Samsung Electronics unveils PRO Ultimate memory cards

Samsung Electronics Co.’s PRO Ultimate memory cards. [Courtesy of Samsung Electronics]

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday announced the release of PRO Ultimate, a new product line of secure digital (SD) and micro SD cards with enhanced speed and reliability.

Catering perfectly to the needs of professional photographers, content creators, and other demanding users, the PRO Ultimate memory cards not only exhibit steadfast performance for repeated data reading, writing, and erasing operations, but also ensure the seamless handling of big-size content.

It has a read speed up to 200 megabytes per second (MB/s) and a write speed of 130MB/s, the highest levels for the UHS-I standard.

At 200MB/s sustained read speed, a 1.3 gigabyte movie can be transferred to a memory card from a personal computer in 11.2 seconds.

It also corresponds to Video Speed Class V30 that supports a sustained write speed of 30MB/s, making it possible to quickly transfer larger files like 4K ultra high definition (UHD) and full high definition (FHD) videos.

Micro SD cards, meanwhile, support the application performance class of A2 with a minimum random read speed of 4,000 input or output operations per second (IOPS) and a random write speed of 2,000 IOPS for smooth read, write and multitasking functions.

Samsung Electronics has enhanced the controller’s error correction code (ECC) engine, which detects and corrects errors in NAND flash, for PRO Ultimate to improve reliability.

The low-density parity check (LDPC) code, a type of ECC, has been enhanced to 2 kilobytes (KB) from 1 KB, allowing consumers to use the product longer without the worry of data loss.

Samsung Electronics Co.’s PRO Ultimate SD card. [Courtesy of Samsung Electronics]

It is waterproof for up to 72 hours in 2-meter depths of water and resistant to drops from up to 5 meters in height, keeping data safe from water, drops, abrasion, x-rays, magnetic fields, temperature changes, and other extreme external environments. The SD card can withstand shocks of up to 1,500 grams.

The company has improved power efficiency by up to 37 percent from previous products by applying a 28-nanometer controller to the product lineup.

The device, as a result, can be used for a longer time without frequent recharging.

It is also compatible with various devices such as action cameras and drones and comes with a 10-year warranty.

The micro SD card will be available starting Tuesday and the SD card in October.

“Professional creators need to be able to work with large amounts of content without interruption amid increasing high-resolution content generated by devices such as drones, action cameras, and digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras,” said Sohn Han-gu, vice president of the Memory Brand Product Biz Team at Samsung Electronics. “The Pro Ultimate will meet the needs of creators as well as professionals through enhanced speed and reliability, including a new controller and data protection features.”

Samsung Electronics has been boosting its consumer memory card business since 2014 by introducing a wide range of micro SD cards and SD cards, including PRO PLUS and EVO PLUS.

The memory card market is expected grow at 21.4 percent annually to 63.5 billion gigabytes (GB) in 2027 from 29.2 billion GB in 2023 on growing demand for new devices and high-capacity content.

In addition to mobile products such as cell phones and tablets, the global market for action cameras, gaming consoles, and drones are growing rapidly in size, driving up demand for micro SDs that require fast data processing.