The best microSD cards in 2024

Pelican Press · November 7

This is the hidden content, please

The best microSD cards in 2024

Most microSD cards are fast enough for boosting storage space and making simple file transfers, but some provide a little more value than others. If you’ve got a device that still accepts microSD cards — whether it’s a gaming handheld, a dash cam, a drone or an Android tablet — we’ve scoured the market and put more than a dozen top contenders through a number of benchmark tests. You can find our top recommendations below, alongside some general shopping advice before you grab one.

What to look for in a microSD card

Capacity

The first thing to figure out when buying a microSD card is how much storage space you need. Modern cards are usually available in sizes ranging from 32GB to 512GB, while an increasing number are available in 1TB as well. 2TB cards from reputable manufacturers are

This is the hidden content, please

but aren’t widely available just yet.

For most, a 128GB or 256GB model should be the sweet spot between price and storage space. But if you need more room — say, for stashing a bunch of games on a Steam Deck — a 512GB or greater card could make more sense and often provides a better cost-per-GB ratio. These days, you can find a decent 128GB card for around $15 or less, a good 256GB card for less than $30 and a solid 512GB card for less than $40 (though many cost closer to $50 or $60). There’s a starker increase when you go up to 1TB cards, which typically cost closer to $100.

Note that a microSD card’s performance may differ depending on what capacity you buy. SanDisk says its

This is the hidden content, please

delivers sequential write speeds up to 90 MB/s, for example, while the higher-capacity models in the same line offer up to 130 MB/s.

When we talk about microSD cards today, we usually refer to cards that use the

This is the hidden content, please

, which have a capacity between 32GB and 2TB. Your device needs to support this for it to work with a microSDXC card. This will almost never be an issue these days, but some older devices (a

This is the hidden content, please

, for instance) are only compatible with microSDHC (High Capacity) cards, which range from 2GB to 32GB.

Read and write speeds

MicroSD cards are primarily judged on their read and write speeds, which are usually measured in megabytes per second (MB/s). Generally, most microSD cards have faster read speeds than write speeds.

These metrics can then be broken down into sequential and random performance. Sequential read and write speeds matter when you’re trying to access or save long, constant streams of data, such as opening a large video or copying a big batch of files from a PC. If you want to use a microSD card for media storage, this is particularly important. Random performance, meanwhile, is about how quickly a card can read and write small files scattered throughout the device.

Since random read/write speeds are much lower than sequential ones, storage device makers tend not to advertise them as loudly. But they’re important if you use a card with a gaming device or a single-board computer like the Raspberry Pi, where it often has to rapidly save and access small bits of data in random locations.

SD Association

Speed ratings

If you look at a microSD card, you’ll see a buffet of numbers, letters and symbols. Most of these refer to the card’s

This is the hidden content, please

and performance ratings, which are determined by the

This is the hidden content, please

.

A card’s Video Speed Class, or V-rating, details its minimum sequential write speed, which is especially important when recording video from a camera. It ranges from V6 to V90. Most of the cards we tested had a V30 rating, so they have a sequential write speed of at least 30 MB/s. This should be enough to support up to 4K video at lower bitrates. Higher-rated V60 and V90 cards are usually better for capturing 8K, but they come at a much higher cost.

The UHS Speed Class, or U-rating, also refers to a card’s minimum sequential write speed. It comes in two varieties: U3, which mandates a minimum of 30 MB/s, and U1, which is rated for 10 MB/s.

The older Speed Class rating overlaps with the other two systems. It’s signified by a C symbol and goes from Class 2 to Class 10, with the number (again) indicating minimum sequential write speed. This rating is less relevant nowadays, but you may still see a “C10” logo on some cards.

The Application Performance spec, marked by an A symbol, is an indicator of random read/write speeds. This is measured in IOPS, or input/output operations per second, rather than MB/s. There are two categories here: A1 cards offer a minimum random read speed of 1,500 IOPS and a minimum random write speed of 500 IOPS, while A2 cards bump those up to 4,000 IOPS and 2,000 IOPS, respectively. Both ratings also guarantee sequential write speeds of at least 10 MB/s.

