Samsung Announces 8 GB microSD Card

One of the undisputable tradeoffs in going from the full-size SD slots on the Treo 700p and 680 to the miniSD-enabled Treo 755p and 750 is the reduction in card storage capacity from 8 GB to a mere 4 GB. At the present time, owners of these newest Treo 755p and 750 equipped with miniSD slots cannot utilize the now-widespread and affordable 8 GB full-size SDHC cards and are limited to the handful of rare 4gb miniSDHC cards on the market. Samsung announced they have managed to leapfrog 8 GB in the larger miniSD formfactor and somehow squeezed 8gb into the tiny thumbnail-sized microSD (formerly TransFlash) format.

In theory, this development could be a boon for Treo owners even if larger miniSD cards do not appear, as the microSD format is electrically compatible with miniSD and only requires an adapter card to move between devices. microSD cards are most commonly seen on smaller featurephones, with miniSD the norm for most recent smartphones and a few cameras and camcorders. Unfortunately, production of these large-capacity microSD cards is only set for mid-2008. Hopefully affordable 8 GB miniSDHC cards will be released in the interim to ease the pain felt when hitting the 4gb flash card ceiling.