Western Digital 4TB SD Cards on the Horizon for 2025

Next year, Western Digital plans to introduce the inaugural 4TB SD card, as per Thursday’s announcement by the storage giant. The firm intends to showcase the product firsthand next week.

Under its SanDisk brand, Western Digital will debut the SD card, adhering to the SD Association’s Secure Digital Ultra Capacity (SDUC) standard. Marketed towards intricate media and entertainment workflows, such as high-resolution video production employing cameras and laptops, the forthcoming product will boast ample storage space and employ the Ultra High Speed-1 (UHS-1) bus interface. This interface supports maximum theoretical transfer rates of up to 104 MB per second and minimum write speeds of 10 MB/s, as reported by AnandTech. Anticipated minimum sequential write speeds are set to reach 30 MB/s.

With these specifications, the upcoming SD card is poised to accommodate storage-intensive video formats, including 8K, although it may not facilitate raw 8K video recording due to its speed limitations. Hence, Western Digital has opted to preview the offering at the National Association of Broadcasters’ annual event, commencing tomorrow in Las Vegas.

“Attendees will gain insights into the 4TB SD card’s full capacity and its potential to enhance creative opportunities for cameras and laptops,” Western Digital stated.

Considerations for Professionals

Further details, such as the type of NAND the card will employ or its compatibility with the SanDisk-created DDR200/DDR208 mode for higher data transfer speeds of up to 170 MB/s (conditional on host support), were not disclosed in this week’s announcement. While Western Digital refrained from disclosing the price of the SD card, its advanced features and target audience of professional creators suggest a premium pricing strategy. For context, the 1TB SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-I Card currently retails for $140.

WD’s announcement follows six years after the SD Association unveiled the SDUC standard, elevating the maximum possible capacity for SD cards from 2TB to 128TB. Despite optimistic projections, the reality of 4TB SD cards arriving by 2025 demonstrates the gradual pace of technological advancement. Today, 1TB SD cards are readily available, while 2TB microSD cards entered the market just this year.

Western Digital’s announcement signals progress towards maximizing SD cards’ potential. However, it arrives amidst concerns over SanDisk’s reliability, with multiple lawsuits alleging unexpected failures in SanDisk Extreme portable SSDs. These issues, coupled with dissatisfaction regarding Western Digital’s response to reported data losses, might prompt professionals with critical storage needs to explore alternative brands before transitioning to 4TB.