World's first 512GB microSD: Monster .5TB storage comes to smartphones

Integral Memory is releasing a microSD card that should mean you'll rarely have to offload photos and videos from your phone to a separate storage device or the cloud.

Integral's half a terabyte microSD card has stolen the crown from the 400GB microSD card SanDisk released last year. But Integral's transfer speeds are slightly slower, with a maximum of 80MB/s compared with SanDisk's 100MB/s.

Integral's 512GB card is rated UHS-I Class 1 and meets the 'video speed class' V10 specification, meaning it has the necessary 10MB/s write speeds to support Full HD video on smartphones and other devices.

Besides Android phones and tablets, Integral sees a growing role for larger capacity microSD cards in drones, action cams, home security cameras, and dash cams.

Integral says the cards will be available for purchase in February but it hasn't released the price yet. However, it could be expected to be close to the $250 price of SanDisk's 400GB microSD beast.

Integral reckons that while cloud storage has threatened the role of memory cards, for lifestyle reasons, consumers keep choosing memory cards, which also allow them to upgrade part of the phone rather than buying a new one.

Previous and related coverage

SanDisk unveils industrial and automotive-grade SD and microSD cards

Need SD or microSD cards that can operate across a broad temperature range? SanDisk has you covered.

Storage breakthrough: World's biggest microSD card crams in a massive 400GB of data

Running out of storage on your smartphone? Western Digital's new SanDisk card can hold 40 hours of full HD video.

An enterprise storage dictionary for non-experts (TechRepublic)

This list of must-know enterprise storage definitions might be especially useful for non-technical executives or users who want to learn the basics.

SanDisk touts largest microSD card ever (CNET)

So. Much. Storage. The company claims it's "breakthrough capacity."