SD Card Slot in New MacBook Pros Supports UHS-II With Speeds Up to 250 MB/s [Updated]

[kmoreau48]

The amount of people here saying SD cards are outdated or no longer used. Do you realise how completely misinformed you are? Why are you so confident in something you don't understand?

A huge amount of people still use SD cards in their cameras. My A7R III is SD, I don't need a faster card. I can do 42mp bursts at 10 fps with no problem with my current cards. Cameras are often long term purchases too, a lot of pros still shoot on cameras from over 7 years ago which don't even have support for the newest type of SD card speeds.

Stop talking nonsense. People saying all pros have moved to CF Express and this, WTF are you talking about? Furthermore, many of the enthusiast (sort of mid range) cameras are still using SD primarily. Most people even pros don't actually need super fast cards. The people using cameras that can shoot 30 FPS bursts are a minority.

If you don't understand just be quiet instead of having to try and come out with a hot take.

Looking forward to easily getting access to data via the SD card slot from my Osmo Pocket, Insta360 Evo, A7R III and some other devices.

Yes a lot of people still use SD cards, does that mean we should keep using this technology for the next 200 years?

If everybody would think like you, we would still be stuck with floppy disk and VHS.

When people say it is outdated, maybe that means something better is already out and in order to move forward, someone has to make a change.

 

[gregmancuso]

I travel heavily for business. HDMI seems to be just about everywhere for connecting to projectors or screens. Where I need to put something on a screen, there seems to already be a wired HDMI cable readily available from the logical presenting position/podium. At least in my own experience, I haven't seen RS-232 with any clients or other presentation venues in years (but maybe I just haven't noticed because HDMI seems towards "standard").

If I was stacking up the general connectivity options- again per my own experience- it seems to be HDMI (the most by far), VGA, Displayport, RGB component and then RCA jacks if someone needs to hook up an old VCR or something. Again, I usually just go with what is most readily available- HDMI- so maybe there are some other options and I just am not noticing them.

IMO, it's great to get HDMI back INSIDE instead of having to lean on some intermediary hub to hopefully "just work" and that I have that hub with me when I need it and that I have the cable that connects the hub to the computer with me when I need it... and potentially the hubs power adapter if it needs one too. Bonus: part of "lighter" is not necessarily needing hubs and intermediary cables to also be in the bag.

Almost everywhere I have been lately (say the from the 18 months pre-COVID) have gone to wireless conference rooms. Some were low tech (AppleTV or ChromeCast attached to the TV/Projector) but most are using one of the various screen casting setups where each TV/Projector has an ID and you just connect the monitor and go. And this is at a lot of companies/industries not known for being on the bleeding edge.

I did need my HDMI dongle a handful of times but really not all that many. And, like you, I travel a lot and have to present often. Perhaps I was lucky, but when I did use it it worked.

 

[ruka.snow]

Overall it does feel like going back in time five to 10 years with Apple returning the ports which people need and want. It just shows what a massive mistake their 2016 MacBook Pros were - yes, ahead of their time but too much of a jump in one go for most consumers/prosumers. Pro has meant very Profit in Apple speak for years not professional.

This is the main thing, we are going back in time like 5-10 years and resetting progress. We'll now have SD cling onto life just that little longer. HDMI on the other hand I do think is here to stay as it is a standard, while I don't use it I can see value in having it. It is just disappointing that was a the cost of a TB4 port when right now I am having to unplug the charger, 10 Gbps ethernet, an external SSD, or even my monitor in order to have two card readers and two external drives connected and a hub can't fix that as each of these things needs the full bandwidth of TB3.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Depends where you live and travel too. Every business meeting I have been in for the last five years has had a Apple TV to use and/or a TB3 dock that you connect to for sound, input, and the projector or TV.

There is a much larger world beyond our Apple bubble. I LOVE AppleTVs myself (I personally have one attached to EVERY TV in my home) but I certainly can't depend on them to be everywhere/anywhere when I'm packing for business travel. And while I know Thunderbolt is out there beyond our Apple bubble too, I still don't seem to see much of it- or perhaps just don't notice- because the commonplace connection offered for projecting a screen from a laptop is HDMI (in my experience anyway).

