Apple confirms new MacBook Pro models have only slower UHS-II SD card slots
Apple's new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are equipped with a midline SD card slot supporting the UHS-II standard, rather than the substantially faster USH-III, the company has confirmed.
Credit: Apple
The UHS-II standard allows for read and write speeds of up to 312MB/s, which is lower than the UHS-III standard's read and write speeds of up to 624MB/s. Apple confirmed the SD card slot's specs to The Verge, which noted that opting for the UHS-II standard isn't "as forward looking" as UHS-III.
The UHS-III standard, which supports the fastest SD card read and write speeds, was first introduced in 2017. Some professional users had hoped that Apple would opt for the newer and faster standard on the 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro
Apple's 2021 MacBook Pro models are the first in years to feature ports other than USB-C. They come equipped with the aforementioned SD card slot, as well as an HDMI port for connecting to displays or TVs. Like the SD card slot, Apple's HDMI port is midrange -- limited to HDMI 2.0, instead of HDMI 2.1.
The new MacBook Pro models also feature a trio of Thunderbolt 4 ports and the return of an Apple MagSafe-style charging port. Users can charge their new Macs with either the MagSafe 3 port or any of the three Thunderbolt ports.
In addition to the expanded port selection, the new MacBook Pro models also feature significantly upgraded M1 chips, mini-LED displays with ProMotion, and full-sized function keys instead of a Touch Bar.
Apple's new MacBook Pro models became available to order on Monday and are slated to arrive on customer doorsteps and in-store on Tuesday, Oct. 26. The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499.
Read on AppleInsider
Credit: Apple
The UHS-II standard allows for read and write speeds of up to 312MB/s, which is lower than the UHS-III standard's read and write speeds of up to 624MB/s. Apple confirmed the SD card slot's specs to The Verge, which noted that opting for the UHS-II standard isn't "as forward looking" as UHS-III.
The UHS-III standard, which supports the fastest SD card read and write speeds, was first introduced in 2017. Some professional users had hoped that Apple would opt for the newer and faster standard on the 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro
Apple has confirmed to us that the SD card slot in the new MacBook Pro 14/16 is UHS-II (over 300Mbps). Not as forward looking as UHS-III (over 600Mbps) would be, but thank god it's not UHS-I (about 100Mbps) . https://t.co/MN1ZCLyC4T
-- dan-dor the relentless (@dcseifert)
Apple's 2021 MacBook Pro models are the first in years to feature ports other than USB-C. They come equipped with the aforementioned SD card slot, as well as an HDMI port for connecting to displays or TVs. Like the SD card slot, Apple's HDMI port is midrange -- limited to HDMI 2.0, instead of HDMI 2.1.
The new MacBook Pro models also feature a trio of Thunderbolt 4 ports and the return of an Apple MagSafe-style charging port. Users can charge their new Macs with either the MagSafe 3 port or any of the three Thunderbolt ports.
In addition to the expanded port selection, the new MacBook Pro models also feature significantly upgraded M1 chips, mini-LED displays with ProMotion, and full-sized function keys instead of a Touch Bar.
Apple's new MacBook Pro models became available to order on Monday and are slated to arrive on customer doorsteps and in-store on Tuesday, Oct. 26. The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I recently got my Sony A7SIII (I use CF-Express A cards) which usually contain gigantic 4K 120fps HLG files, and this truly doesn’t ring “Pro” as they target creators. Time is money!
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In America we like to focus 95% of the attention to 5% of the problem.
To a certain extent, it would have 'future-proofed' the slot, but for how many people exactly? The transfer speeds for my RAW files - from either camera - are currently acceptable to me using an external card reader, so I'm glad it'll be one less thing I have to carry around and plug in to my laptop - when it gets delivered.
Also, the fast CF-Express readers generate quite a lot of heat making them a significant heat management problem even if Apple had a reason to consider them.
As for UHS-III, B&H Photo doesn't appear to list any UHS-III SD cards, there are no devices that support writing them, and several Google searches got no hits on external UHS-III readers. As a future proofing step, it would have been nice, and Apple does have some history of being ahead of technology curves, but UHS-III would be a lot to ask for a laptop shipping in 2021.
Most modern high-end cameras offer WiFi image transfer anyway…
…and sneaker net is USB sticks these days.
From the sounds of things this was a perfectly logical decision. Apple essentially took the bandwidth of a single TB4 port and divided it between an HDMI port and an SD slot. They also added a MagSafe port so you don’t need to take a USB C jack to charge. Like most logical decisions, the ideologues are deeply offended by it because, God forbid someone might have different needs than they do.
Maybe next major Mac upgrade cycle skips UHS-III and goes to SD Express UC-I. With bus speed up to 3,490 MB/s (!), if cards are available to take advantage, then we're talking SSD level performance.
I wish it was straight up SD Express. It would have been the first volume product to have it, but then people would go SD path rather than internal storage upgrades.