Flash drives (or simply flash drives) until recently were one of the most common external storage of information. However, at present, unfortunately, they are losing ground. Weightless cloud storages are replacing, where you can (of course, for the appropriate fee to the provider) store virtually unlimited amounts of information. But flash drives are in a hurry to "rehabilitate" in our eyes. Today we will consider what are the largest flash drives in terms of volume. There are three models on the agenda that are definitely worthy of the reader’s attention.
Largest Flash Drive
What is the maximum flash drive capacity for today? This is 2 Tb! This model was introduced in the past (2017) by the famous Kingston Corporation. Flash drive Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate GT, despite the fact that it can accommodate 2 TB of a wide variety of data, does not impress its owner in size. It can be easily compared to lipstick.
I must say that the Kingston company in 2013 issued another record holder. The maximum flash drive volume was then 1 terabyte. Four years later, the corporation pleased its users with the introduction of a double-capacity drive. We offer you a closer look at the largest (in volume) USB storage device in the world.
External solution
What kind of flash drive is it with the maximum amount of memory? The product is delivered in a simple metal case. What is inside? The flash drive itself, a convenient carrying case and an extension cable. The latter is necessary for connecting to those computers and TVs whose USB ports are too close to each other.
What is a USB stick with a maximum capacity of 2 TB? Outwardly, it is not much different from its terabyte predecessor. Simple, no frills and unnecessary decorative details rectangular case. The product is coated with a noble shade of galvanized metal. It looks quite durable and expensive. Unusual drive design. This is a slider. The halves are advanced in the manner of the once popular Nokia phones. The connection standard is USB 3.1, 3.0.
Product Specifications
Let's introduce the important technical characteristics of the flash drive with the maximum volume:
- Device capacity: 2 terabytes.
- Interface for data transfer: USB 3.0. Of course, the device can also be connected to 2.0, it will function, but only information will be transmitted at the reduced speed standard for such a port.
- Speed (for USB 3.1): data recording - 200 Mbit / s, reading information - 200 Mbit / s.
And a little about the maximum amount of flash drives. As user tests show, a value of 2 TB is a fairly relative indicator. In fact, the volume of the drive is 1 979 958 951 936 bytes. Calculations show that, in fact, the Kingston invention pulls 1.79 TB.
Let's introduce one important feature of the device: it is supplemented by a powerful Phison PS2308 controller. I must say that it is it used for high-speed HyperX Savage. But we will not take indicators of the speed of writing and reading data on faith. Let's look at the test scores that the lucky owners of the world's first two-terabyte flash drive conducted.
Device Speed Testing
What are the largest flash drives in terms of volume? These are Kingston products - 1 and 2 terabyte models. Let's check the speed of writing and reading data on these devices. For tests, we recommend using the application:
- Crystal Disk Mark 5.2.0. This program is good in that it will test the operation of a flash drive in four modes at once: linear write / read, write / read in 4K, linear write / read in 32 commands and, finally, write / read blocks in 4K with a queue depth of 32 teams.
- NTFS.
- exFAT.
What do the test results show? Kingston remained honest with the consumers of its products / The speed of writing and reading information is not too different from the one stated by the manufacturers. Of course, the configuration of the computer, the characteristics of the motherboard and so on have an effect.
In sequential operations, a 2-terabyte flash drive even bypasses the speed of the hard drive several times! On such a device, you can record “heavy” films, photo files in RAW, music in lossless and more with the “speed of light”.
How long can I fully fill the maximum volume of a Kingston flash drive? As the owners themselves say, it only takes 3.5 hours! The indicator also depends on the size of the recorded files. As a rule, large documents are placed on the drive faster than folders with small service files.
2 TB flash drive cost
We already know the maximum volume of the FAT32 flash drive. And what is its cost? Today it is 100 thousand rubles. Note that the device is sold with a 5-year warranty. But still, the price is quite high for the average user.
What are these figures related to? Firstly, a combination of the largest volume in the world, compactness of the device, high speed of reading / transmitting data. Secondly, the new Kingston model is a record holder of its kind, a flash drive that has no equal in the world so far. The complex of these conditions explains the high cost of the device.
If you want to buy a "bulk" flash drive at a more realistic price, we advise you to wait until the Kingston competitors accumulate - they will release devices with similar capacities. Their cost will be lower, and functionality, perhaps even higher. And we move on to the next record holders.
Largest microSD card
What is the maximum capacity of a microSD flash drive? Today it is 200 GB. Such indicators were achieved by the San Disc Corporation, no less well-known in the flash device market. The previous San Disk record holder was 128 GB. As you just notice, the new invention bypassed the previous two times.
What made it possible to achieve such an increase in volume? The developers themselves modestly explain: the use of a proprietary process helped in this. Its details, of course, the San Disk Corporation does not disclose. But we can judge that all the possibilities of this technology have already been exhausted - in the future, with its help, it will not be possible to introduce more capacious microSD cards to the world.
The most capacious microSD card: expectations and reality
I must say that advanced users are unhappy with this seemingly significant breakthrough. They believe that San Disk could increase the capacity of a flash card to 256 GB. However, for the current configuration, 200 GB microSD drives are already the limit. This is all that can be achieved.
Pleased with the data transfer rate: 90 Mbps. Many users have appreciated this invention, as well as the 128 GB card released a year earlier from the same manufacturer. If we look at the cumbersome predecessors, then 200 GB of information that really fit on the tip of the finger is something on the verge of fiction.
And what about the cost? This figure is just not very happy. The most capacious microSD card today will cost you $ 400.
The most capacitive ... "Collector"
And the latest invention in a flash drive environment. The pursuit of a flash drive of maximum volume seems endless. Therefore, one manufacturer thought: would not invent such a device that will help each user to become the owner of the information keeper suitable for him individual maximum amount? So in general terms you can describe the concept of the Collector drive.
Imagine an important clarification. The Collector is no longer a flash drive, but a complex of microSD cards. The idea belongs to the Korean designer Fang-Chun Tsai. He set out to maximize the capacity of the flash drive. "Collector" is a kind of platform on which there are slots for three microSD cards. The ones that are widely used for smartphones and photographic equipment.
Accordingly, the owner of the "Collector" can buy several flash cards and as a result become the owner of a drive combining this triple volume. Cards can be both 2, 32 and 200 GB. Hence the total capacity: 6, 96, 600 GB. All for consideration by the owner, as the creator planned. It is also not necessary to select cards that are equal to each other in volume. In one "Collector" you can combine microSD devices with a capacity of 2, and 32 and 200 GB.
Key collector weaknesses
The first significant minus of the Korean invention is again the price. The consumer pays not only the cost of the "Collector" itself, but also the price of memory cards that will fill it. And if we choose those whose capacity is 200 GB, then the amount will be impressive.
The second is where performance suffers. It's no secret that information is written to memory cards much slower than to the most standard flash drives. It is necessary to take into account the fact that on the microSD as part of the "Collector" the data will be placed at the same time through the "second hand" - the basic device. Conclusion: we get, of course, a capacitive drive, but with a very low read / write speed. Which greatly devalues such a curious concept.
It can be judged that the technical side of the device is not fully thought out. But we must remember that the creator of the concept is a designer, not an engineer. His task was to come up with a compact and multifunctional device. By the way, the developer took care of the security of the memory cards - they are protected by a tight, reliable cap. Surely in the future, the “Collector” will be supplemented with the necessary sockets, and such volumetric drives will become popular and at the same time accessible to the average buyer.
Now you know what the largest volume of flash drive and memory card is today. Of course, this value is not final. Perhaps tomorrow among the flash drives there will be a new record holder that can compete with cloud data storage.