I would never go without a HUB on an assumption of the client having an AppleTV and/or TB3 connection option. However, I would readily assume an HDMI connection will be available at pretty much ANY business presentation scenario... and thus could leave out a HUB and not be overly worried about being able to connect to present.

I can certainly get behind a collective WISH that we could quickly get to an all wireless world or an all-Thunderbolt world. But I think that is still many years into the future. One guy above says he still connects with mostly RS232 (which is probably a standard from 20+ years ago (edit: Wikipedia says that originated in the 1960s)) and I still see VGA (1987) as seemingly second-most-common way to connect for presentations at most places I go.

 

[ruka.snow]

There is a much larger world beyond our Apple bubble. I LOVE AppleTVs myself (I personally have one attached to EVERY TV in my home) but I certainly can't depend on them to be everywhere when I'm packing for business travel. And while I know Thunderbolt is out there beyond our Apple bubble too, I still don't seem to see much of it- or perhaps just don't notice- because the commonplace connection offered for projecting a screen from a laptop is HDMI (in my experience anyway).

I would never go without a HUB on an assumption of the client having an AppleTV and/or TB3 connection option. However, I would readily assume an HDMI connection will be available at pretty much ANY business presentation scenario... and thus could leave out a HUB and not be overly worried about being able to connect to present.

I can certainly get behind a collective WISH that we could quickly get to an all wireless world or an all-Thunderbolt world. But I think that is still many years into the future. One guy above says he still connects with most RS232 (which is probably a standard from 20+ years ago) and I still see VGA as seemingly second-most-common way to connect for presentations at most places I go.

Again, it depends where you live and where you go. HDMI may be common in the USA for instance, but every office I have been to in Scotland and the mainland EU has had an Apple TV and/or TB3 dock for their projector/tv. I am sure there are places that still use VGA.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Admittedly, most of the places I present are in North America. Hopefully America opts to "catch up" with Scotland when it comes to AppleTV and TB3 docks. If you ever do have to present over here, better be ready for HDMI or VGA. Of course, we'll have some AppleTV4K and TB companies here too... but I don't seem to encounter (many of) them... or again, just don't notice because they are so quick to offer an HDMI cable to plug in to present.

 

[TechRemarker]

Makes sense SD since still the most popular, serious pros have, will be switching to CFExpress. But adding that port people would have complained as well since it's still much smaller market share. Oh well.

 

[00001000bit]

Honestly, I'm kind of bummed they're STILL including a monitor and keyboard on these things. What kind of pro can't carry one with them if they think they're going to need one? I just want a sleek aluminum block with 6 USB-C ports on it. /s

 

[nicolas_s]

SD card slot = people complaining that it's outdated
CFexpress slot = people complaining about planned obsolescence
No slot = people complaining about adapters

It's just an infinite loop

 

[joecomo]

does the port accommodate a micro SD as well, or is there an adapter that doesn’t stick out and thus could be “always in”

 

[theluggage]

But now we lost one TB3 port for a HDMI port that most will never use or at best use infrequently.

Ah, yes, the mythical "stolen TB3 port"...

Each TB/USB4 port on the new M1 machines now has its own, dedicated controller on the SoC, c.f. the old intel machines where each pair of ports shared the bandwidth of a single controller. So the M1 Pro/Max machines actually have 50% more Thunderbolt bandwidth than the old 4-port Intel MBPs, and the ports now support the new TB4 hubs, so each of those 3 ports can now run a hub with 4 TB4 ports that can be used for TB/USB or DisplayPort.

...according to Apple, the M1 Pro/Max chips have 3 Thunderbolt controllers. There's no evidence of a 4th TB controller that has been stolen by the restored ports. The SD slot just needs a USB 3.0, HDMI just needs a spare eDP 1.2 stream, and the MagSafe doesn't need any CPU resources whatsoever (maybe a USB 2or IIC or suchlike for control). An extra full function TB4 port needs a huge amount of resources in comparison.

