As of early 2015, this Samsung PRO microSD card is the fastest card on the market, and despite being made of premium MLC flash and despite having the fastest write speeds in the industry, it is more reasonably priced than the competition.
Like virtually any and all flash memory products from Samsung, the microSD cards available offer affordability, reliability, and reasonably fast speeds for each respective class. The class of this product, the PRO, is the flagship SD card product designed to give significantly higher read & write speeds and a longer service life than the base model and the EVO model.
I originally purchased the EVO models. While they are good cards, their write speeds were dramatically slower than their read speeds, and because of this they failed to meet my needs. Ultimately, I wound up replacing my EVOs with these higher-tier PRO models. If you need high performance or the highest performance, I strongly recommend skipping other brands or tiers and going straight to this Samsung PRO line.
One thing to note off the bat…this current model is called the “PRO”. In the previous generation, Samsung had a “Pro” as well. With the same name and only two capitalized letters to make a distinction, this can get confusing. My review will pertain exclusively to this new PRO model, but I wanted to note this as searching for two different items of the same name can bring up confusing results.
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THIS IS BOTH A SD CARD AND A microSD CARD ALL-IN-ONE
Like all current Samsung microSD products, the PRO comes with a SD card adapter that allows you to use the microSD card as a regular SD card (and since you can do this, Samsung focuses on microSD cards instead of making regular-sized SD cards as this would be somewhat redundant.) This is neat since now you have both a microSD card and a regular SD card in a single product, giving you added flexibility. As a general rule, you do not pay a price premium for this at all versus the regular sized SD card offerings.
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FLASH MEMORY DIFFERENCES
As you likely know, there are three different types of flash memory, and they are very different. I do not want to bore you, but want to be thorough enough to defend my positions. It is important to note that the lifespan of virtually any type of flash memory is generally long and its capable service life will usually far outlast how long the product itself is used for…with that said, there is significant variation when it comes to speed and long-term endurance with heavy usage.
Historically the PRO line SSD has used Multi-Layer Cell (AKA MLC) flash memory. MLC generally has a longer lifespan than TLC, and frequently higher speeds, especially in regards to write performance. Like the PRO SSD line, the PRO microSD is made from MLC.
The EVO SSD generally uses Three Layer Cell (AKA TLC) flash memory. Its native lifespan is often said to be about half that of MLC, and the speeds sometimes substantially slower than MLC (or SLC) drives. Samsung TLC SSDs are fast as can be, extremely reliable, and great values. Using wear-leveling technology, they also have a very, very long lifespan. The EVO microSD is made from TLC, as is the microSD tier directly below it. Obviously, the TLC SD cards do not necessarily benefit from the wear leveling technology of the TLC SSD.
(The third type of memory, Single-Layer Cell or SLC, we will ignore as it is extremely expensive and you almost never see consumer products made from it given the price can easily be 10+ times that of MLC.)
Many makers do not disclose whether they are using TLC or MLC. I’m not a fan of this practice given if I am paying for a premium priced card, I want one that uses the faster and more durable MLC. From what I’ve seen, Transcend tends to disclose this information (they have quite a few MLC products), where as Samsung and Kingston mainly disclose this information, and Sandisk generally does not.
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MY USE OF THE PRO
I am using the microSD card as a secondary hard drive for the MacBook Pro Retina and MacBook Pro. Hardware accessories exist that create a semi-permanent installation by holding a microSD card in the SD slot and sits flush with the computer’s frame & port. This secondary hard drive is my ‘junk drive’…that is, for files from data dumps, temporary files, or data files I am about to modify and save multiple versions in a progression. Higher speeds save time for me here, and high read and write speeds are both very important.
Many professional reviews from Apple & Tech publications that have tested these products claim this setup is useful but not capable of applications requiring high speed. I completely disagree with this and think it is possible these statements have been made because 1) the SD card bay they used ran through the slower USB 2 interface, or 2) they were using mid-level TLC cards with slower write speeds.
