Samsung Announces UFS Superfast SD Cards - Up To 256GB

Samsung has revealed its latest microSD memory is insanely quick UFS storage

In the last few months we've heard a few rumours about Samsung's plans for new, super fast UFS microSD memory cards, but understandably this has mostly been overshadowed by reports of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and 2017 devices such as the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy X (folding OLED). Now though, Samsung has confirmed these rumours as reality, with its official announcement of its new UFS microSD cards.

The UFS (Universal Flash Storage) standard is extremely fast read/write memory, comparable to solid-state-drive (SSD) storage; to put it in some kind of perspective, a 5GB movie file can be read or written to the storage in as little as 10 seconds. Samsung's cards are a world-first for using this technology in the microSD format - the second-gen JEDEC UFS standard in use here is the same seen inside the latest Galaxy flagship phones where it makes up the primary internal storage for the device. And if you're already a microSD user be prepared for 5x faster read speeds and 2x faster write speeds than the cards you're familiar with right now!

“Our new 256GB UFS card will provide an ideal user experience for digitally-minded consumers and lead the industry in establishing the most competitive memory card solution,” said Jung-bae Lee, senior vice president, Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering, Samsung Electronics “By launching our new high-capacity, high-performance UFS card line-up, we are changing the growth paradigm of the memory card market to prioritize performance and user convenience above all.”

Samsung says this ultra-fast, high capacity memory will be useful across a range of current and emerging use-case scenarios, as VR becomes more prevalent, as well as being great for fans of Drones, Action Cams, and DSLRs. The range includes 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB cards, but Samsung is yet to announce pricing, which could indicate that they will be a bit expensive! We will be sure to keep an eye out for more details on price and availability.