SanDisk Ultra Plus UHS-I V10 A1 128GB microSDXC Memory Card Review

Introduction

The SanDisk Ultra Plus microSD is an upgraded version of the SanDisk Ultra, one of the best selling memory cards. Ultra cards represent a good value, with fast read speeds and moderate write speeds. While they are never among the fastest cards in our tests, their performance is consistent and the price is always competitive. The Ultra Plus brings a 100MB/s read speed and V10/U1 write performance by promising at least 10MB/s continuous write speed for recording video. The A1 rating on the label indicates the card meets Application Performance Class 1 performance standards. This means the card will perform at least 1,500 input-output operations per second (IOPS) random read and 500 IOPS random write. Mobile phones, tables and portable devices use microSD cards for expanded storage, and a card that meets A1 specification will perform well when storing small data files and execuating programs directly from the card. Ultra Plus microSD cards are available in 16, 32, 64, 128GB, 256GB and 400GB capacities. The 128GB microSDXC version model SDSQUSC-128G-ANCMA with UPC 619659135416 is tested in this review. The memory card and included microSD to SD adapter are both made in China. SanDisk covers the Ultra Plus card with a limited lifetime warranty,

Performance

The SanDisk Ultra Plus 128GB microSDXC card was tested in memory card readers to evaluate its performance. In benchmark tests using USB 3.1 and 3.0 readers the highest sequential read speed was 99.5 MB/s, which is right in line with the 100MB/s maximum read speed quoted by Sandisk. Moving on to write speed, the highest benchmark result was 62.9 MB/s sequential write. This is higher than expected given the card is rated V10 and U1 which only indicate the mininum write speed at 10MB/s. The card performance was stable among all card readers tested.

Card: SanDisk Ultra Plus V10 A1 microSDXC 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

The SanDisk Ultra Plus microSDXC 128GB card will be used in upcoming in-camera tests. Write speed results during extended continuous shooting will be shown in the following table.

Cameras tested with this card:

The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.

The Ultra Plus card internal card register shows this card was produced September 2018. The Manufacturer ID 0x000003 and OEM ID "SD" are consistent with memory cards produced by SanDisk.