Technology standards are constantly evolving, with improved choices arriving in the market every time. One such upgrade recently arrived with the announcement of the UFS 4.0 standard, which aims to replace the existing UFS 3.1 standard.
Universal Flash Storage (UFS) is a standard used in smartphones and various portable devices. Currently, the industry standard for this technology is UFS 3.1. However, that will change soon after Samsung receives JEDEC approval for UFS 4.0.
The UFS 4.0 will be faster, more energy-efficient, and more compact than the current standard. It is specially curated for 5G devices and AR and VR activities. The storage standard uses Samsung’s 7th-gen V-NAND alongside a proprietary controller for achieving these sizeable improvements.
UFS 4.0 vs UFS 3.1: Head-to-head Comparison
| UFS 4.0 | UFS 3.1 |
| Twice as fast with speeds reaching 23.2Gbps per lane | A maximum speed of 11.6Gbps per lane |
| The sequential reading speed of up to 4200Mbps | The sequential reading speed of up to 2100Mbps |
| Sequential writing speed as high as 2800Mbps | Sequential writing speed that goes up to 1200Mbps |
| Storage capacity up to 1TB | Storage variants can go up to 1TB |
| 46% more energy-efficient (reads 6MB/s per mA) | Comparatively less energy-efficient |
| Maximum dimensions of 11mm x 13mm x 1mm | Maximum dimensions of 11.5mm x 13mm x 1mm |
| Arriving by late 2022 | Available in the market |
Going by the stats above, it is clear that UFS 4.1 advances mobile storage by leaps and bounds. As you read this, Samsung is working with fellow manufacturers to optimize the industry for UFS 4.1 adoption. The South Korean tech giant has confirmed that the mass production of the new storage standard will begin in Q3 2022.
Storage is just one of the many aspects of a smartphone. If you are interested in knowing about others as well, you can check out our article on smartphone components.
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