You can now pick up a 16GB SanDisk microSDHC for $100
SanDisk emailed me yesterday and told me that their huge capacity 16GB microSDHC card was now available for US$99.99. SanDisk is the first card maker to get cards with this high capacity out in stores. They promptly sent me a card to evaluate with my latest mobile devices that arrived a couple hours ago. I quickly popped it into my new BlackBerry Bold, T-Mobile G1, and Palm Treo Pro devices to check compatibility and ability to store captured images and play music and video files.
As I thought, this large capacity microSDHC card performed flawlessly with each of these devices. The Treo Pro camera software showed there was room for over 8000 photos. However, I did have trouble getting it back out of the Bold. The card seems to have a slightly larger area on the back (at least compared side-by-side with the 8GB card in good lighting) and this miniscule difference seems to be making it difficult to remove from the Bold. It doesn't help that I have no fingernails that extend past my fingertip either.
While it is convenient to have some flash capacity integrated into the device, I am a big fan of external cards where you can use higher and higher capacity cards as they are developed. I remember just a couple of years ago I paid over US$100 for a 1GB CF card and now we have an amazing 16GB in a form factor smaller than my smallest fingernail.
SanDisk also announced that their M2 (Memory Stick Micro) 16GB card is also available with a MSRP of US$129.99. These new cards have a Class 2 speed rating and come with a 5 year limited warranty.