To keep it simple, most people should look for a card with V30, U3 and A2 ratings. It’s totally possible to get a solid card without those: A U1 card might be worth it if you just need a cheap, high-capacity option, for example. V60 and V90 cards are worth a look if you’re serious about ********* high-resolution photos and video as well. But overall, cards with the certifications above should provide the best blend of price and performance today.

It’s important to emphasize that these ratings are baselines. Most V30 cards offer significantly higher write speeds than 30 MB/s, for instance, and some A1 cards can outperform some A2 models in practice. The speeds advertised by manufacturers aren’t always 100 percent accurate, either: Sometimes the card will be slower in real-world use, other times it may actually be a bit faster.

UHS bus speeds

The other spec to note is the card’s bus interface. Most microSD cards available today are UHS-I, which have a theoretical maximum speed of 104 MB/s. There are also UHS-II cards, which have an extra row of pins on the back and can reach up to 312 MB/s. (A UHS-III standard exists as well but hasn’t seen wide adoption.) These are labeled on the card with a Roman numeral I or II.

The fastest microSD cards you can buy right now are UHS-II cards, and they’re usually the ones with V60 or V90 ratings. If you ****** lots of 4K to 8K video or frequently use burst mode to capture ultra high-res photos, the performance gains of a good UHS-II card can save you time.

But these are much more expensive than UHS-I cards: This

This is the hidden content, please

model, for instance, is a relative bargain at $40. While that’s less than many UHS-II models we’ve seen in the past, it’s still more than double the typical price of our top pick mentioned below. You need a device that’s compatible with the UHS-II interface to see any benefits, too, and stock for UHS-II cards is generally spottier. For now, the higher speeds aren’t worth the price premium for most people, so we stuck mostly to UHS-I cards here.

We’ll also note Samsung’s announcement earlier this year of a new 256GB microSD card based on an entirely different standard called SD Express. This is theoretically much faster than any UHS-I or UHS-II option: Samsung

This is the hidden content, please

this specific model can reach sequential read speeds up to a whopping 800 MB/s. For context, that’d be quicker than some older SSDs. SD Express has

This is the hidden content, please

for several years but hasn’t seen wide adoption, so exactly how this card performs in reality — and how much it’ll cost — ******** to be seen. We’ll test the device once it becomes available, which Samsung says will be sometime later in 2024.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

A note on card readers, the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck

While the UHS-I spec has a theoretical maximum of 104 MB/s, some UHS-I cards can exceed that speed through proprietary extensions. You need a compatible card reader and host device to take advantage of that extra performance, though. If you find a UHS-I card advertising speeds higher than 104 MB/s, this is what’s going on. You can see these limits in action with a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck:

This is the hidden content, please

of

This is the hidden content, please

gaming devices support the UHS-I interface and don’t go beyond its official speed, flattening any sequential gains some cards may have elsewhere. The broader takeaway: Your microSD card will only be as fast as the slowest link in your chain.

Warranty

Many microSD cards are designed to be durable, with protection from water, extreme temperatures, X-rays and drops. Still, in case of catastrophe, a long warranty is always good to have. Many manufacturers offer lifetime or 10-year limited warranties, though we’ve noticed that “endurance” cards marketed to withstand more hours of writing are usually covered for a shorter ******* of time. For example,

This is the hidden content, please

, a model aimed at security cameras and other monitoring devices, comes with a five-year warranty.

Avoiding counterfeits

The memory card market has had a particular problem with scammers selling fake products. To guard against this, only buy from a known brand and a reputable retailer such as Best Buy, B&H Photo or Adorama. If you shop at

This is the hidden content, please

, only buy if the shipper and seller is

This is the hidden content, please

.com. (Though a handful of users

This is the hidden content, please

receiving counterfeits even from

This is the hidden content, please

directly in the past.) Remember: If a price seems too good to be true, it probably is. Be wary of any retailer offering significantly a lower price than others.

