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

[BuddyTronic]

Curious which Transcend jet drive will mount flush. Many of us purchased them long ago at 3x+ their current selling prices and they would be a nice for extra onboard storage at times.

Yes - did anyone post about what SD flush mount card actually "mounts flush" for 2021 MBP?

 

[BuddyTronic]

BaseQi 504A sticks out 2.4mm. It functions, but it does not fit flush in the SD Slot. This is an adapter for micro SD cards.

I have no idea if Micro SD cards come in "UHS II" speeds. There is way too much jargon and acronyms on SD cards and Micro SD cards. Everything is platinum II and 40X or 1000000X speeds supposedly.

Maybe BaseQi 303A adapter will fit flush on the 2021 MBP? I ordered one to test.

Maybe someone with knowledge can pick out the best Micro SD card to use in this SD/Micro SD adapter.

 

[MidnightSVT]

BaseQi 504A sticks out 2.4mm. It functions, but it does not fit flush in the SD Slot. This is an adapter for micro SD cards.

I have no idea if Micro SD cards come in "UHS II" speeds. There is way too much jargon and acronyms on SD cards and Micro SD cards. Everything is platinum II and 40X or 1000000X speeds supposedly.

Maybe BaseQi 303A adapter will fit flush on the 2021 MBP? I ordered one to test.

Maybe someone with knowledge can pick out the best Micro SD card to use in this SD/Micro SD adapter.

Thanks for the detailed review. I am following this to see if the 303A will sit flush. Keep us updated!!

 

[BuddyTronic]

Thanks for the detailed review. I am following this to see if the 303A will sit flush. Keep us updated!!

BaseQi 303A fits. I'd say it's basically flush on MBP 16" 2021 - maybe it even goes in 0.1mm.

Depth of this card is exactly 16mm

I put a 16GB Micro SD card and formatted the card to Mac OS Extended.

Copied 90 files of about 500MB total to the card and it took a long time - like 12 minutes or so.

I ordered some HDS II or UDH II 256GB Micro SD card - Sot thrry if I am getting the acronym wrong for whatever "II" but I have my doubts that the Base QI adapter will be able to function as a Level II or whatever speed. We shall see.

Added a photo of the new card that will come tomorrow - with all the jargon.... "excuse me, I was wondering if you have a Micro SD card with 3 in a big letter U and then a 10 with a circle and a V60 XC II and a big R with an arrow running up it?" Yah, I want one of those.

 

[Tozovac]

Curious which Transcend jet drive will mount flush. Many of us purchased them long ago at 3x+ their current selling prices and they would be a nice for extra onboard storage at times.

Has anyone tried a Transcend jet drive that was made for older Pros or Airs yet?

 

[BuddyTronic]

Has anyone tried a Transcend jet drive that was made for older Pros or Airs yet?

They work. But mine sticks out - so you need to find one with 16mm insertion length

 

[Tozovac]

They work. But mine sticks out - so you need to find one with 16mm insertion length

But - for the Pro or the Air? I thought they were different-sized to fit flush to the MacBook models available at the time?

 

[BuddyTronic]

But - for the Pro or the Air? I thought they were different-sized to fit flush to the MacBook models available at the time?

Sticks out 3.25mm overall (depth I forget - I think 19mm and change.) - but fits the old MPB and I forget what year that old one is - I'd have to check next time I go to it.

Transcend 128GB was faster though - those 90 files 500MB took about a minute!

But not good that it sticks out 3.25mm.

Need something that is 16mm or 17mm for the same effect. The transcend was never "flush" the plastic was intended to stick out 1mm. Flush enough.

Anyways - the transcend was faster - so I'm curious how the UHSX II rated Micro SD card works in the 303A BaseQi adapter.

 

[lazyjj1]

does the BaseQi 303A adapter affect the speed? I thought the speed should be determined by the microSD card speed? (up to UHS-II @ 250MBps max)?

 

[MidnightSVT]

BaseQi 303A fits. I'd say it's basically flush on MBP 16" 2021 - maybe it even goes in 0.1mm.

Depth of this card is exactly 16mm

I put a 16GB Micro SD card and formatted the card to Mac OS Extended.

Copied 90 files of about 500MB total to the card and it took a long time - like 12 minutes or so.

