The 1.5TB microSD card is here but your wallet can’t handle it

Leonard Sengere Avatar

Leonard Sengere

I am one of those people that hate losing features in devices even when it’s a feature I do not even use. An example would be the removal of the headphone jack in premium smartphones. I had moved on to Bluetooth headphones years before its death but was still mad when we lost it.

I feel like I’m justified in my rage when it comes to the microSD card. Only Apple has been averse to that slot from the beginning, the rest used to offer easy storage expansion through it. It really is an affordable way to upgrade your device’s storage.

As a result of the microSD card slot dying slowly, progress in that field has slowed a little. A few players have released 1TB SD cards but that’s old news, we need more.

Micron’s 1.5TB microSD card

Micron announced a 1.5TB card last year and it is starting to hit shelves. Most computers do not even pack that much storage and yet you can have all that space in a tiny little SD card.

To note though, Micron’s 1.5TB SD card is targeted at the enterprise market, not regular Joes like me. The price tag of over $420 before taxes and shipping says it all.

Micron’s 1.5TB microSD card can handle five years of continuous 24/7 high-quality recording and its average time between failures (MTBF) is around 2 million hours. This makes this little SD card suitable for video security platforms. That is its intended purpose, not to stick it in a smartphone.

For the nerds, the Micron i400 microSD card leveraged Micron’s 176-layer 3D NAND technology. This is similar to the one used in the Solid State Drives that have taken over the computer market.

Demand for high-capacity SD cards was killed by smartphone manufacturers and it is no wonder that Micron is not looking there for a market. Why was the SD card slot killed by the way?

Why the microSD card slot is dying

The argument was that microSD cards made for slower read/write speeds and therefore an inferior smartphone experience. It is hard to argue against this when we look at the UFS 4.0 that Samsung is using in its latest smartphones.

UFS 4.0 offers 4,200MB/s sequential read speeds and 2,800MB/s write speeds. Contrast that with the fastest microSD cards that can only do 300MB/s read and 245MB/s write speeds.

Of course, one could argue that if all they are storing on the microSD card are mostly photos and music files, they won’t mind the slower speeds. I know I don’t, especially because it means more storage for less money.

The other reason the microSD card had to die was security. Then there is the argument that cloud storage and high-speed internet have made the slot redundant. There is merit to these arguments but the real reason was simple – profit.

Manufacturers can’t charge a premium for an SD card slot, but they can charge $100 for a few extra gigabytes of flash storage. 

In addition, removing the SD card slot means customers are forced to decide at the time of purchase the storage they want/need. Removing the SD slot and soldering SSD forces people to purchase more storage at the time of purchase.

It is what it is and Apple started it, like always. So, sadly, I’m not that excited about the 1.5TB card because my phone does not take one. I’m excited to see the tech advance though.

What do you think about all this? Does your phone have a microSD card slot and if so, what size card do you have in there?

Also read:

Samsung doubles phone storage speed, energy efficiency up 45% with UFS 4.0

The World’s First 1TB microSD Card Is Now Up For Sale, But It’s Pricey

34 comments

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  1. The Last Don

    Save for the price I’d have wanted one as soon as yesterday. Like usual I will have to wait for the Chinese to reverse engineer this and mass produce.

    Reply
    1. LM

      🤣🤣😂

      Reply
    2. Ali G Express

      As long as you aren’t falling for the scam cards it’s all good!😄

      Reply
    3. Leonard Sengere

      It’s gonna be a while before the Chinese get us this much storage in a microSD card. They still haven’t cracked the 1TB one. I think it’s not worth it for them because premium phones are losing the slot and most midrange phones don’t support 1TB cards, let alone 1.5TB. This means demand for higher capacity cards is dropping by the day. That’s even before we consider that even some midrange phones are starting to scrap the slot.

      Reply
  2. Mark

    I still have a microSD card that I bought in 2016 (8Gb). I use it for quick access to documents and stuff I don’t want to keep on my phone’s memory.
    It has become redundant to be honest (phone storage is 256Gb) but I like having it. I like having that extra storage option.

    Reply
    1. Leonard Sengere

      I had a similar system. I’ve since learnt to rely on the Google Drive backups of the documents I kept on that little card.
      I totally agree that it’s not about the phone having enough storage for all my needs, I still want the flexibility that microSD card offers.