Also: take an old 4-port Intel MBP, connect a charger, plug into a data projector or TV (a pretty common scenario) and count how many TB ports you have free for other things - 2. Now do the same with the new M1 Pro Macs - the charger goes into MagSafe, the TV goes into HDMI and you still have all 3 TB ports left. Yes - you could carry a multiport dongle, but now you don't need to - and if you are prepared to carry a hub around you can now use a TB4 hub that gives you 4 extra TB ports, a bunch of USB 3 and still leaves two of the original built-in TB ports free.

This is the problem with the whole USB-C concept: one port for all sounds cool, but it actually means funnelling several scarce but unrelated resources: PCIe/USB3, video streams and power input/output - through a single connector and creating an artificial bottleneck. Plug a charger in and you can't use that port for data or video, plug a display adapter in and you can't use it for video and data.

It would be fine if you could have 6-8 of those universal ports in those machine so there were plenty of holes to go around - but that's far more expensive and complex than adding dedicated ports for the most common requirements. Or it's fine if you are going to carry around multi-port hubs - but that's a disadvantage for an ultra-portable laptop.

The HDMI and SD slots aren't there for your super HDR 6k display or the CF super-express-plus-bingo camera body you're going to buy in 2 years' time - they're for boring but common scenarios, like when you want to want to plug into a data projector at a meeting or a hotel room TV, or offload photos from your camera or drone to free up space in a muddy field and it's really, really convenient not to need an adapter.

What the new MBPs have done is to give you fewer, higher bandwidth bandwidth "universal" ports that can be used with hubs, docks & daisy chains to efficiently drive multiple devices, plus a reasonable selection of single-use ports so you don't have to waste the universal ports on single use devices.

It's a pity they couldn't have stretched to HDMI 2.1 and/or squeezed in an extra USB-only port, but bandwidth doesn't grow on trees, and maybe they would have had to steal from TB (particularly for the HDMI 2.1).

 

[TheLinkster]

Anyone who had a pre retina 2012 MBP model but had an issue where the SD card reader died after a year or so? I wonder how the SD card readers are on the pre 2016 models. Fingers crossed for these to be more reliable.

I have a mid-2012 retina that wonks out if I use the sd card slot and both USB ports at the same time.

 

[ajfahey]

UH-II compliant SD, SDHC, is, at the very least, very disappointing. It is obsolete. UHS-III, SDXC, should have been the starting point. SDHC was first released in 2006 and SDXC wast first released in 2009. SDUC was announced in 2018, over 3 years ago, and should also have been on the table. Even if it isn’t currently mainstream, it will be within the life cycle of an M1 Pro or Max purchase made today.

How Apple settled on a 15 and a half year old SD standard is beyond comprehension, given what they have been able to do with the M1 chip product line. Was it planned obsolescence or a play to prevent a removable SSD upgrade path for MBPs? Love to hear the reason for it.

 

[Kilibee]

It's pretty simple:

If every single one of your users carry a dongle all of the time, then you have oversimplified your hardware interfaces.

The loss of 1/4 of USB-C ports in exchange for HDMI and SD-Card slot is a good tradeoff. Heck, I even would have welcomed a single USB-A… horror of horrors, I know, but heck there are billions of working devices for it out there.

This positively affects much more people than the very few that need 4 USB-C ports.

 

[technole]

People who complain about SD being outdated probably don't own some $3k cameras, and don't even use cards today.
UHSII is ok, we are talking just being able to get things done on-the-road. Frankly I was tired of carrying the dongle everywhere, cause you needed one for SD and one for HDMI.

