A few years ago, a microSD card with a capacity of 400 GB was welcomed as a great innovation, but now the full-size SD card with a capacity of 4 TB introduced by Western Digital seems to be a revolutionary product in terms of storage capacity. This product, which will be released under the SanDisk Extreme Pro brand, is designed especially for cameras and laptops. This is notable as the first example of using this size of storage on an SD card.
Western Digital previewed this four-terabyte SD card at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, USA this week. However, the card will be released until 2025. According to AnandTech, the card uses the Ultra High Speed-I (UHS-I) interface and supports data transfer speeds of up to 104MB/s in UHS104 (SDR104) mode. It also has a minimum sequential write speed of 30MB/s, which is enough for 8K video recording.
SD Association announced Secure Digital Ultra Capacity (SDUC) card features in 2018 and promised that SD cards could soon have a storage capacity of up to 128 terabytes. It's taken quite some time to reach 4TB capacity, and Western Digital isn't disclosing the type of NAND inside the upcoming card, suggesting that higher capacities may yet take more time.
What will be the price of a 4 TB SD card?
If you're considering recording at resolutions beyond 4K, Western Digital's four terabytes, expected to be available next year, might be ideal for you. But the big question will be the cost of the 4TB UHS-1 SD card. While 1TB versions of the same card sell for around $140, the 4TB version is expected to cost $600 or more.
These developments represent an important milestone for professionals and technology enthusiasts looking for high-capacity storage solutions. This kind of capacity increase can significantly change users' workflows, especially considering high-definition video recordings and large data storage needs. We can expect to see more innovations in SD card technology in the coming years, which could further expand the potential of mobile devices and other portable technologies.