As storage requirements continue to ramp up, manufacturers are attempting to meet these demands with high-capacity drives, cards, and other products. Western Digital recently previewed its SanDisk Extreme PRO SD card, with its biggest advantage being that it sports a whopping 4TB of storage. For notebooks or cameras that sport SD card slots and require a ton of data throughput, your prayers have probably been answered.
The SanDisk Extreme PRO can top out at 104MB/s data transfers, making it significantly slower than a SATA III SSD
A preview of these high-capacity SD cards does not mean that the SanDisk Extreme PRO will be immediately available to purchase, as Western Digital has stated these will not launch until 2025. As for the speeds, AnandTech found out that the card supports the Ultra High Speed-I (UHS-I) standard, which can reach up to 104MB/s data transfers in the UHS104 (SDR104) mode.
The 4TB SD card also sports minimal sequential write speeds of 30MB/s, which is sufficient for 8K video recording. Unfortunately, comparing this card to a SATA III SSD is not even a comparison because those previous-generation solid-state drives can peak at 550MB/s. We will not mention M.2 NVMe drives because these are not even in the same performance realm.
Nonetheless, if you prefer storage expansion on your laptop and have run out of space to add any additional drives, perhaps a 4TB SD card will do your bidding. However, we are forgetting one major component that will make or break your purchase: the price. At the time of writing, SanDisk’s Extreme PRO 1TB SD card is going for $139.99 on Amazon, while a 1.5TB microSD from the same company is listed for $109.99 on the online retailer.
Needless to say, a 4TB SD card purchase will likely be an expensive endeavor, especially when Western Digital will be the only one producing these. In 2025, we expect the first wave of storage cards to be available for no less than $500.
News Source: Western Digital
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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