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This fingernail-sized 256GB microSD card is the world's fastest

This fingernail-sized 256GB microSD card is the world's fastest

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Yours for $199.99

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Western Digital

SanDisk's new 256GB microSD card isn't the first of its kind, but it is, says parent company Western Digital, the fastest. The card has transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s and write speeds of 90MB/s — quick enough to transfer an entire HD movie in around 45 seconds. You'll need that sort of performance though if you're using the card for its intended purpose: recording and storing up to 14 hours of 4K footage from smartphones, action cameras, or drones.

The 256GB SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card is only slightly faster than Samsung's own $249.99 256GB microSD card, but Western Digital also unveiled a slower cousin intended for a wider audience — the 256GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Premium Edition. (Yes, those are some terrible, confusing names.) Both cards are waterproof, temperature-proof, shock proof, and X-ray proof, but the Premium Edition has slightly slower transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s (the company doesn't mention write speeds).

The Extreme microSD card will be available to buy for $199.99 from the fourth quarter of 2016, while the Premium Edition will go for $149.99 from August this year.