This YouTuber shows you which MicroSD card to choose for your drone, camera or smartphone. All abbrevations and specifications explained. Despite being rated faster than the Lexar 1000x, the Lexar Professional 1066x actually uses the slower UHS-I interface. This turns out not to be a big deal, though, as we still measured sequential read speeds of up to 157MB/sec and write speeds of 80MB/sec on our 64GB sample, with the faster 128GB to 512GB versions capable of over 120MB/sec.

As a general rule, it’s always a good idea to buy specific cards for specific tasks. This way you can guarantee the best combination of speed and capacity for your hardware to give you the best possible overall performance.

The U1 and U3 are UHS Class speeds that show the minimum write speed. U1 cards support at least 10Mbps write speed and the U3 cards will deliver at least 30MBps write speed. Note that these are minimum write speed values. It is possible for a U1 card to give a write speed greater than 10MBps, say 15MBps, as well. The Speed Class, that’s denoted numeric value within the letter ‘C’ on your microSD card also denotes the sequential write speed. The best microSD cards to buy in 2023 1. Integral Ultima Pro Premium High Speed: Best-value microSD card at higher capacities MicroSD cards can be placed inside a so-called passive adapters which allows them to be used in ports which are designed for larger storage cards. Most commonly, Micro SD cards can be placed inside SD adapters. This is useful for using a single card in multiple devices as well as using Micro SD cards in SD card readers.

There are two types of speed indicated on an SD card “C’ and “U”. Each SD or Micro SD card has a speed rating, called a class. Larger class numbers correspond to a faster level of minimum performance, allowing files to be copied or recorded at a higher speed. The class rating system is actually quite simple to remember: the number after each Class corresponds to the minimum sequential read speeds, in MB/s. So Class 2 is 2MB/s, Class 6 is 6MB/s and so on. The Speed Class indicates the minimum write speed of a memory card in MBps or megabytes per second. The four Speed Class are as follows: On top of this, most cards now have a “V” (for video) rating, going from V6 all the way to V90, indicating write speeds of 6MB/sec to 90MB/sec. You need a V30 card to shoot 4K video at speeds of 60 to 120 frames per second, while V60 is the base level for shooting 8K video at 60fps. V90 is theoretically capable of handling 8K video at up to 120fps. However, given that only a handful of professional-grade cameras can offer that, and that they tend to use the larger CFexpress 2.0 cards for storage, this isn’t what you might call a must-have. If you’re in need for a new one for your mobile phone, tablet, camera or for some other reasons and, there are several factors you need to consider first before buying and we have all the key information covered here. Always remember that it sometimes pays to choose wisely. Often, fast sequential speeds come at the expense of random read/write speeds, but the A2-class 1066x is an exception; it’s not as speedy as the Integral Ultima Pro Professional High-Speed card below, but it’s faster than the SanDisk Extreme Pro and Samsung Evo Plus on this count, making it a fine all-round performer. If you’re looking for a card that can run apps or cover video on your mid-range or high-end smartphone, you won’t get much better than this.One final thing we need to make clear is that speeds will depend on your microSD card reader. The reader built into your average laptop might not be capable of reading from or writing to the fastest cards at their full speed, and we’ve found huge variations in external readers, even those bundled with high-performance cards. If you’re investing in one of the faster microSD cards, grab the matching adaptor from the same manufacturer, or from a credible manufacturer like Lexar, SanDisk, Kingston or Integral. That goes double for UHS-II cards. What if I’m buying for an action camera or dashcam?

On the face of it, the SanDisk Extreme Pro seems overpriced. This U3, V30, UHS-I card is significantly more expensive than the Samsung and Integral competition at most capacities, and when tested on our SanDisk ImageMate Pro card reader it wasn’t any faster, at least on sequential read and write speeds, which were 96MB/sec and 85.4MB/sec respectively. As a result, those hunting for the perfect balance of price and performance don’t need to look any further, and spending just a little more will get you your card bundled with Samsung’s excellent 160MB/sec USB card reader. What more could you want?In other words, it’s a steal for smartphone and tablet users or anyone wanting more storage for their Switch, and still a good option for your average DSLR or compact camera. Unless you find the Ultima Pro Premium High Speed even cheaper, buy away.