ROM 4GB RAM and an core i5.
But I like to see that kind of evolution! :D
All the pr0n I could get my hands on would end up on my phone.
Well that's fortunate, because I doubt you'd be bagging yourself a g/f or a b/f any time soon!
SWEETT!! Sold! Or just wait for the new lumia's hmmm.
I can buy 10tb with that
Who are you to say who can or can't afford it?
Maybe the better thing to say is you wouldn't want to buy it.
"But you LIKELY can't afford it".
Do you see how that words makes a difference to the meaning?!
And 550 lil more realistic
I can afford anything. I'm a millionaire suckers!
To paraphrase Dave Chappell -
"I'm rich, biatch!"
Dunno if he can still "afford" to say that, tho
i wonder if than it would be possible to use these sd cards instead of hdds, if they are fast enough 300mb/s sound good for me, better than my 20mb/s sd cards at least, and they dont seem to have the problem like ssds...
The LG g4 Is the only phone that supports up to 2TB SD card slots There is no phone except it that supports more than 128gb The company must have released it next year
The only phone that explicitly states ot supports such cards...
However, as we so often see - as long as your phone supports the tech (in this case, SDXC), you likely will be able to use bigger cards than those listed by the phone manufacturer.
When 1gb memory cards came out, people were like "what the hell are you going to do with that?! No one will ever fill it up" but look at us now...
Does that work the same with phones like the BLU win HD that the description says only supports 32 GB?
My house mortgate is $1300 a month, I must be crazy to buy this card.
My 128 is almost full, I have to keep deleting and moving stuff around. Music, movies, videos, books. Etc.
Yaaayy.. More P or N.... *_*
512 Gig. Wow. I would need to have some kind of tracking device on it or something. The thing that makes me nervous about having that much data on a card that tiny is losing the dang thing. Then I'm out half a terabyte of stuff somewhere around my house.
Why in the hell would you pay $1000 for an SD card? Lol. Just doesn't make sense to me. *smh* Give it a year and they'll be down to $100.
Storage that makes SSD's look inexpensive... XD
I'll buy one ,on installment ofcourse ,and start giving storage on rent :D
It's getting to the point where SD card slots will be a replacement for HDD/SSD, but I know the read/write speeds need to be faster. Soon computers, desktops and laptops can finally get smaller.
For tablets and use as, an mini hard disk drive it's perfect !!
Don't try and tell me I'm poor! I ordered 4!!!! GB. I ordered a 4GB. I can't afford that...
That much money got me a Surface 3 128GB, Red Touch Cover, Red Surface Pen and a Wireless Display Adapter and I have money still left over. Why would someone buy this
I have issues trying to record anything above 720p video on my L1520 with my current 64GB card. It either doesn't allow me to record anything at all above 720p or it records choppy 1080p video. Any users with the 128GB experience similar issues? Been contemplating upgrading if it solves these problems.
Buy a higher class, class 3 or 1 should be great :)
Kudos to John Callahan for estimating our financial status rather accurately.
and they are having sooo much problems putting more gigs on SSD, which is a 100000x bigger :/
This is about half of what I've got in my laptop!
Should work great on a surface pro Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Most people don't remember how much 512MBs used to cost when they first came out. Or DVD players and...CALCULATORS. All 1k price tags. This will eventually drop. But yeah if you don't want to wait and you need it you will buy it...unless you can't afford it ;) Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Memory devices drop stupidly quick in price (look at SSD's now vs last year). But i can afford one or two haha, no need for it and the read and write speed would have to be worth while for that price.
Microsds are a piece of shit. My phone keeps thinking I'm getting an error loading them. I can't even put apps on them cuz of the error. One shake or a phone and the card becomes unreadable.
Sounds to me like your phone is the culprit, not the SD card. That or you probably just ripped the out without ejecting properly, which you should never do because it causes errors.
I would not use this on my phone, I would use it on my surface pro 3, once the price is about a third of the absurd 1000 $
OH MY GOD!!!
Hundreds of porn?
I have @ Lumia 1520 with a 128GB microSD card. I had filled up the 64GB card with music and photos/videos. A 512GB card would be a gem but I also forsee other problems. Namely battery drain due to processing.
I could use it in my phone, my 128 GB card is nearly full, but it would be perfect for my SP3.
Of course I can afford it. Doesn't mean I want to buy it, though.
If ever find myself needing this, I will seek professional counseling.
Ordered one for my 520.
I see what you did there
I would buy a phone with more storage instead....
Show me 1 Windows Phone device with MORE than 32gb of memory. Just one and you can win the interent for the day. In fact show me ANY phone that has 500gb of storage on it... You cant because there is not one made..
Truly rich people rarely brag about how rich they are. Only idiots and wannabes do that.
You, sir, are so right about this. ;)
Wait for 3-5 years then it will be priced to $20
Wish my 930 had space for SD cards.. Fill up my phone with photos and videos every 2-3 months...
This card would be fantastic for a camera!!! I've got a couple of 256gb, but gosh tech is moving fast.
I wouldn't do shit with it cause I have a 930 :'(
Lets say I filled the micro SD card with all sorts of files and put it away in a box or a safe or something, will the data be preserved lets say a year without being used in any micro SD card reader device? Just asking.
Why wouldn't it?
UHD / 4K Videos probly
I'll have two thanks
I have 1TB on my OneDrive, and I have port forwarding configured on my PLEX server so I generally only need a 32gb microSD (I'm connected to wifi 95% of the time so data really isn't an issue either). But hey, l wouldn't mind having the option to load 512gb's on my surface someday!
This is just one of those, WOW Cool items. Yea, if money is no object, you can buy one if you need it but, the price will come down and they will be by all companies in the next year or so. To think I could store almost an entire small data center with compression in the size of my finger nail. Gota love tech.

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