Western Digital today unveiled its SanDisk Professional brand of premium storage solutions for content creators and professionals.
Born on the foundation of WD’s SanDisk consumer brand and its professional-grade G-Technology brand, widely used by cinematographers, the SanDisk Professional line kicks off with 16 products, which the company describes as "modular workflow solutions with professional-grade performance and enterprise-class reliability."
WD's G-Technology line will be brought under the SanDisk Professional umbrella, while its offerings currently available in select markets will remain available for a limited time. As the company rolls out the SanDisk Professional portfolio worldwide, the new brand will offer "high-end, ultra-durable, ultra-reliable solutions that are designed for the creation and management of mission-critical content that creative and professional workloads demand.”
The existing G-Drive and G-RAID product portfolios will transition into the new SanDisk Professional brand, including updates such as a new space gray color, Ultrastar hard drives inside, and other technology features.
The first new SanDisk Professional products include media cards, card readers, SSDs, and RAID arrays. The Pro-Cinema CFexpress VPG400 ($499.99 list) is a professional-grade, rugged CFexpress card for videographers and cinematographers that supports video recording at a minimum of 400MBps.
Four new Pro-Reader media readers—the Pro-Reader CFexpress ($99.99 list), Pro-Reader CFast ($89.99 list), Pro-Reader Multi Card ($99.99), and Pro-Reader RED Mini-Mag ($199.99 list)—feature a USB-CTM interface that supports SuperSpeed (10Gbps) USB and are designed to work with the latest and most common camera media.
The Pro-Dock 4 ($499.99 list) is a four-bay reader docking station that can bridge capture and ingest with a truly scalable offloading solution that saves critical time and money on multi-camera productions. The Pro-Dock 4, expected to be available later this summer, enables up to four simultaneous card offloads.
Also on tap is a new 4TB G-Drive ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD along with WD’s lineup of G-Drive ultra-rugged portable drives, desktop devices featuring enterprise-grade Ultrastar drives, and G-RAID and G-RAID Shuttle transportable, enterprise-grade RAID solutions.
The new SanDisk Professional products are expected to be available this summer, with the drives starting to roll out in early June.
Gaming Drives, Too
WD also announced three new additions to its WD_Black gaming drive portfolio.
The WD_BLACK SN750 SE NVMe SSD lets enthusiast gamers level up their PC or laptop gaming experience with PCIe Gen4 technology (backward compatible with PCIe Gen3) and boost storage space for more games. This DRAM-less internal storage solution delivers read speeds of up to 3,600MBps. With up to 30% less power consumption than its predecessor, laptop gamers can expect longer playtimes between charges. The included WDBLACK Dashboard monitors the drive’s health while optimizing peak performance in gaming mode even during streaming. The WD_BLACK SN750 SE NVMe SSD comes in 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB capacities starting at $54.99.
For console gamers looking to minimize game load times and get into the game fast, the WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive SSD is a sleek and compact high-performance SSD capable of read speeds up to 900MBps. With capacities up to 2TB, gamers can spend more time playing games and less time deleting them with expanded storage for up to 50 games. Designed to complement next-gen consoles, the drive has a detachable stand for placement next to a system. The WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive SSD comes in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities, starting at $89.99.
Built to complement the Xbox console gaming experience, the officially licensed WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive SSD for Xbox offers accelerated speeds and capacity packaged in a compact Xbox-inspired design. Gamers can plug in their drive and quickly begin building their game library or making room on their console for new titles, while also being able to play legacy Xbox One favorites directly from the drive. Included with purchase is a 1-month membership to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with access to 100+ games on consoles and PC, plus online console multiplayer. The WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive SSD for Xbox comes in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities, starting at $99.99.