Tight on memory? SanDisk microSD cards hit 128GB
Your phone or tablet may not support all that capacity yet, but the SanDisk flash memory card could help those with too many videos, photos, music, or apps.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
BARCELONA, Spain -- Those whose mobile phones or tablets are maxed out with photos, apps, and videos will be delighted to hear that flash memory card maker SanDisk announced a new microSD card with 128GB capacity.
The company announced the new card, along with more modestly sized alternatives down to 8GB, at the Mobile World Congress here, where it's showing the products.
Prices range from $30 to $200, and the cards will be available online only at BestBuy.com and Amazon.com.
The cards use the higher-speed UHS-1 interface, SanDisk said, for faster read and write speeds. The top-end card isn't for everybody, though: many phones come with the earlier microSDHC standard, which maxes out at 32GB.
SanDisk also said it will update its Memory Zone app for Android by adding a feature called OptiMem that automatically transfers people's older photos and videos to a microSD card. "OptiMem will continuously monitor users' mobile device memory levels and inform them whenever the internal memory falls below a predefined threshold," SanDisk said.
When the microSD format first appeared a decade ago, the largest capacity was 128MB -- 1,000 times smaller than the newest card.
Updated at 10:35 a.m. PT to correct that the earlier version of the standard is microSDHC.