Once you receive a card, check its packaging for any irregularities. You can run benchmark tests like

This is the hidden content, please

or

This is the hidden content, please

to verify its speeds aren’t drastically lower than what’s advertised (or possible, given its specs). You can also use software that’s designed to verify the true capacity and performance of your card, such as

This is the hidden content, please

and

This is the hidden content, please

.

How we tested

We put 13 microSD cards through a series of tests to verify their sequential and random performance. These included benchmarks like

This is the hidden content, please

,

This is the hidden content, please

,

This is the hidden content, please

and

This is the hidden content, please

, as well as a few “real-world” tests. We copied and pasted a small folder of photos about 1.15GB in size to and from each card, then did the same with a larger 12.2GB folder containing multiple file types and subfolders, timing the process each time. We also checked how each card performed on the Steam Deck, downloading games of varying sizes — including

This is the hidden content, please

,

This is the hidden content, please

,

This is the hidden content, please

and

This is the hidden content, please

— then timing how long it took to launch each game and load save files.

We used a

This is the hidden content, please

to test each card on both Windows 11 and macOS Sonoma. For the former, we used an Alienware

This is the hidden content, please

with an Intel Core i9-10900F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. For the latter, we used a 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro with an Apple M1 Pro chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. To use our card reader on the MacBook, we used

This is the hidden content, please

.

We tested the 128GB version of each card wherever possible, though for a few cards — SanDisk’s Extreme and Samsung’s Pro Plus and Pro Ultimate — we were only able to test their 256GB models. We also reformatted each card before testing with the SD Association’s

This is the hidden content, please

.

Best microSD cards of 2024

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

Storage capacity: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | Speed classes: U3, V30, A2, Class 10 | Warranty: 10-year limited

The

This is the hidden content, please

was nearly the fastest card we tested in terms of sequential write performance (around 130 MB/s in CrystalDiskMark) and was a close second in terms of random read/write speeds, so it should work great whether you’re buying for a camera, Android tablet or gaming handheld. Unsurprisingly, it has all the requisite ratings: U3, V30 and A2. Its sequential read performance (around 165 MB/s) isn’t quite as quick as some of the other cards below, so it’s not the absolute fastest for accessing large files stored on your card, but the difference is small in real-world use.

The main reason the Pro Plus tops our list is because it delivers those strong speeds at a relatively affordable price. The card originally started at $19 for

This is the hidden content, please

, $30 for

This is the hidden content, please

and $60 for

This is the hidden content, please

, but past sales have brought those models as low as $11, $18 and $29, respectively. When it’s that cheap, the Pro Plus makes most competing microSD cards redundant. Samsung also sells the card

This is the hidden content, please

that’ll help it reach its maximum speeds for a few dollars more. If you need more space,

This is the hidden content, please

a

This is the hidden content, please

that should be just as fast, though that one is currently much more expensive at $110. Either way, the card comes with a 10-year limited warranty.

If you opt to buy the Pro Plus, make sure you get the latest-generation model. Samsung is still selling the prior iteration of the Pro Plus, which looks identical but isn’t as quick. Instead, opt for the one with sequential read speeds rated at 180 MB/s and sequential write speeds rated at 130 MB/s. We tested the 256GB version of the newer Pro Plus due to stock issues with the 128GB model at the time of testing, but this shouldn’t have a major impact on real-world performance, as Samsung rates both cards identically.

*****

Consistently quick sequential and random read/write performance
Great value
Readily available at trusted retailers
Has a 1TB option

*****

Some peers have slightly faster sequential read speeds

This is the hidden content, please

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

Storage capacity: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB | Speed classes: U3, V30, A2, Class 10 | Warranty: 10-year limited

The

This is the hidden content, please

is a step-up model in Samsung’s microSD lineup and, as expected, it’s a little bit faster than the Pro Plus across the board. Its biggest gains are in sequential read speeds, which were the fastest we tested and averaged close to Samsung’s advertised rate rate of 200 MB/s across our various benchmarks. You’ll need to buy the card

This is the hidden content, please

to achieve that performance, but that could be worth it if you regularly move files from your microSD card to a PC. The Pro Ultimate technically led the pack when it came to sequential write and random read/write speeds as well, though the margins there are much less significant compared to the Pro Plus and the other top UHS-I cards we tested.

