Written by: Mark Abell

Photo courtesy of Lexar

The 128GB Lexar microSDXC UHS-I with USB 3.0 reader ($80, http://www.lexar.com/microsd-633x)

I used the UHS-I with my GoPro Session action sports-cam which has 8GB of internal memory which immediately increased my storage capacity by 16x.

Its transfer speed of 95 MB/s is impressive in that it only slightly trails the lightning quick Western Digital My Passport Ultra 1TB external hard-drive ($60, http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1000) which is also worth purchasing and achieves 100.69 MB/s for sequential reads.

However, the MyPassport trumps its 20 MB/s writes with 73.97 MB/s writes[1]. Even so, the Lexar fares well speed-wise considering SD cards are generally slower than regular hard drives anyway according to The Notebook Review[2].

In addition, its 633x speed demonstrates capability, especially when considered against professional-grade cards such as the 128GB Lexar Professional 1800x microSDHC/microSDXC UHS-II card ($273.99, http://www.lexar.com/professional-1800x-microsd) with about one third of the speed at one quarter of the price.

With formatting, the 128GB capacity is closer to 122GB which is still spacious, regardless. To put this into perspective, a 12-minute 1440p–one step above 1080p HD–GoPro video shot at 30 frames per second clip gobbles up a whopping 2 GB of disc space. This allows me the luxury of recording at the highest possible settings the GoPro Session allows and accumulating footage for two to four weeks without the immediate need to upload it to my PC.

As a consumer-level product, the UHS-I is a solid performer and provides ample storage and adequate file transfer speeds relative to the Lexar Professional cards which is three times as fast—1800x vs the UHS-I’s 633x—but is also dramatically more expensive for the same storage space.

I highly recommend this card for film projects that require shooting an exhaustive amount of clips. The card’s storage space complements photographers with a relaxed nature-there’s no pressure to upload or download the footage off the card immediately.

[1] http://www.storagereview.com/wd_my_passport_ultra_review

[2] http://www.notebookreview.com/news/sdhc-cards-vs-hard-drive-vs-ssd/)