Kingston Launches New Line of "SD Ultimate" Cards with 133x Write Speeds

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.kingston.com/press/2005/digitalmedia/05a.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.kingston.com/press/2005/digitalmedia/05a.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Kingston Technology Company, Inc. today announced the further expansion of its Secure Digital (SD) Card product line with the release of new ultra-performing 'Ultimate' SD cards, initially shipping in 512-MB and 1-GB capacities. The new SD Ultimate cards offer significant performance benefits over the current Standard and Elite Pro lines of SD cards, including 133X super-fast transfer rates of larger size files-ideal for the shooting demands of professional digital photographers...Many current devices are sold with an 'X' speed rating, much like CD-ROM drives, to give users a performance indicator of how fast the card can transfer (read and/or write) images. Some manufacturers use 'X' to indicate read or write speeds; others use both as 'data transfer' and a few manufacturers do not define their cards' speed at all. Kingston® X-speed ratings are based on 'write' speed and X-speed performance is a function of MegaBytes per second (MB/sec) of write speed. Higher X-speed ratings equal faster cards. "</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/kingston-sdultimate.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />Kingston sent me one of these to test, so expect to see a Quick Look article posted soon!

[snowroller]

Is this something that will make a difference on the smartphone today? Does it really read or write so fast that the extra speed counts?

I have a noname 512, and the speed in the smartphone I would think is no different than a faster one?

This post is more of ignorance than for discussion, but if it's an unresolved issue, I would love som debate around it :)

[Jason Dunn]

It's difficult to say to be honest, largely because I'm not aware of any benchmarking tools on the Smartphone that would allow us to see if certain cards are any faster. It's more of a benefit when you connect the SD card to a memory card reader and dump 1 GB of music onto it from your desktop computer. ;-)

[Jerry Raia]

I doubt this would make much difference on a Smartphone that you would notice unless you are constantly moving files around. A camera transfers the image to the card on the fly so there you would notice it. Most applications on the Smartphone are so small that you probably wouldn't see any change in load times I think.

[Sven Johannsen]

I'm in the dark here. What SmartPhone uses SD cards? Don't they all use miniSD? Seems like only one manufacturer even makes 1G miniSD, so you live with the speed they got, and who they are.

[Mike Temporale]

Mitac, Original SPV, SPV2 all use SD cards. And doesn't the MPx220 use a regular SD card? or is that a miniSD on that phone? I can't remember.

But to answer your question, all the latest phones seem to be using miniSD, however the older models (or which there are still a lot of them out there in use) are using SD cards. :)

[Sven Johannsen]

Mitac, Original SPV, SPV2 all use SD cards. And doesn't the MPx220 use a regular SD card? or is that a miniSD on that phone? I can't remember.

But to answer your question, all the latest phones seem to be using miniSD, however the older models (or which there are still a lot of them out there in use) are using SD cards. :)

OK, Thanks. MPX220 uses a mini, accessible from the side, BTW. Has a cover on it so it isn't likely to pop out. SMT5600 also mini of course, under the battery. That's the ones I have. Didn't know the earlier ones used full sized SD. Guess it stands to reason... mini's haven't been around all that long.