 

[jaytv111]

SD card slot = people complaining that it's outdated
CFexpress slot = people complaining about planned obsolescence
No slot = people complaining about adapters

It's just an infinite loop

SD Express card slot = people complaining their current UHS-II cards get limited to UHS-I speeds (half speed)
SD UHS-II card slot = people complaining about no future proofing by not having SD Express
CFExpress Type-A card slot = people complaining about the far superior and far more common type-B getting omitted
CFExpress Type-B card slot = people complaining that if they buy type-A cameras they're SOL

All of the above = laptop is now 3 inches thick

 

[insoft.uk]

HDMI 2.0 good choice no need for it to be 2.1 as they is the DisplayPort for higher resolution and refresh rates as HDMI will be to view the results on a typical TV.

SD card slot nice update no need for the latest as it’s not that common and after all they need to share the bandwidth with the HDMI port as internally it’s basically a USB-C bus, just like laptops keyboards trackpads, camera are USB connected internally so probably as keyboard trackpad camera not too bandwidth demanding is sharing one internal USB-C with the HDMI and SD

 

[jaytv111]

UH-II compliant SD, SDHC, is, at the very least, very disappointing. It is obsolete. UHS-III, SDXC, should have been the starting point. SDHC was first released in 2006 and SDXC wast first released in 2009. SDUC was announced in 2018, over 3 years ago, and should also have been on the table. Even if it isn’t currently mainstream, it will be within the life cycle of an M1 Pro or Max purchase made today.

How Apple settled on a 15 and a half year old SD standard is beyond comprehension, given what they have been able to do with the M1 chip product line. Was it planned obsolescence or a play to prevent a removable SSD upgrade path for MBPs? Love to hear the reason for it.

SDUC is referring to the capacity of the card, it should be supported already just because they support exFAT and they can handle 2+ TB cards already in the CFExpress standard.

SDUC Express Memory Cards to Allow 128TB Storage and 985MB/s Speed

The SD Association has just announced the latest specifications for the widely used Secure Digital (SD) memory card format. The new Ultra Capacity (UC)

petapixel.com

UHS-III cards don't exist. It impacts literally no one to have UHS-III or UHS-II.

But the SD Express standard is the new one with higher speeds than ever, problem is the cards are not out, they fragment their support for UHS-II so many people will be left with half-speeds from their high speed UHS-II cards in a SD Express reader, and prototype cards have been tested and produce ungodly amounts of heat, enough under sustained load to burn the user if they handle it too quickly after use.

 

[lockerc18]

Don't make the fatal mistake that many people do of confusing backup with cloud syncing! iCloud might be a recovery option if your local storage device fails, but if you accidentally delete or overwrite something, a file gets corrupted or your files get infected with malware then all of that will also be reflected in your cloud-based files.

I still remember reading a desperate post from a few years ago where a user had wiped his local photo library as it seemed to be corrupted, with the intention of restoring it from the cloud, but when he'd deleted every photo locally, that deletion had been synced to his cloud-based library meaning he lost everything - including all the photos of his children growing up.

You're absolutely right about this. But, it's been my experience that TM takes so long to do backups that it's essentially useless. So, I rely on iCloud for holding my data from one system to the next, and no longer do backups. I hope I don't lose data like you describe, but it could happen. But I would use TM if it could run faster. I have a Windows system as well, and that does a full backup in 13 minutes or so. No, it's not as functionally rich as TM is, but it works. If TM could backup to an SD card in a reasonable amount of time, then I'd give it a try.

 

[Houpla]

And a SD slot when consumer DSLR's have been replaced with smartphones and professional cameras use CF Express A and B.

Even the newest professional cameras use SD card only (e. g., Leica SL2-S) or both SD and CF Express. People still buy and use millions of enthusiast level DSLR's and mirrorless cameras with SD card slot. Why do you feel the need to exaggerate?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

You're absolutely right about this. But, it's been my experience that TM takes so long to do backups that it's essentially useless. So, I rely on iCloud for holding my data from one system to the next, and no longer do backups. I hope I don't lose data like you describe, but it could happen. But I would use TM if it could run faster. I have a Windows system as well, and that does a full backup in 13 minutes or so. No, it's not as functionally rich as TM is, but it works. If TM could backup to an SD card in a reasonable amount of time, then I'd give it a try.

