Back in 2018, Huawei took the wraps off a new memory technology in smartphones through the Mate 20 series. Unlike, some companies that are betting on the microSD standard, the Chinese firm came with a new NM Card or Nano Memory Card. It is basically a new size for the SD card that is the same as a nano-SIM. The good side is that they don’t require a dedicated slot as they fit into the same slot for a nano-SIM which most phones use these days. Huawei hoped more manufacturers would jump in this new trend, however, they remain exclusive to some Huawei phones.
Huawei itself makes NM cards but no big-name manufacturer has done so up until now. Lexar, a renowned company known for its wide range of storage products has just announced three new NM cards. Since Lexar is a big company that sells worldwide we believe that these cards will have much better availability.
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Lexar is offering 64GB. 128GB and 256GB NM cards
The Lexar nCard as it is called is available in three variants – 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. They boast read speeds of 90MB/s and write speed of 70MB/s. The nCard is available on Jingdong Mall for CNY 199 (~$28) for the 64GB version, CNY 299 (~$42) for the 128GB one. The most expensive version retails for CNY 599 (~$84) and has 256GB. They are also available on AliExpress.
The NM card works with the Huawei Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, Huawei P30, P30 Pro, Mate 30, Mate 30 Pro and etc. If more manufacturers decide to adopt the standard, then more companies like Lexar will join this venture. If major players like SanDisk and Samsung join this bandwagon, then we believe that the popularity of NM cards will grow exponentially. The NM cards are much conventional since they can be used in regular nano-SIM slots.
A 256 GB TF card from SanDisk or Samsung can range from CNY 250 – 290 on Taobao. Why buy an NM card which is twice as expensive?