iPhones never came with MicroSD slots and their users were fine because they never knew how good it was to have them. However, Android phones had them for years before they started to leave flagship devices and be relegated to the low-end. That doesn't mean that the microSD card is a dead accessory though.
If you've got a camera, one of the few smartphones that still supports them, or a handheld gaming console that can take a MicroSD card, you'll be glad to know that Samsung has added some new entries to its portfolio, with the major perk that they're a lot faster. Let's talk about them.
Samsung's New EVO Plus MicroSD Cards Are Real Fast
If you're a photographer, you rely heavily on MicroSD cards. If you're a smartphone user, maybe not as much as you would have about seven years ago, but maybe you do. If you play on a Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch, you likely use them too. Personally, I don't mind that microSD cards died out because internal storage is faster, but what if… What if MicroSD cards got faster?
Well, Samsung seems to have been thinking along those same lines. They've just announced a new lineup of EVO Select and EVO Plus cards to give you not only a substantial storage boost but also an injection of extra speed. Samsung says that the new cards will support speeds of up to 160MB per second, which is 23% faster than what the preceding generation of cards was able to do.
Whether you're going for an EVO Select or an EVO Plus card, you'll be able to get them in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB sizes, with the EVO Plus versions of each being slightly more expensive. However, there will be a 1TB variant for EVO Select, but there's no launch date or price for that yet, with Samsung merely saying that it'll come later in 2024.
If They Offer The Same Speeds And Sizes, What Makes EVO Select Different From EVO Plus?
The new EVO Select and EVO Plus cards from Samsung come with the same performance boost in this generation and are offered in the exact same sizes (though only EVO Select will get the 1TB option). So, it begs the question, what exactly makes these cards different, especially considering EVO Plus cards are (only a tad) more expensive?
Well, I've dug and dug, but there seems to be a consensus that there's nothing solid that differentiates these cards beyond their branding. Yep, that's right. The EVO Select cards seem to be exclusive to Amazon and are just EVO Plus cards under everything else (or maybe EVO Plus cards are EVO Select cards, same difference). They have different colors, names, and prices, but besides that, the specs seem to be exactly the same.
So, whether you find one of these new EVO Select or EVO Plus cards, just pick whichever is more convenient or pretty and use it in your Nintendo Switch, smartphone, or camera. They'll both get the job done just as well.
