Lexar Professional 1000x UHS-II 32GB SD Memory Card Review

Introduction

The Lexar Professional 1000x SD card is a new UHS-II card released in early 2015. UHS-II cards offer a new level of performance through a new bus interface. Lexar claims the Lexar 1000x card offers a read speed of 150MB/s and write speed "lower." The 32GB version tested here lists a write speed of 75MB/s on the package. Some of the cameras that are capable of UHS-II include the Fujifilm X-T1, Samsung NX1 and Olympus OM-D E-M5 II. If your camera isn't on the short list, UHS-II cards such as this Lexar will still work, but will operate but at lower UHS-I speeds. Lexar 1000x UHS-II cards are available in a variety of sizes: 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256 GB capacities.

The back of the card reveals the new UHS-II interface. It consists of a new row of contacts set behind the normal SD connections. This assures the card is backwards compatible with all SD card devices. UHS-II devices will have a corresponding set of pins to interface this second row of contacts. In devices lacking these the pins, the card will behave as a UHS-I card at UHS-I speed. This card supports up to SDR104 in UHS-I mode (104MB/s maximum bus speed).

Performance

To measure the speed potential of the Lexar 1000x UHS-II card, it was benchmarked in multiple card readers. It exceeded the 150MB/s rated read speed in all UHS-II readers. It also posted some respectable write speeds, surpassings its claimed 75MB/s write speed in all readers. However its write speeds are not as fast as the fastest UHS-I cards. Note the lower read and write speeds when tested in UHS-I card readers where it operates in UHS-I mode.

Card: Lexar Professional 1000x UHS-II 32GB
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 Lexar 1000x will be included in upcoming digital camera tests. As of this writing it has been tested in UHS-I and UHS-II compatible cameras. In UHS-I cameras it was faster than the Lexar 600x UHS-I card, but slightly slower than some high-speed UHS-I cards. In one UHS-II capable camera, the Olympus E-M5 Mark II, it performed better than all UHS-I cards but just below the highest speed UHS-II cards. It should be noted that the E-M5 II does not support the fastest UHS-I mode SDR104, but does support the high-speed UHS-II bus, making this card ideal for that particular camera.

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 D7200, Nikon D7100, Nikon D5600, Nikon D5500, Nikon Coolpix P1000, Olympus E-M1 II, Olympus E-M5 II, Olympus PEN-F, Panasonic GH5, Pentax K-3 II, Sony A7R II, Sony A9, Sony A6300

Lexar Professional series memory cards are backed by a limited lifetime warranty. This card was made in Korea.

The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.

Recommendation

The Lexar 1000x UHS-II card is in a unique position. It offers a taste of UHS-II speed but doesn't exploit the full write speed potential. It is priced competitively to UHS-I cards while offering a much higher read speed. For some cameras such as the Olympus E-M5 II, it offers superior performance to UHS-I cards. It delivers high performance for shooting, outstanding download speed and tremendous value.

Available sizes and prices

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