The storage on your phone is about to get a lot faster thanks to Micron’s new NAND solution

One of the features that you may not really think about all that much when it comes to your smartphone is the storage. Not the amount available, but the technology behind it. Many of today’s flagship smartphones make use of UFS 3.1, which offers faster read and write speeds and better reliability. Samsung has been manufacturing its own flash storage, but today, Micron has announced it has started shipping its faster UFS 3.1 NAND storage.

Announced back in November of last year, this new UFS storage option is being touted as the “world’s first 176-layer NAND Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.1 mobile solution.” In addition to offering up to 75% faster read and write speeds, it’s also about 30% smaller than the competition. With being able to shrink the die size by so much, this gives you faster performance while also taking up less space in the phone’s internals.

• Improved performance: Micron’s 176-layer UFS 3.1 solution brings 75% faster sequential write and 70% faster random read performance over previous generations, dramatically accelerating application performance.
• Faster downloads: The up to 1,500 MB/s sequential write performance translates to an ability to download a 10-minute 4K (2,160 pixel) YouTube video stream in 0.7 seconds or a two-hour 4K movie in 9.6 seconds.
• Smoother mobile experience: As compared to its predecessor, Micron’s 176-layer UFS 3.1 solution and its premium quality of service results in about 10% shorter latency for faster response times and a more reliable mobile experience.
• Improved endurance: Micron’s 176-layer mobile solutions boast up to two times the improved total bytes written versus its previous-generation product, meaning twice the total data can be stored without degrading device reliability and the smartphone’s life span can be extended for even the heaviest of users.

Micron’s 176-layer NAND flash is now available to smartphone makers, which means its just a matter of time before it begins appearing in our new smartphones. Storage options come in 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB, as we move further away from the days of 64GB or 32GB being the norm in our devices.