Kerry Wan/ZDNET
Samsung is giving its Evo Select and Evo Plus microSD cards a major speed boost and will roll out 1TB microSD cards later this year.
These updated cards are said to offer a 23 percent increase in transfer speeds compared to the previous versions, delivering speeds up to 160MB/s. That should be most beneficial for content creators and professionals who want reliable and quick file-transferring when they’re out and about.
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The new Evo Select and Evo Plus cards will be offered in capacities ranging from 64GB to 512GB, which allows the buyer to choose the capacity that suits their needs and not overspend on big capacities that are going to be unused.
All the cards are certified for Grade 3 U3 and V30 speeds, as well as A2 performance class, and are able to read and write 4K video and handle apps being run directly from them, so they are more than fast enough to use in smartphones, action cameras, and drones.
What’s the difference between the Evo Select and Evo Plus? Look at the spec sheet all you want and you won’t find any differences, because it’s down to branding, with Amazon having exclusive rights to the Evo Select name and can therefore control the price and frequency of discount prices.
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Like most other microSD cards, these cards have been tested to withstand water, extreme temperatures, X-ray, physical wear, drops and impacts, and magnetic fields, but here Samsung is going as far as to offer a 10-year limited warranty, which is very generous.
Pricing for the Evo Select microSD cards ranges from $15 to $56, while the Evo Plus microSD cards are a little more expensive, ranging from $16 to $61.
For those who need more storage space, fear not! For the first time, Samsung will also offer microSD cards in 1TB capacities in the Evo Select microSD and Pro Plus microSD lines. These are slated for release “later this year.”