      Reply
    2. Grandmaster

      Micron is pretty much trying to resuscitate a dying industry. The price isn’t that bad considering the market value will fall within the space of a year to around $300-$350. But why’d anyone really want a 1.5 Tb sd card? To be honest, anyone with the intention to use that much storage (even in Zim) is probably both tech savvy and financially able to buy a high end smartphone like the 13 pro max or s23 ultra and upgrade expandable storage to 1TB🤷
      Unless tirikutotengera kuisa mulaptop 🤣I don’t know why anyone would still avoid UFS 4.0 speeds for outdated transfer speeds. Are you feeling too much Nostalgia?? @Techzim😂😂😂

      Reply
  3. SD Dominion

    The highest I’ve ever gone in my android journey was premium midrange so lack of the SD slot has never been a problem. Still, this illness is creeping into that segment along with the now ubiquitous missing headphone jack. I’ve become acclimated to setting my cards as the entertainment hub, the default camera storage and app backup location. Its super convenient, but I can feel the net closing in. A couple more upgrade cycles and I’ll probably be crying.

    Reply
    1. Leonard Sengere

      You better start getting used to Drive because the end is nigh. It’s only a matter of time before the SD card slot is only a thing in budget phones that still come with 32GB internal storage.
      I used my card in the same way you do. Made switching to a new phone a breeze. I’d have all my entertainment on the phone in an instant. And that included apks, to save on data costs when setting up the new device.

      Reply
  4. Imi Vanhu Musadaro

    Don’t worry, the price will fall soon, especially for ones made with Chinesium.

    Reply
    1. Leonard Sengere

      It might not be worth it for them as demand is falling. The mythical Chinesium might not be enough to save us this time around.

      Reply
  5. Horse Cock Harry

    Imma wait 10 years for this s*** to drop…just as Im waiting 15 years for the PS4 to reach the $50 margin..then ill buy loads of them

    Reply
    1. Leonard Sengere

      😂😂😂 Waiting for the PS4 to reach what? My friend, I wish I had your patience. I can wait a few years but 10?

      Reply
  6. Isaac

    Technology is moving a bit faster. If I were to lose my phone – assuming that I have that 1/1.5TB SD Card, then my greatest loss would be the Card – cloud rocks. In the meantime, I’ll upgrade to a 64 Gig card, have had a 32 for close to a decade now and it’s still as good as new.

    Reply
    1. Leonard Sengere

      I also have a 32GB card, a Samsung one that I’ve had for a decade too and I haven’t had a single problem with it. It’s not getting much use these days as it’s stuck in a KaiOS smart kambudzi.

      Reply
  7. Spectre

    I ordered one of those 1tb sd cards from AliExpress last year and I didn’t receive it..I ordered another one this January and am still waiting for it..

    Reply
    1. King Adoe 🤴🏼

      😂😂😂 yooh, maybe you ordered on a scam site

      Reply
    2. Leonard Sengere

      I’ve heard terrible things about those cheap 1TB cards. I hope you got one of the good ones.

      Reply
  8. 👽

    Even though they are now old tech cards are cool. These phones with enormous storage are ok but ikafa ne stuff irimo yafawo futi. Plus zve cloud izvi ndezvevanhu vanemari or vanowana free WiFi kumabasa. What if i want to see my stuff ndisina data? Im not even going to waste 10gig of my econet data bundle uploading stuff kucloud yandinokwanisa kuisa mu external drive or sd card… im a forex trader i need all the data i can get so cloud is out of e picture..Plus madam ikatanga kutokonya maApps angu inozosvika kuDrive nekuDropbox ikoko zvikadzimwa or even kutomutsa mutauro chaiko ( and i know some stuff will surely coz trouble)

    Reply
    1. Leonard Sengere

      I 100% agree that the cloud option is still too expensive. I moved on from the microSD card to the external SSD and have never looked back. It is annoying having to fire up the laptop to view my stuff but at least I don’t need to buy a data bundle to do that.
      Pane yamadam hameno 😂 Munoiseyiko muma drive umu?