I ordered some HDS II or UDH II 256GB Micro SD card - Sot thrry if I am getting the acronym wrong for whatever "II" but I have my doubts that the Base QI adapter will be able to function as a Level II or whatever speed. We shall see.

Added a photo of the new card that will come tomorrow - with all the jargon.... "excuse me, I was wondering if you have a Micro SD card with 3 in a big letter U and then a 10 with a circle and a V60 XC II and a big R with an arrow running up it?" Yah, I want one of those.

AWESOME!!!! Thank you so much for testing this out!!! I am planning on storing work out videos and documents on the SD card, so will only be moving to the card once and then rarely from then on after. I appreciate your review!!!

 

[BuddyTronic]

does the BaseQi 303A adapter affect the speed? I thought the speed should be determined by the microSD card speed? (up to UHS-II @ 250MBps max)?

Not sure. I figure it is a custom wire harness - just conductors - how does UHS II make the magic happen? Does it matter if your SD adapter card thingy is UHS compatible? Any heat issues? I don’t know this stuff

 

[BuddyTronic]

does the BaseQi 303A adapter affect the speed? I thought the speed should be determined by the microSD card speed? (up to UHS-II @ 250MBps max)?

OK - I received UHS-II Micro SD card and it's included SD Adapter.

Check out the extra metal contacts - lots more connections going on and that's likely part of how it gets the fabulous speeds

They are backward compatible but I don't think there is any chance of getting the UHS-II speeds from the Base Qi flush mount adapter. But it does work, and it's pretty good. I copied over 500MB in about 10 seconds or less (rough estimate). I bought em, so I'll use them.

These SD things are mostly used as a redundant extra backup, or for a "sneaker net" to a 3D printer or Raspberry Pi or for drone video footage. Glad we have the SD slot back, and I wonder if we will see Transcend make a UHS-II flush mount SD card in the future?

As for anyone complaining that the new MBP does not have "UHS-III" - I would laugh at that. It was pretty hard to find UHS-II let alone UHS-III.

 

[lazyjj1]

Interesting!! Thanks for the update! I wish the BaseQi had a version that matches space grey besides that… bought myself one and the Sandusky Extreme 1TB. I guess I’ll buy a UHS-II compatible flush adapter in the future but will deal with slower speeds in the meantime. Thanks for your info, was very helpful!

 

[jerrythea]

For anyone who is interested, I dug out an old Transcend Jet Drive I had used with my 2015 MacBook Pro.

It fits, but sticks out about 5 mm.

The performance is shown below:

 

[Mcrumors David]

Anybody planning to use a 1TB SD for Time Machine?

Yes

 

[ajfahey]

Anybody planning to use a 1TB SD for Time Machine?

not at 250

Anybody planning to use a 1TB SD for Time Machine?

Nope. UHS-II is too underwhelming for Time Machine. Yes incremental backups won't care too much but rebuilding a new SSD would take 10 times as long as the best current TB34 drive and times as long as one on the low end.

 

[RAS2MR]

Nope. To expensive and slow, plus I dont like to keep my backup connected to my computer except when I'm doing a backup since a connected backup shares too many vulnerabilities with the computer....

 

[BrightDarkSky]

single use ports are great. Pop in SD card, no dongles. Go to work, insert HDMI cable , no dongles. insert AUX in headphone jack, no dongles.

Unless everything else uses usbC : sd cards, ethernet, monitors, hdmi cables, etc etc single use ports save money and carrying+losing dongles

These haters really need something else to complain about, I think.

I just shot with two cameras last night, I just popped in the SD card and I'm now happily scanning through images. Every time I read someone says this is unnecessary or why not just stick in one of my other yuuuuge card readers, I just laugh. What a waste of brain cells.

Ironically, now I have to get a set of USB3 adapters so I can attach them to the new macbook. Yes I know imagine the horror. I don't mean to scare anyone I just want to use a few old drives and a compact flash reader. Sorry if I offended anyone (chuckles ?)...

 

[BrightDarkSky]

not at 250

Nope. UHS-II is too underwhelming for Time Machine. Yes incremental backups won't care too much but rebuilding a new SSD would take 10 times as long as the best current TB34 drive and times as long as one on the low end.

