When we think about the power or speed of our mobile, the processor, RAM or GPU usually come to mind. All these hardware elements are key to good performance, but we must not forget the technology of internal storage memory, which is vital on many occasions to perceive more or less fluidity throughout the system.
Manufacturers integrate a multitude of technologies to stand out from the rival. The high-end and mid-range Premium usually integrate elements, which although they are ignored by the majority of users and technical data sheets, are essential to get an idea of the performance that we will find in our mobile. One of these technologies refers to the read and write speed, known as UFS.
What are UFS memories
UFS memories can be considered the equivalent of SSDs on computers. In other words, we are dealing with flash memories based on the SCSI architecture which, thanks to its bi-directional interface, allow multiple write and read requests to be sent at the same time. As in any self-respecting technology, UFS memory has evolved over time.
Different types
Obviously, we will find the most advanced in the latest models on the market, but it will not be difficult to find references to UFS memories in mid-range mobiles and with several years of antiquity. The main difference between some versions and others lies in the speed of reading and writing, as well as integrated improvements in energy efficiency. Samsung is the world’s leading provider of this type of storage.
- UFS 2.0 (128 GB): Introduced in January 2015, they have a read speed of 350 MB / s and a write speed of 150 MB / s.
- UFS 2.0 (256 GB): Introduced in February 2016, they have a read speed of 850 MB / s and a write speed of 260 MB / s.
- UFS 2.1 (512 GB): Introduced in November 2017, they have a read speed of 860 MB / s and a write speed of 255 MB / s.
- UFS 2.1 (1 TB): Introduced in January 2019, they have a reading speed of 1,000 MB / s and a writing speed of 260 MB / s.
- UFS 3.0 (512 GB): Introduced in February 2019, they have a read speed of 2,100 MB / s and a write speed of 410 MB / s.
- UFS 3.1 (512 GB): Introduced in March 2020, they have a read speed of 2,100 MB / s and a write speed of 1,200 MB / s.
As we can see, the UFS 3.1 standard is the last one available on the market and is present in many of the high-end mobiles presented and that are about to be presented in 2020. The latest technologies are for this reading capacity, which in addition to speed, makes emphasis on low consumption with technologies such as “Deep Sleep”.