      Reply
      1. 👽

        The ssd drive option is gud and you don’t need to switch on your laptop to view your files everytime, you can view them on your phone all you need is a small connection inopinda paphone uku yopinda pa drive zita kuti inonzi chii andiziwe bt works well, i use it ne 30gig SSD boe zvese.
        *P.S mudrive munenge mune stuff lets end it there

        Reply
        1. Leonard Sengere

          I have a 3TB SSD and I have tried the USB dongle and nothing doing on large capacity hard drives.

          Reply
  9. King Adoe 🤴🏼

    That is really cool, but as for me I’m no longer interested in SD cards anymore, at first I’ve a 16Gb sd card and I loaded it information until it was nearly full, then after about 2 years it became corrupted, I lost everything that was in it, then sometime back early last I decided to buy 64Gb and it did same thing early this month

    Reply
    1. Leonard Sengere

      I have a 64GB one that’s acting up, some files are corrupted, some are not. It started doing this less than a year after purchase. Crazy thing is I have a 32GB Samsung one that I pushed to the limit but it still works like a charm. So maybe we gotta go with the more recognisable brands if we are to avoid those problems.

      Reply
    2. Formated Again in Faith

      I hear you, I went through the same thing many times but 6 years ago, I went abroad and was enlightened on the true ways of the SD storage world. A revelation came upon me that all the cards I’d bought here, no matter the brand, capacity or the shop I got them at were trash! They were deceivers and corrupters each one! Of the SD and Micro SD cards I stocked up on while abroad (Sandisc and Lexar), each one still works today, pure and righteous in their purpose!
      Beware the deceivers that come clothed in anointed brands, for you know not when they will betray you, sacrificing your data at the blood altar.

      Reply
      1. Leonard Sengere

        🤣🤣🤣Beautifully put. The streets of Zimbabwe are full of wolves in sheep’s clothing. If you are lucky you may chance upon a truthsayer, an anointed one that really is an anointed one and you’ll live happily ever after in SD card paradise. If not, you’ll lose everything in the blink of an eye. Your data sacrificed at the corrupted blood altar as you put it.

        Reply
  10. Dan

    Micron’s 1.5TB microSD card is considered a technological advancement in terms of storage capacity for mobile devices. It provides an enormous amount of storage space for users who need to carry a large amount of data on their mobile devices. Its performance and efficiency are also highly rated, making it a popular choice for professionals and power users who need fast and reliable storage.

    Reply
    1. Sus Bro Recognise Sus Bro😄

      🤨yo, these really sound GPTish…

      Reply
      1. Leonard Sengere

        You are right 😂 It really sounds like ChatGPT wrote that. Dan my man, you write like an AI 😂 Crazy stuff.

        Reply
        1. Sus Bro Recognise Sus Bro😄

          I fired up the Mighty Tor and made the risky click. All the comments I saw which linked to the Finddee site seem to have been created by some generative text AI, the same with most of the actual content on the site that I saw. I also noticed an article about this SD card on the site, posted today, and it also reads like it’s AI-authored. It’s a major story, so it’s not so outlandish for them to post seemingly after or about the same time as Techzim. But this got me thinking, do these guys have a bot that’s monitoring tech sites, picking a random recent post, using the headline and maybe some copy as a prompt, generating a new article on Finddee, and then leaving a comment on the source article/site to direct traffic back to Finddee, creating a feedback loop that gives them analytics, tracking, eyeballs and clicks for their future ads and downloads?

          A couple of weeks ago, I would have said that’s a conspiracy theory that might come true in a couple of years but it’s happening right now, isn’t it?😅 Kind of clever in a way.

          *This comment was proofread and edited by Bing, your friendly, accessible neighbourhood AI and overlord*

          Reply
  11. The Mandalorian

    apa nefirooo inoita twunhu itwotwo🙌🙌😂😂

    Reply
  12. D.K.

    Stop worrying guys! Very soon that amount of memory will be part of phone memory! Instead of forking out a couple of greenbacks for mere memory, just save for a phone which will come with that amount of memory, and I can already see it on the horizon!

    Reply
  13. Cyber Ghost

    I really don’t underestimate these Micro SD Cards,the one I have has outlived many phones

    Reply

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