{"id":955,"date":"2025-08-14T23:41:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T19:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/china-is-about-to-launch-ssds-so-small-you-insert-them-like-a-sim-card\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T23:41:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T19:41:23","slug":"china-is-about-to-launch-ssds-so-small-you-insert-them-like-a-sim-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/china-is-about-to-launch-ssds-so-small-you-insert-them-like-a-sim-card\/","title":{"rendered":"China is about to launch SSDs so small you insert them like a SIM card"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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\n\t\t<\/figcaption><\/p><\/figure>\n

MicroSD cards are tiny but slow; the M.2 storage sticks in your PC are blazing fast but bigger and fully enclosed. Now, a new type of SSD out of China could be the best of both worlds \u2014 and it\u2019s already set to appear in two cutting-edge gaming portables.<\/p>\n

Chinese storage manufacturer Biwin is calling it the \u201cMini SSD,\u201d though another manufacturer refers to it as the \u201c1517\u201d; it measures just 15mm x 17mm x 1.4mm thick, smaller than a U.S. penny and just slightly larger than MicroSD. Despite that, it offers maximum sequential read speeds of 3,700 megabytes per second (or 3,400MB\/s writes) over a PCIe 4\u00d72 connection, and offers 512GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p><\/figure>\n

To put that in context, the new MicroSD Express cards that work with the Nintendo Switch 2<\/a> top out at a theoretical 985MB\/s, less than a third the speed. And while a full-size SD Express card could theoretically beat Mini SSD at 3,940MB\/s, it would be nearly twice the size of Biwin\u2019s creation. <\/p>\n

The nano-SIMs used in recent smartphones are still smaller, though, and M.2 drives are still faster<\/a>. I whipped up a quick chart so you can easily compare various storage cards and SIMs:<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Type<\/th>\nLength<\/th>\nWidth<\/th>\nHeight<\/th>\nTheoretical max speed<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Mini SSD<\/td>\n15mm<\/td>\n17mm<\/td>\n1.4mm<\/td>\n3,700MB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MicroSD<\/td>\n11mm<\/td>\n15mm<\/td>\n1mm<\/td>\n985MB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SD<\/td>\n24mm<\/td>\n32mm<\/td>\n~2mm (varies)<\/td>\n3,940MB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
M.2 2230<\/td>\n22mm<\/td>\n30mm<\/td>\n~2mm (varies)<\/td>\n~8,000MB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
M.2 2280<\/td>\n22mm<\/td>\n80mm<\/td>\n~2mm (varies)<\/td>\n~14,000MB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nano-SIM<\/td>\n8.8mm<\/td>\n12.3mm<\/td>\n0.67mm<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Micro-SIM<\/td>\n12mm<\/td>\n15mm<\/td>\n0.76mm<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mini-SIM<\/td>\n15mm<\/td>\n25mm<\/td>\n0.76mm<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s not clear if Biwin\u2019s Mini SSD is a true standard that other storage makers can easily adopt. But the company\u2019s marketing it<\/a> for laptops, tablets, phones, cameras and more, with its own dedicated slot that works exactly like smartphone SIM card slots: stick in a pin to remove the tray.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The company claims IP68 water and dust resistance, which could be handy for phones in particular, and three-meter drop resistance.<\/p>\n

Two cutting-edge Chinese gaming portables already appear to be customers, both of which made announcements at ChinaJoy this past week. There\u2019s the GPD Win 5<\/a>, the monster battery backpack wielding Strix Halo handheld we told you about in July, which you can see with the new SSD in the video atop this story. <\/p>\n

OneNetbook\u2019s upcoming OneXPlayer Super X hybrid laptop\/tablet<\/a>, which has the same Strix Halo chip, is also now advertising a dedicated \u201ccard slot\u201d for a mini SSD.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have any idea of pricing on these new SSDs, and have seen no product listings for them yet.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MicroSD cards are tiny but slow; the M.2 storage sticks in your PC are blazing fast but bigger and fully […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}