It’s been a 12 months now since we reviewed the Micron C200, which was (and nonetheless is) the second 1TB microSDXC reminiscence card to go on sale. The primary is the Sandisk 1TB Excessive (also called SDSQXA1-1T00-GN6MA) which was launched in February 2019 and is now the topic of at the moment’s overview.
Value
Because it stands, the cardboard prices slightly below $234 at Western Digital direct on the time of writing. That’s nearly half its launch worth. It was on sale for $220 over Black Friday 2019 at Amazon.
{Hardware}
The cardboard comes with a lifetime guarantee and, Sandisk says, is waterproof, shockproof and X-ray proof. With a rated write velocity of as much as 90MBps and skim speeds of 160MBps, the Sandisk Excessive is appropriate with the V30 velocity class and will document movies at 4K with out hitch. Additionally it is A2-rated, which guarantees random efficiency of as much as 4K learn IOPS and 2K write IOPS.
Just like the Micron C200, the one different 1TB microSD card at present available on the market, the Sandisk Excessive is probably going to make use of the corporate’s 96-layer 3D QLC (quad-level cell) NAND expertise. It does assist capabilities similar to command queuing and caching however stays constrained by the usbus, which is able to pave the best way to microSD Categorical in a not too distant future.
One recurrent concept that has made the rounds for greater than a decade is the will to mix a number of small reminiscence playing cards to make an even bigger, quicker one. Arduous disk drives have been assembled in RAID subsystems for many years and RAM and strong state drives have been introduced collectively to ship record-breaking efficiency and storage capacities.
There have been loads of makes an attempt to do the identical with microSD playing cards (a 4-in-1 converter, a 10-in-1 converter, a 6-in-1 converter, a 4-in-1 SSD enclosure and even 4-in-1 USB drive) however due to efficiency points and the scale of the addressable market, this has proved to be a relatively futile endeavour particularly as giant capability SSD have seen their costs dropped under that of excessive capability microSDXC (on a per TB foundation).
Efficiency
Whereas there’s no software program on the cardboard itself, Sandisk recommends that you simply obtain its Reminiscence Zone app which, the blurb says, will allow you to arrange “your content material and unlock house in your cellphone”. It’s effectively reviewed and is free, so value a attempt.
Benchmarks
Right here’s how the Sandisk Excessive 1TB microSDXC card carried out in our suite of benchmark assessments:
CrystalDiskMark: 92MBps (learn); 85MBps (write)
Atto: 89MBps (learn, 256mb); 82MBps (write, 256mb)
AS SSD: 85MBps (seq learn); 80MBps (seq write)
AJA: 85MBps (learn) ; 78MBps (write)
The cardboard comes with an adapter and RescuePRO Deluxe 1-year information restoration software program obtain supply. This software program makes it simple to recuperate recordsdata which have been by accident deleted. We additionally advocate that you simply use a good cloud storage service to maintain your information secure.
We examined the Sandisk Excessive 1TB with a microSD card reader, on our Dell Latitude 7490 laptop computer. Nevertheless, efficiency, as at all times, will rely on what card reader you employ.
On the entire, the cardboard is marginally quicker than the Micron C200 and at no cut-off date did we handle to succeed in the rated learn speeds of 160MBps. CrystalDiskMark, probably the most beneficiant storage benchmark available on the market, delivered 85/92MBps. Actual life switch charges hit 70MBps when transferring a 10GB file.
The competitors
In concept, the Micron C200 is the one competitor to the Sandisk Excessive 1TB; the issue is that there are none obtainable wherever. Clearly there’s a provide subject with Micron and we’re undecided why. Two smaller gamers (Silicon Energy and Integral) have confirmed that they are going to launch 1TB microSDXC playing cards in 2020 however not like Sandisk or Micron, they don’t management the manufacturing of the reminiscence chip that goes inside the cardboard.
We now have reached out to Samsung, Netac, PNY, Lexar, Patriot and Teamgroup to seek out out what are their plans for 1TB playing cards. The latter has the most cost effective 512GB microSDXC card available on the market, one which prices beneath $70 or $132 per TB (and a 40% low cost on the promotional worth). That capability stays the candy spot in terms of flash reminiscence.
For these in search of an excellent quicker microSDXC card, there’s the Sandisk 1TB Excessive Professional microSDXC card; it’s far costlier however nearly doubles the learn speeds to 170MBps and is quick sufficient to document in 8K or in your motion digicam. You will have a appropriate reader to take advantage of out of it although.
Ultimate verdict
The Sandisk Excessive 1TB is an outlier, a one-of-a-kind, one that can satiate, even quickly, the thirst for enormous storage capability {that a} rising viewers calls for. Professionals that require storage on the go will love the flexibleness and the efficiency of this card; worth is more likely to be a minor issue of their resolution course of particularly whenever you issue within the time saved from shuffling decrease capability playing cards round.
For smartphone customers, the lure of having the ability to add eight instances (or extra) the quantity of storage onboard for much lower than shopping for the following improve makes the acquisition a little bit of a no brainer. That’s notably true for these seeking to shoot top quality 4K movies.
The identical holds for laptop computer customers (Home windows, Chromebooks or MacBooks) that need a simple and low cost solution to improve the interior, native storage capability with out resorting to swapping the strong state drive (and resorting to the dreaded means of disk cloning). Including 1TB to a laptop computer with 128GB storage can now be finished in seconds!
Drone operators will even respect the truth that it may be operated throughout excessive weathers and temperatures. Dashcam customers might need to think about a reminiscence card with increased endurance just like the SanDisk MAX Endurance collection which guarantees to last as long as 120,000 hours of recording.
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