Best 1TB microSD memory card (Review)

Can you believe we have approached a time where you can buy a tiny microSD card with a storage capacity of 1 TB? To be honest it still blows my mind a bit. It feels like not that long ago first 1 TB 3.5″ HDDs came out (that was 12 years ago by the way, in reality it has been a while haha) and I can recall being amazed by the sheer amount of storage capacity back then. Just a bit more than decade later you can get same storage capacity in a card that’s 2,284 times smaller (Yes, 2,284 microSD cards equal one 3.5 inch HDD dimensions wise).

SanDisk 1TB Extreme microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card


SanDisk claims read speeds of 160 MB/s and write speeds of 90 MB/s for its 1TB Extreme microSDXC UHS-I memory card. From my experience you should take manufacturer claims with a grain of salt as most of the time they fail to live up to them. However that’s not the case with SanDisk 1TB microSDXC card. In tests read speeds turned out to be around 160 MB/s – just as SanDisk claims, however write speeds turned out to be in range of 100 to 108 MB/s – better than the claimed 90 MB/s!


Input/Output Operations Per Second

It’s A2 rated and should be able to read 4,000 IOPS and write 2,000 IOPS. In a 4K random speed test it demonstrated speeds of ~1,250 IOPS read and ~580 IOPS write.


Video recording

It’s rated V30 (video speed class) and works well for recording 4K videos, however it’s not fast enough for reliable 8K recording. Very few people actually capture videos in 8K resolution so that’s not something that will matter to most.


Conclusions

Overall SanDisk 1TB Extreme is the best 1TB microSD card on the market currently. It offers insane storage capacity and decent performance, however as 1 TB microSD cards are still a new technology they are currently a bit expensive. In the future they will become less expensive and as technology develop read & write speeds will improve as well.





SanDisk 1TB Extreme MicroSDXC UHS-I specs:

  • Capacity: 1 TB
  • Actual usable space: 953 GB
  • Performance ratings:
    • C10
    • U3 (sustained video capture rate of 30 MB/s)
    • V30 (sustained video capture rate of 30 MB/s)
    • A2 (4000 read IOPS, 2000 write IOPS)
  • Performance (claimed):
    • Read Speed: up to 160 MB/s
    • Write Speed: up to 90 MB/s
  • Dimensions (H x W x L): 0.43 x 0.59 x 0.04 inches
  • Operating temperature: -13 ºF to 185 ºF (-25 ºC to 85 ºC)
  • Storage temperature: -40 ºF to 185 ºF (-40 ºC to 85 ºC)

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