The speeds I am getting are not just respectable, but the best in this business. Consistently, the PRO gives sustained write speeds of around 80 MB/s, and read speeds of 85-90 MB/s. That is the pinnacle of SD performance as of early 2015, and it is faster than many performance hard disk drives. This is certainly fast enough to stream t-HD movies and why I disagree with what reviewers have noted above.
How much faster is the PRO than the EVO? When I transferred a 17 GB file from my computer to an EVO microSD card, it took roughly 15 minutes and the sustained write speeds themselves were not as consistent as I hoped for. This exact file took under 5 minutes with the PRO. With my application seeing real-world speeds that are three times faster or more, this is a huge difference and a giant productivity boost. Another thing I like about the PRO is how it maintains extremely fast transfer speeds even while simultaneously reading and writing larger files.
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DO NOTE…ENDURANCE, CARD READER SPEED, SPEED & SIZE RELATION, & FAKE SD CARDS
Before buying, there are a few things to keep in mind…
For extremely heavy usage, the longer service life of MLC memory is a plus which would make the PRO more attractive than the EVO for users with this need. For occasional or regular usage where speed is not a major requirement, the EVO is a great SD card for literally half the price.
Also note that many built-in SD card readers on computers are routed through the USB interface (as in the case of many Apple MacBook Air and Pro laptops.) In order to benefit from the full speed potential of the PRO, you will need an interface faster than USB 2 given USB 2 only allows a theoretical peak of around 60 MB/s in the best of situations (and generally much less.) So to max out this PRO card, the SD card needs to be routed through USB 3, PCIe, or an interface of similar capability. If your SD card reader routes through USB 2, that may make justifying the higher price of the PRO more difficult given you will not be able to benefit from its full speed potential. This can also be applied the other way around…any other device you may use this card in may have a peak write speed that is significantly slower than what the card is capable of, and again this can make justifying the higher price more difficult.
Also note that in order to get the write speeds in the 80-85 MB/s range, you will need the 32 or 64 GB size, as the write speed on the 16 GB is a good bit slower. As a general rule the smaller sizes of flash products tend to have slower write speeds. Unlike the EVO, the PRO is NOT available in 128 GB size (yet.)
Finally, note that there are TONS of fake Samsung SD cards on the market. As this PRO is made from MLC flash, it is NOT cheap to make and if you find it for less than the Samsung TLC EVO or Standard models, that is extremely suspect. ALL new SD cards should be closely inspected to verify authenticity using more than one program for this purpose, as fakes have gotten VERY hard to detect. Sometimes they even find their ways into the hands of reputable Sellers that do not even realize they have received a batch of fake cards! BE VIGILANT HERE!!!
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RELIABILITY
From a reliability standpoint, I will have to update this review a few years down the road. However, I went for this card because Samsung uses some of the best flash memory on the planet, and their flash products are tough, reliable, and consistent. Regardless of what tier flash product you get from Samsung, these products are built to withstand heavy usage of frequent read/write cycles, and capable of withstanding the beating that mobile usage can put on a product. They are almost always among the finest in their respective classes, and as a general rule Samsung flash is priced extremely competitively.
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OVERALL
Compared to the flagship Sandisk lines (which are also outstanding cards), the Samsung PRO has slightly faster sustained write speeds and is considerably cheaper. Being made of Samsung MLC flash, there is no doubt that the PRO will have durability & reliability that matches its class-leading speeds.
I went to the PRO because the write speed of the EVO was not sufficient to meet my needs. For users with applications that benefit from the highest possible write speeds, or just for users wanting data transfers to go as fast as possible, the PRO is unquestionably the product for you. Additionally, the better endurance of the MLC PRO (versus the TLC EVO) may be of benefit if you want the best long-term endurance, or know you are going to hit this with tons of read/write cycles.
As you can see by the pricing, the PRO is roughly twice that of the EVO. As both are great cards, it comes down to user needs. If you are in a situation where you can take advantage of the PRO’s performance, I highly recommend it. It’s fast. It’s well made. It’s affordable. It’s Samsung flash memory. You can’t beat that!
| RAM | 16 GB |
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