The electronics industry has “eaten and digested” many formats for the structure of flash drives. So, the once popular form factors xD-Picture, SMC, MMC, M2 have sunk into oblivion. The palm now belongs to SD and microSD memory cards. The former can often be found on board cameras, the latter in the equipment of mobile devices. A potential "substitute" for microSD cards is the newly minted type of NM Card drives, first tested by flagship smartphones Huawei Mate 20 64 GB / 6 GB , Huawei Mate 20 Pro 128 GB / 6 GB and Huawei Mate 20 X 128 GB / 6 GB .

Memory cards of the new era were first tested onboard the Huawei Mate 20 series of flagship smartphones.

New generation cards are identical in size to "nano-sim cards". In percentage terms, they are almost half the size of microSD drives(by 45%, to be exact). In addition, NM Card cards have similar contact pads with Nano SIM (there are only eight of them instead of six), which means that at the production stage of smartphones it will be possible to get rid of an extra link in the form of a separate slot for a memory card. The same pins inside the tray can now be used to connect a second SIM card and an external drive.

Nano SIM-cards served as a role model in the creation of the NM Card. Their flash drives "peeped" the dimensions and the layout of the contacts.

The abbreviation NM in the naming of the family of flash drives from Huawei stands for Nano Memory, which once again emphasizes the effect of miniaturization in action. Many reputable resources have already dubbed the new line of drives the nickname Nano SD — such a subtle hint at the format's serious ambitions in replacing microSD memory cards.

From the moment of the appearance to the public and until now, NM Card cards have been exclusive to Huawei. Against the backdrop of a short-term "expulsion" of the Chinese company from the SD Association (in May 2019), they served as a space for the vendor to manoeuvre. The reason for Huawei's exclusion from this association and the Wi-Fi Alliance was the trade war with the United States. Fortunately, after a week everything was back to normal. The rope continues to twist only around Google services, although Huawei smartphones were still allowed to use the Android system. But this is a topic for a separate discussion.

Life on Android without Google services exists. But they are better...

The production of miniature flash drives was entrusted to the Japanese company Toshiba. Their release has been launched in the popular "dimensions" of 64, 128 and 256 GB. The reading speed of the first signs of the line using the eMMC 4.5 protocol reaches 90 MB / s. Recording, according to the results of benchmarks, is given to NM Card flash drives at a rate of 75-80 MB / s. There are no significant differences in the “flight speed”, if we draw parallels with the microSD squad, for cards.

The “reverse side of the medal” of the NM Card flash drive, where the seating diagram of the contact group is clearly visible.

For a year with a “tail” of presence on the market, NM Card cards have not yet found interest from third-party smartphone manufacturers. Only Huawei continues to massively introduce them into the on-board equipment of “tubes”. An obstacle to triumph is the clumsy mechanism for accepting everything new, which is why sometimes really worthwhile technologies lie on the shelves for a long time. A vivid example of this is the USB-C port, which is still in no hurry to be installed in many smartphone models.

From the point of view of an ordinary user, Nano Memory cards have the disadvantage of being expensive. Nevertheless, the assembly of drives of this format has not reached such a scale that it would be possible to reduce the cost of production. At the same time, you can't buy them at every step — you will have to carefully look for an NM Card memory card in retail chains. A less obvious minus is the cover of a "shop" of folk tricks, when they managed to put both a SIM card and a flash drive in one hybrid slot. Because of the joint contact group, it becomes impossible to do this from now on.

Folk art in the manner of "a memory card under the juice of two" SIM cards "with the advent of the NM Card format will become a thing of the past.

To transfer data from a flash drive to a computer and vice versa, you will need to acquire a proprietary card reader Huawei 2-in-1 Memory Card Reader . The model is assembled in the form of a typical USB flash drive with a "double-edged sword", i.e. a USB A port protrudes from one end of the reader, and a “tail” under the USB-C connector protrudes from the other. Slots for a traditional microSD card and an NM Card drive are located on one of the side faces of the device for transferring information.

The NM Card standard certainly has prospects for a strong standing on its own. The only question is, will other major players in the smartphone arena join Huawei? The future of the NM Card depends on their support for the new format. It remains for us to wish the Chinese company success in resolving its differences with the US and adopting the Nano SD standard at the highest official level of the SD Association community. This will lead to a wider distribution of flash drives in the nanoSIM form factor and lower prices for them for the end consumer.


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