The main question is cost. If you see the Pro Ultimate available for the same price as the Pro Plus, you might as well grab it instead. It comes with the same 10-year warranty and should be similarly durable. Past discounts have brought the

This is the hidden content, please

,

This is the hidden content, please

and

This is the hidden content, please

models as low as $15, $25 and $45, respectively; that’s still affordable, but the Pro Plus will almost always be a little bit cheaper — and thus a better value for most needs, especially at higher capacities. There’s no 1TB option here, either.

*****

Fastest microSD card we tested (with appropriate USB reader)
Easily available at trusted retailers

*****

Pro Plus is better value for most
No 1TB model

This is the hidden content, please

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

Storage capacity: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | Speed classes: U3, V30, A2, Class 10 | Warranty: Lifetime limited

If the Samsung Pro Plus ever jumps too high in price or becomes unavailable, the

This is the hidden content, please

is another strong alternative. This is a U3-, V30- and A2-rated card backed by a lifetime limited warranty. Its sequential read speeds trailed only the Samsung Pro Ultimate across CrystalDiskMark, ATTO and the BlackMagic Disk Speed Test. It effectively tied with SanDisk’s Extreme and Nintendo Switch-branded cards in our large file transfer speeds test. Sequential write speeds (just over 100 MB/s on CrystalDiskMark) are where it lags behind the Pro Plus, but they should still be quick enough for many uses. Its random read/write speeds were only bested by Samsung’s Pro cards in benchmarks, so it’s still a good option for apps and games. The 1TB version is also $20 cheaper than the equivalent Pro Plus, so it should be a decent value if you need lots of space and want to save cash. But the other models are hard to justify if you see them hovering in the same price range as our picks above.

*****

Faster sequential write speeds than Pro Plus for a (typically) lower price than Pro Ultimate
Lifetime limited warranty
Has a 1TB option

*****

Pro Plus is usually a better value for most
Slower sequential write speeds than picks above

This is the hidden content, please

Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget

Storage capacity: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB (“new generation” model only) | Speed classes: U3, V30, A2, Class 10 / (64GB) U1, V10, A1, Class 10 | Warranty: 10-year limited

The

This is the hidden content, please

is a clear step behind our top picks, particularly when it comes to sequential write speeds (just under 70 MB/s on CrystalDiskMark), so it’s not ideal for cameras. Still, it’s perfectly usable for many use cases — a Nintendo Switch, for instance — and we’ve previously seen its

This is the hidden content, please

,

This is the hidden content, please

and

This is the hidden content, please

models fall as low as $10, $14 and $25, respectively. All of those are about on par with the

This is the hidden content, please

, an oft-recommended cheapo card, despite the Evo Select having higher V30, U3 and A2 ratings. While the Pro Plus has come close to those prices, the Evo Select almost always retails for less.

Similar to the Pro Plus, you can now find two versions of the Evo Select: a “standard” model with sequential read speeds rated at 130 MB/s, and a

This is the hidden content, please

that bumps that spec up to 160 MB/s. Since the point of this recommendation is to give you a card that performs well enough for as little as possible, you should get whichever one is cheaper in the capacity you want. The new model did indeed deliver those improved reads in our benchmarks, but it performs just about identically otherwise, so you won’t lose much by saving a few bucks with the older generation.

The one big difference is that the updated model is the only one available in a

This is the hidden content, please

; we haven’t tested that specific model, but at $80-ish it should be worth a look if pricing is your only concern.

