Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNeed for Speed -- A comprehensive review of the fastest microsd cards
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2015
I had the opportunity to compare the performance of the fastest microsd cards currently available from top manufacturers. All cards mentioned in this review are obtained from Amazon during the last week or two except when noted otherwise.
Test Setup:
Lexar Professional workflow UR1 microsd card reader was used for all tests except when noted
CrystalDiskMark 5.0.2 x64 was used to produce all the test results and was set up with 2 passes and 100MB read/write size
All cards up to 32GB are formatted as FAT32 with 32KB allocation unit size, all 64GB cards are formatted exFAT with 128KB allocation unit size
Test Results (Numbers are Sequential Read, Sequential Write, 4K Random Read, 4K Random Write in MB/s, speeds greater than 10MB/s were rounded to the whole numbers)
16 GB Alphabetically
Lexar 633x** -- 88, 25, 8.7, 1.2
Panasonic U3** -- 93, 42, 11, 0.7
Sandisk Extreme Pro -- 95, 80, 7.6, 2.6
32 GB Alphabetically
Delkin U3 -- 93, 59, 11, 0.6
Kingston 90R/80W -- 93, 58, 11, 0.6 <== the listed product
Lexar 1000x -- 90, 57, 10, 1.4
Lexar 1000x with Bundled Reader* -- 148, 60, 10, 1.4
Patriot EP -- 90, 35, 10, 0.6
PNY Turbo Performance -- 91, 55, 6.9, 0.9
Samsung Pro gray -- 92, 82, 10, 3.6
Sandisk Extreme Pro -- 94, 87, 9, 3.0
Sony up to 95MB/s -- 91, 51, 4.8, 0.9
Transcend Ultimate 633x -- 93, 85, 8.1, 1.4
64 GB Alphabetically
Delkin U3 -- 94, 27, 13, 0.3
Kingston 90R/80W -- 94, 25, 13, 0.3 <== the listed product
Lexar 1000x -- 92, 56, 12, 1.5
Lexar 1000x with Bundled Reader* -- 153, 66, 11, 1.7
Patriot EP -- 81, 22, 11, 0.6
PNY Turbo Performance -- 92, 54, 6.9, 0.9
Samsung black -- 82, 20, 8.8, 2.1
Samsung Pro gray -- 90, 80, 10, 3.5
Samsung Pro+ *** -- 92, 86, 10, 5.3
Sandisk Extreme Plus**** -- 92, 58, 10, 2.8
Sandisk Extreme Pro - 97, 91, 10, 3.0
Sandisk Ultra ***** -- 46, 16, 7.0, 2.1
Sony up to 95MB/s -- 92, 49, 5.2, 0.9
Transcend Ultimate 633x -- 93, 83, 7.3, 1.4
128 GB Alphabetically
Lexar 633x -- 78, 28, 3.3, 1.4
Sandisk Ultra -- 92, 19, 6.4, 2.4
* The Lexar 1000x card is the only UHS-II card available and tested, the bundled USB reader has extra pins for reading UHS-II card
** Came bundled with a device
*** Purchased from a large west coast electronics retailer. This card is a new release and not currently available on Amazon. It is different from the gray-colored Pro card
**** old model tested, not the current U3 model
***** old model tested
Fastest Sequential Read:
All tested cards were able to accomplish > 90MB/s, with the Lexar 1000x able to take advantage of UHS-II speed when using the bundled USB reader and leading the pack
Fastest Sequential Write:
Sandisk Extreme Pro, Samsung Pro+, Transcend Ultimate 633x
Fastest Random Read:
Kingston 90R/80W.
Fastest Random Write:
Samsung Pro+
Best overall:
Samsung Pro+ and Sandisk Extreme Pro
Other observations:
Performance and price are not proportional when it comes to selecting a microSD card. Some of the worst performing cards in this review also happen to be the most expensive.
Not all 633x cards are created equal. The two cards reviewed from Lexar and Transcend are both marked as 633x but vary in performance greatly.
4k video recording using action cams and drone cameras have a typical bitrate of 60mbps or 100mbps, corresponding to 7.5MB/s to 12.5MB/s. All cards in this review should theoretically be able to handle this usage easily.
Using microsd card as supplemental phone storage potentially could benefit from a faster card,
Best Looking Card (if it matters):
Sandisk Extreme Pro: Red/Gold with white print
Lexar 1000x: White/Gold with Black/White print
Samsung Pro+: White/Black with a red stripe and Black/White print
PNY Turbo: Lime Green/Black with Black/White print
Update 9/14/2015: Added additional cards to the list.