A TM first/complete backup is slow. But after all of your files are backed-up that first time, the incremental backups as you add new files or change some is very fast.

You are taking a great risk in going backup free. At best, iCloud is an immediate backup of how things are right now. The biggest benefit of iCloud storage through a backup lens is your local hard drive/SSD could DIE or your whole computer could get destroyed/stolen and you would still have a way to get to your files.

If you get a bunch of corruption or if a bunch of files are deleted or if a virus corrupts a bunch of files, those will be "backed up" to iCloud too (also corrupted/deleted/infected on iCloud). Some kind of "recovery" from iCloud would be recovering the problem files (or not recovering them if they are accidentally deleted).

Time Machine (or similar) has COPIES of backups. If something like I just described impacts key files- say- 14 days ago, while iCloud would have the same issue, Time Machine lets you go back to just before 14 days and recover. Did I accidentally trash an important folder of files 10 days ago? Yes? They will also be trashed in my iCloud "mirror" storage. But Time Machine will let me hop back to 11 days ago to recover that folder.

You should definitely do something about this. Most "recovery" is not about very, very recent file changes. When you need recovery, you may need it from days or weeks ago. There is no way to do that without some option better than only the iCloud backup you are using now. If you have important files, you are at great risk until you do something else.

 

[The Captain]

LMAO. Not for Sony users.

The users on this forum never seem to understand that pro videographers don't upgrade cameras at the rate they upgrade phones. Most of my clients SD cameras will be in service for a least the next 10 years. I just got an FS5 so I’m not getting a FX6 just because the ‘tech is newer’ if the FS5 is meeting all my shooting and clients needs.

 

[Eric_Z]

Most of the companies i have dealt with still use RS-232 connections from laptop to projector.

VGA you mean? Both are D-SUB but VGA uses a mini D-SUB15 (three rows vs two), RS-232 usually uses a D-SUB9 connector.

Not that I come across VGA nowadays without HDMI, or some fancy screen sharing over the guest intranet thing.

 

[BrightDarkSky]

As @ruka.snow pointed out, don’t use SD Cards as additional storage. That’s not what it is intended for and trusting those fragile cards for long term, even cold storage is a road paved with sorrow.

Yep, this is not and has never been a good idea at all. The way that the card sticks out makes it a prime candidate to get hit and cracked.

It sounds like you haven't had a career in the corporate world, where plugging a laptop into an HDMI port to make a presentation is very common (or at least was, pre-pandemic).

I also wonder if the people here complaining about lack of CFExpress have actually ever used an XQD or CFExpress card, or even seen one in real life. I'm kind of thinking they haven't, because if they had, they'd know they are significantly larger than SD cards, and would almost certainly not fit into a relatively small laptop. I'd also love to see an example of another laptop on the market with built-in CFExpress. I'll be waiting...

Good summary.

As a photographer I'm still using mainly SD cards myself (but since SD cards plugged into macs tend to show up as locked, I also

The amount of people here saying SD cards are outdated or no longer used. Do you realise how completely misinformed you are? Why are you so confident in something you don't understand?

A huge amount of people still use SD cards in their cameras. My A7R III is SD, I don't need a faster card. I can do 42mp bursts at 10 fps with no problem with my current cards. Cameras are often long term purchases too, a lot of pros still shoot on cameras from over 7 years ago which don't even have support for the newest type of SD card speeds.

Stop talking nonsense. People saying all pros have moved to CF Express and this, WTF are you talking about? Furthermore, many of the enthusiast (sort of mid range) cameras are still using SD primarily. Most people even pros don't actually need super fast cards. The people using cameras that can shoot 30 FPS bursts are a minority.

If you don't understand just be quiet instead of having to try and come out with a hot take.

Looking forward to easily getting access to data via the SD card slot from my Osmo Pocket, Insta360 Evo, A7R III and some other devices.

This. 👌🏽 Another one who lives in the real world.

 

[Apleeseed84]

Good decision to go full size SD and not micro.

Good thing that all micros come with full size adapters nowadays lolol