Lexar Professional 1000x UHS-II 128GB SDXC Memory Card Review

Introduction

Lexar offers two lines of UHS-II SD cards: The Professional 2000x card with up to 300MB/s transfer speed, and the Professional 1000x SD card with 150MB/s transfer speed. Reaching these high speeds requires a UHS-II device, and in the case of the 1000x 150MB/s card, it is a read speed only. The write speed quoted by Lexar for this card is 75MB/s, however benchmark results show it is slightly faster than rated.

UHS-II is a new interface that requires a second row of pins and uses low voltage signaling. Few cameras offer support the new interface (currently the Fujifilm X-T1, Samsung NX1 and Olympus OM-D E-M5 II), however UHS-II cards also have the traditional SD contacts and are reverse compatible, but will operate only up up to UHS-I speed (104MB/s maximum) using the legacy connection. If your camera does not support UHS-II cards, is no advantage in using a UHS-II card, however when transferring images from the card to a computer with a UHS-II card reader, they can offer much faster read speed.

Lexar Professional 1000x UHS-II cards are offered in 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256 GB capacities. The 32GB 1000x SDHC card was reviewed previously. This review is for the 128GB SDXC card.

Performance

The Lexar 1000x UHS-II 128GB card was benchmarked using several UHS-I and UHS-II card readers. Only UHS-II readers are capable of unlocking the highest speed. The card passed the 150MB/s rated read speed and measured a best 152 MB/s sequential read in several UHS-II readers. Its write speed in UHS-II readers peaked at 86 MB/s, well above the 75 MB/s write speed claim. In UHS-I readers it reached up to 93 MB/s read and 77 MB/s write speed, where it operates in UHS-I mode.

Card: Lexar Professional 1000x UHS-II 128GB
Benchmark: CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64
Program settings: 1000 MB, 5 passes, random test data
Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.40GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR3 1600

So far the Lexar 1000x has been tested in the Canon EOS Rebel T6i and T6s. It averaged 62.4 MB/s write speed during continuous shooting. (In these cameras it operates in UHS-I mode.) This was slightly slower than the 32GB version of the same card. Additional results from other digital camera tests will be added to the chart below when available.

Cameras tested with this card: Canon EOS R, Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 5Ds, Canon 77D, Canon 80D, Canon EOS M5, Canon Rebel T6i/T6s, Canon Rebel T7i, Fuji X-T3, Fuji X-Pro2, Fuji X-T10, Nikon D500, Nikon D7500, Nikon D5600, Nikon Coolpix P1000, Olympus E-M1 II, Olympus PEN-F, Panasonic GH5, Pentax K-3 II, Sony A7R II, Sony A9, Sony A6300

Lexar backs the Professional series memory cards with a limited lifetime warranty. This card was made in Korea.

The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.

Recommendation

Lexar positioned the 1000x UHS-II cards at a competitive price, similar to fast UHS-I cards. However, the 1000x cards are not necessarily faster when used in UHS-I devices. Compared to the Lexar 633x 64GB SDXC card, the 1000x offers a few MB/s faster write speed but costs significantly more. SanDisk's Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-I card supports higher write speed, but also costs more than the Lexar 1000x. The main advantage of the 1000x card is its read speed in UHS-II devices, where the card boasts the 150MB/s read speed, a 50% advantage over the fastest UHS-I cards. Its write speed is still within UHS-I territory. It is recommended for those looking for fast download speed (with a UHS-II card reader) and good, but perhaps not the fastest available, write speed.

Available sizes and prices

Compare prices on the Lexar Professional 1000x SD card. The lowest prices are highlighted in the table below. Prices are updated daily.