*****

Often available for lower price than Pro Plus
Solid performance if you just want an acceptable card for cheap
Has a 1TB option

*****

Slower than picks above, particularly in sequential write and random performance benchmarks

This is the hidden content, please

Other notable microSD cards

The SanDisk Extreme and PNY Elite-X. (Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget)

Delkin Devices Power

We didn’t use it ourselves, but if you’re willing to pay for a more powerful UHS-II card built for heavy-duty video recording, the

This is the hidden content, please

has

This is the hidden content, please

elsewhere and should deliver significantly faster sequential write speeds than our picks above. It’s one of the few UHS-II cards we could actually find in stock, but it costs a ton, with a 128GB model normally priced around $90.

SanDisk Extreme

The

This is the hidden content, please

effectively matched the Pro Plus in a few of our sequential write tests and delivered sequential reads about on par with the Canvas Go Plus, but that was partly due to us only being able to secure the card’s 256GB model, which is higher-rated than the 128GB version. It’s a fine choice if you see it on ***** at a reputable seller, but its random performance lagged behind the Samsung Pro and Kingston cards, and it often costs more.

SanDisk’s Nintendo Switch-branded microSDXC card. (Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget)

SanDisk microSDXC Card for Nintendo Switch

The

This is the hidden content, please

is another decent option if you ever see it available for less than the Pro Plus and Canvas Go Plus. Its sequential read speeds were about the same as the latter in our benchmarks, but its sequential writes were slightly slower (and farther behind the Pro Plus). Its random read/writes were a bit behind according to CrystalDiskMark as well, and it’s often priced higher than our top pick. SanDisk backs the card with a lifetime warranty, however, plus it’s available in

This is the hidden content, please

. Note that we tested the Apex Legends version of the 128GB card; SanDisk also sells a

This is the hidden content, please

, but we can’t say if that one performs any differently.

Lexar Professional 1066x

Similarly, the

This is the hidden content, please

is a decent alternative to the Pro Plus if our main picks are unavailable. It’s another V30, U3 and A2 model, and like Samsung’s card, its sequential write speeds were a bit faster than the Canvas Go Plus and SanDisk Switch card in our benchmarks. Those write speeds weren’t as quick as the Pro Plus, and its sequential reads trailed all three cards. Random read/writes also lagged behind the Pro Plus and Canvas Go Plus, and we noticed its speeds peak and dip more noticeably in our file transfer test. Still, it’s not slow, so depending on its price, it might be a good bargain if you need fast write speeds for video recording and the like. It’s also

This is the hidden content, please

, plus it comes with a lifetime limited warranty.

SanDisk Extreme Pro

The

This is the hidden content, please

is a rival to the Samsung Pro Ultimate but, as of this writing, is either unavailable at most trusted retailers or priced too high by comparison.

PNY Elite-X

The

This is the hidden content, please

often goes for cheap and wasn’t too far off the random read/write performance of Samsung’s Pro cards in CrystalDiskMark, but it was well behind in our sequential tests.

Recent updates

November 2024: We’ve checked back with this guide to ensure our recommendations are still accurate and made light edits for clarity.

August 2024: We’ve updated this guide to note the recently released 1TB models for three of our top picks: the Samsung Pro Plus, the Kingston Canvas Go Plus and the Samsung Evo Select. We’ve also made sure all pricing details are as up to date as they can be.

This is the hidden content, please

#microSD #cards

This is the hidden content, please

Sign In

Home

Activity

Store

All Servers

The best microSD cards in 2024

Recommended Posts

Pelican Press 0

Trader Feedback

The best microSD cards in 2024

What to look for in a microSD card

Capacity

Read and write speeds

Speed ratings

UHS bus speeds

A note on card readers, the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck

Warranty

Avoiding counterfeits

How we tested

Best microSD cards of 2024

Other notable microSD cards

Delkin Devices Power

SanDisk Extreme

SanDisk microSDXC Card for Nintendo Switch

Lexar Professional 1066x

SanDisk Extreme Pro

PNY Elite-X

Recent updates

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

Create an account

Sign in

Most Contributions

Vote for the server

Recently Browsing 0 members

Important Information