Top High Performance MicroSD and XC Cards – 2021

By admin Electronics September 28, 2019

MicroSD is a type of format, that many devices support. It can be used in cameras, phones and more.
They are quite small and portable, you can store them in your pocket, and they offer quite a lot of storage capacity. They come in different classes so you should pick them carefully. Depending on the type and size of files you expect it to store, the cards vary a lot.

There are high-performance microSD cards that are designed with the idea of faster transfers and are great for full HD and 4k videos. So if you own a device that shoots in 4k for example, a high-performance microSD is a must. It can store quite a lot of videos (depending on the size of the card) and you can transfer them with ease later to edit them on your computer.

Samsung PRO Endurance MicroSD card with Adapter

This is one of the best microSD cards on the market. It is designed for video monitoring and is class U1. The card supports 4k videos.
It offers read and write speeds of up to 100MB/s and 30MB/s (speed may vary).

The card is tested for withstanding magnets of up to 15k gauss, water – up to 72 hours in seawater and it has operating temperatures from -25C to 85C.

Lexar High Performance 32Gb microSD U1 card

The card has 32GB storage capacity. It is high-performance class UHS 1, it can quickly read and write even 4k videos.
The card offers transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s. It can store more than 30 hours of HD videos, more than 60 000 photos and more than 50 000 songs.
It also comes with an SD Adapter, so you can use the card with devices that don’t support microSD format.

SanDisk 400Gb Ultra microSD card

The first thing about this high-performance microSD card is that offers quite a lot of capacity – 400GB.
It is high-performance class U1, and offers transfers of up to 100MB/s.

The card is microSDXC so your device should support this format, so that it can use it.

SanDisk Extreme – 128GB

This is one really high-performance microSD card. It offers read speeds of up to 160MB/s. Up to 90MB/s writing speeds. It is UHS 3 class and video class v30.

It is A2 rated for faster loading. It is also water and shockproof.
Great for 4k video shooting.

It has 128Gb of storage capacity, which is plenty for longer videos, even in 4k video resolution.

The card is microSDXC so your device has to support this format to be able to use it.

Samsung 512gb EVO Plus microSDXC card

This microSD card by SAMSUNG offers quite a lot of space – 512GB. It is plenty for storing full HD videos and even 4K videos, many music files and a lot of high-resolution pictures. So if you have a lot of similar files, and you need them on the go, then this card is great option to consider.

The card is class 10 and U3 compatibility and can read up to 100MB/s and write up to 90MB/s.
The card is also durable, as is waterproof and magnetic proof.

The card is compatible with devices with ports for microSDXC – which basically means that these are big capacity microSD cards, but your device should support them if you want to use it.

Buying Guide

Speed Class Explained

There are three main things when we are talking about speed in microSDs:

Speed Class – The speed classes are defined by the SD association and can be 2,4,6 and 10.
UHS Speed Class – UHS Speed Class 1 (U1) UHS Speed Class 3 (U3)
Video Speed Class – this class is defined due to the high demand for high-resolution videos. It can be V6, 10,30,60 and 90.

The speeds (minimum sequential writing speed) are:

2 – 2MB/s
4 – 4MB/s
6 – 6MB/s
10 – 10MB/s

Video format (might vary by device)

SD video – all classes
HD or Full HD video – above class 4.
4k Video – above class 6.
8K Video – U3 (UHS class 3) and Video Class 30 (V30) and above.

Storage capacity

Due to the high-resolution video demand formats like 1080p, 4k and even 8k videos are more and more the standard resolutions.
So you have to make sure that your microSD has plenty of storage. Consider the resolution that you capture videos and the amount MBs it takes.
The higher the resolution and time of the video, the bigger the storage should be.

So if you often capture videos of 4k for example, then a 16GB ot even 32Gb microSD might simply not be enough. Depending on the work that you expect to do, and the filesize that you expect to store in the microSD cards, consider its size.