Personally I will never use time machine. I've been cloning my drives for years. Since you can't do clones of OS X startup drive anymore, I'm looking forward to seeing the solutions from super duper and what I use which is carbon copy cloner.

For external drives they still do what they do, but as far as I read a few months ago when I was preparing for getting this new notebook, was that cloning your main drive is out the window.

Like someone else mentioned already, I keep my backups disconnected unless I'm backing up.

 

[Aes]

SD Card is outdated or the read speed of this new slot is outdated? Again, single use ports are a waste of time, but people cried and whined and stomped their feet to get these ports back, and Apple caved, so basically I don’t want to hear anyone complaining anymore. They wanted them they got them, suck it up buttercups.

Please tell me which single HDMI port on what device allows both In and Out? I’ve never seen that before on any device that I own. I have several monitors with HDMI In/HDMI Out as separate ports. You’re basically asking for Apple to make an Atomos Ninja and give it away for free to customers, which isn’t going to happen.

I know I'm late to this conversation, but could you please explain what you mean by the new Macbook having HDMI In/Out? Are you suggesting that you can use the built-in displays as external monitors? I've tried finding information on what you mean here but am coming up short.

Also, I agree with the article, since they were bringing a slot back anyway, Apple should've stayed on the forefront of tech and stuck a CF Express slot in there. This would've been a huge incentive for me to trade in my 2019 16" MBP. UHS-2 SD cards are nice, but like others have said, it's already lost it's place as industry standard since most newer high-end cameras can utilize them.

 

[nicolaselhani]

OK - I received UHS-II Micro SD card and it's included SD Adapter.

Check out the extra metal contacts - lots more connections going on and that's likely part of how it gets the fabulous speeds

They are backward compatible but I don't think there is any chance of getting the UHS-II speeds from the Base Qi flush mount adapter. But it does work, and it's pretty good. I copied over 500MB in about 10 seconds or less (rough estimate). I bought em, so I'll use them.

These SD things are mostly used as a redundant extra backup, or for a "sneaker net" to a 3D printer or Raspberry Pi or for drone video footage. Glad we have the SD slot back, and I wonder if we will see Transcend make a UHS-II flush mount SD card in the future?

As for anyone complaining that the new MBP does not have "UHS-III" - I would laugh at that. It was pretty hard to find UHS-II let alone UHS-III.

Thanks so much for all of your post updates regarding this matter.

So it's confirmed that the new UHS-II card you got + Base Qi 303 still gives the same results with the 500 MB test files of ~ 12min?

I really do hope someone makes a flush card adapter with UHS-II speeds!

Thanks

 

[Mcrumors David]

not at 250

Nope. UHS-II is too underwhelming for Time Machine. Yes incremental backups won't care too much but rebuilding a new SSD would take 10 times as long as the best current TB34 drive and times as long as one on the low end.

time machine does an initial backup of the drive, then only incremental.

having an external SD card (no dongle) plugged in is pretty nice. doesn't really matter if it takes 5 min or 1h

 

[flapflapflap]

BaseQi 420A MicroSD adapter for Macbook pro M1 2021 / M2 2022 / M3 2023 14" & 16"

The all new design! The new design support UHS-II connector and PCB. The new mold and gold plated let 420A run even faster in a smaller space. Because UHS-II has more connect part so make 420A become stronger especially the shell part to decrease the damage from it. It is design for both 14"...

shop.baseqi.com

 

[Mcrumors David]

BaseQi 420A MicroSD adapter for Macbook pro M1 2021 / M2 2022 / M3 2023 14" & 16"

The all new design! The new design support UHS-II connector and PCB. The new mold and gold plated let 420A run even faster in a smaller space. Because UHS-II has more connect part so make 420A become stronger especially the shell part to decrease the damage from it. It is design for both 14"...

shop.baseqi.com

😵 Absolutely ridiculous for 45$. Buy the 2$ version on aliexpress, trust me: both come from the same chinese factory, with prior you just shove money up someone's ... for free.

 

[joecomo]

Nice to have the SD card slot back. It's not something I've done on my 2014 MBP but it would be good if a company made microSD card adaptors for these new MBPs that are flush fit, would be pretty useful for files you don't need on the main SSD. 312MB/s is more than fast enough to play 4K video. Could use it for your music library as well.

that is a good idea