Sony Jumping Into CFexpress with an Ultra-Tough 1700MB/s Card

The rise of CFexpress memory cards is accelerating. Just months after ProGrade Digital unveiled the world’s first 1 terabyte CFExpress card, Sony has announced its own tougher and faster CFexpress card.

The upcoming Sony TOUGH CFexpress Type B memory cards will boast blazing-fast speeds of up to 1700MB/s for reading and 1480MB/s for writing. By comparison, the ProGrade 1TB card tops off at 1400MB/s read and 1000MB/s+ write speeds.

The Sony card will be about 3 times faster than Sony’s fastest CFast memory card (which has a 530MB/s read speed), perfect for high-res cameras.

“With a write speed of up to 1480MB/s, this card meets future requirement needs for secure industry data-recording or requirements from professionals to capture hi-resolution images or high-bitrate video,” Sony says.

But with more speed comes less capacity: Sony’s card will initially be launched in a 128GB capacity, with 256GB and 512GB models planned for the future.

In addition to being fast, Sony’s upcoming card will be extremely durable. Sony says the card’s strength is three times stronger than the CFexpress standard — it’s able to withstand 70N of bend force. The card is 5 times better (than the standard) at surviving falls as well, as it’s rated for falls from up to 16.4 feet (5m).

The card is also temperature proof, X-ray proof, anti-static, and features a UV guard.

If you have an XQD-compatible camera, you’ll likely be able to use CFexpress cards if/when the manufacturer pushes out a firmware update that adds CFexpress compatibility.

Sony TOUGH CFexpress Type B 128GB memory card (and a card reader) is set to hit the market sometime in the summer of 2019.