List Price: $125.99
Sale Price: $24.10
Today's Bonus: 81% Off
I found this San Disk 32GB Ultra Micro SD card when I was doing research for a memory card that would work in my HD Action Cam (Kind of like a Go Pro). I knew I had to get at least a class 4 card to keep up with 1080p recording without affecting the video quality in a negative way.
I have always known San Disk to be a trustworthy brand that doesn't make claims about their products that don't hold up... However with this card I found myself slightly disappointed. I ran a few benchmarks on two different San Disk 32GB Ultra Micro SD cards and both achieved similar scores, bare with the averages I use with the speeds, I know that KBs and MBs don't round off to perfect 1000s but it's easier to generalize it that way... Using ATTO Disk Benchmark I was able to achieve a max of about 9100KB/s Write and 22000KB/s Read on both cards. With those results (over about 4 tests each card) I can assume that with optimum conditions the San Disk should be able to reach the 30MB/s (30000KB/s) Read speed as advertised. So the card is acceptable but I felt that it was at the lower end of it's claim when San Disk would usually claim something like 10MB/s speeds and achieve 12MB/s speeds. To compare I was able to get my hands on a 32GB Samsung Class 2 Micro SD card. Using the same Micro SD card adapter from San Disk I plugged in the Samsung and ran a bench on it. It got around 9500KB/s Writes but only around 14000KB/s Reads. After seeing the faster write speeds on a class 2 card compared to the San Disk Class 6 I got pretty sad. Still I have kept the San Disk card and threw it in my 1080p Action Cam at 30fps (also 720p at 60fps) and the San Disk Ultra can handle recording just fine with no lag or negative affect on video quality. I trust the durability of San Disk to get bounced around in my camera on mountain bike trails, snowboard hills/jumps, and the occasional falls that come with those sports.
Overall: The San Disk Ultra Micro SD 32GB works well but is too slow in regards to the claims of 30MB/s, for the money it may be a good idea to shop around a little and test some different cards if you are looking for pure performance. If you have a phone or camera that just needs a fairly quick memory card that works and you don't mind the price tag, then Hit that "Buy" button!
Note: The Lexar Class 10 Micro SD card has been benchmarked at higher speeds than the San Disk Ultra but it also has reported durability issues and tends to malfunction according to user reviews. Personally I would choose reliability (not loosing irreplaceable photos/documents) over a small performance boost any day! But at least it's an option for those who may think otherwise.
Cheers!
***Update***
This card is still working like a champ a year and a half later for use in HD cams, my Canon point and shoot and even the new GoPro Hero3+ and it records 1080p 60fps just fine. All the shaking and crashing has not affected the functionality which remains a testament to a quality build. Speeds remain the same but the only real hindrance is time it takes to move the videos to my desktop which isn't much of an ordeal. If San Disk would have labeled this as a 10MB/s write and 25MB/s read compatible with 1080p recording this would be a 5 star Micro SD.
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