The Samsung EVO series represents the middle choice in the new-for-2014 Samsung SD memory card line. The EVO is touted for its "Ultra-fast Performance," however it is not the fastest card from Samsung, that attribute is reserved for the Samsung PRO SD card. The EVO sits between the PRO and Standard cards.
The EVO features a white plastic case with bright orange and grey printing. It is available in 16 and 32 GB capacities. It supports UHS-I transfer protocol and is rated as Class 10. Its transfer speed is advertised as up to 48 MB/s, however no number is given for write speed which we found to be significantly lower.
The EVO series uses Samsung NAND flash Triple Level Cell (TLC) memory flash which stores eight bits of data per cell. TLC costs less to manufacture compared with MLC or SLC memory because it requiress less silicon. Samsung is the largest NAND flash memory producer in the world and in May 2014 opened a new $7 billion NAND flash memory factory in Xi'an, China.
Benchmark testing was performed in eight different USB 3.0 SD card readers. Sequential reads averaged 47MB/s maximum and sequential writes averaged 28MB/s maximum. In benchmarks it revealed an interesting benefit. It has relatively high random write speed up to 24MB/s. For photographers this is of little benefit. Small random writes are beneficial for applications in computing were small files or pieces of files are read and written such as when running a program. In photography relatively large files are written sequentially.
Card: Samsung EVO 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
Samsung EVO 32GB Card Reader Benchmarks | Seq. Read 1000MB MB/s | Seq. Write 1000MB MB/s | Rand. Read 512KB MB/s | Rand. Write 512KB MB/s | Rand. Read 4KB MB/s QD1 | Rand. Read 4KB IOPS QD1 | Rand. Write 4KB MB/s QD1 | Rand. Write 4KB IOPS QD1 | Rand. Read 4KB MB/s QD32 | Rand. Read 4KB IOPS QD32 | Rand. Write 4KB MB/s QD32 | Rand. Write 4KB IOPS QD32 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lexar Professional Workflow SR1 | 47.656 | 29.424 | 45.026 | 23.560 | 7.500 | 1831.1 | 1.744 | 425.7 | 8.009 | 1955.4 | 1.360 | 332.1 |
Transcend SD Card Reader RDF5 Black | 47.529 | 28.937 | 44.826 | 21.817 | 5.950 | 1452.6 | 1.607 | 392.3 | 6.095 | 1488.1 | 1.364 | 333.1 |
Lexar Professional Workflow SR2 UHS-II | 47.526 | 29.450 | 44.899 | 22.276 | 8.004 | 1954.1 | 1.738 | 424.4 | 8.937 | 2181.8 | 1.312 | 320.4 |
SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II SD Reader/Writer | 47.408 | 20.165 | 44.767 | 21.626 | 8.211 | 2004.6 | 1.961 | 478.7 | 8.999 | 2197.1 | 1.798 | 439.0 |
Lexar Professional Dual Slot UHS-II Card Reader | 47.370 | 28.720 | 44.885 | 21.898 | 8.047 | 1964.5 | 1.689 | 412.2 | 8.926 | 2179.1 | 1.349 | 329.3 |
Lexar LRWM04U-7000 UHS-II Reader | 47.359 | 21.992 | 44.708 | 21.926 | 8.245 | 2012.9 | 1.920 | 468.8 | 8.958 | 2186.9 | 1.576 | 384.7 |
Delkin Travel Reader | 47.340 | 29.042 | 44.323 | 22.368 | 7.999 | 1952.8 | 1.773 | 432.8 | 8.927 | 2179.5 | 1.706 | 416.5 |
Lexar Professional Dual Slot Reader | 47.318 | 29.806 | 45.235 | 20.158 | 7.677 | 1874.3 | 1.718 | 419.3 | 8.286 | 2022.9 | 1.342 | 327.7 |
Transcend Multi-Card Reader RDF8 Black | 47.286 | 29.415 | 45.190 | 21.699 | 7.661 | 1870.3 | 1.735 | 423.6 | 8.255 | 2015.5 | 1.457 | 355.8 |
Kingston MobileLite G4 UHS-II | 47.191 | 19.899 | 44.547 | 24.990 | 8.200 | 2002.0 | 1.800 | 439.5 | 8.962 | 2187.9 | 1.425 | 348.0 |
Delkin Dual Slot SD UHS-II and CF Card Reader | 47.144 | 20.068 | 44.562 | 22.334 | 8.016 | 1957.0 | 1.880 | 459.0 | 8.879 | 2167.8 | 1.642 | 401.0 |
Kingston FCR-HS4 Card Reader | 47.110 | 21.452 | 44.576 | 23.302 | 7.952 | 1941.5 | 1.928 | 470.8 | 8.845 | 2159.5 | 1.515 | 369.9 |
Delkin Universal Memory Card Reader | 47.099 | 29.978 | 45.048 | 22.383 | 7.379 | 1801.6 | 1.634 | 398.9 | 8.210 | 2004.5 | 1.457 | 355.6 |
Transcend Multi-Card Reader RDF9 | 47.080 | 20.070 | 44.518 | 23.613 | 8.004 | 1954.1 | 1.860 | 454.2 | 8.884 | 2169.1 | 1.424 | 347.6 |
Kingston Multi-Card Reader FCR-HS3 | 46.977 | 28.809 | 37.220 | 18.595 | 8.308 | 2028.4 | 1.958 | 478.1 | 8.988 | 2194.3 | 1.450 | 354.0 |
SanDisk ImageMate All-In-One USB 3.0 | 46.720 | 29.054 | 42.179 | 20.761 | 4.606 | 1124.6 | 1.400 | 341.8 | 4.698 | 1146.9 | 1.017 | 248.4 |
Sony MRW-E90 XQD 2.0 / SD UHS-II Card Reader | 45.924 | 19.818 | 43.158 | 21.758 | 7.217 | 1762.0 | 1.847 | 450.9 | 8.255 | 2015.5 | 1.490 | 363.7 |
In addition to several benchmarks, we tested the Samsung EVO in many different digital cameras. Here we found it offers moderate performance at best. It fell well short of other UHS-I SD cards and ended up being the slowest card by a significant margin. In most cameras this card only performed at 16 to 18 MB/s write speed. Its highest write speed (21.9MB/s) was measured in the Canon 7D Mark II. While the Samsung EVO rates above Class 10 performance (10MB/s write minimum) it is far from the "Ultra-fast Performance" implied on the packaging.
Samsung EVO 32GB Tested in Camera | Write Speed (MB/s) |
---|---|
Nikon D7200 | 22.6 |
Canon 7D Mark II | 21.9 |
Canon Rebel T6i/T6s | 21.6 |
Canon 80D | 21.5 |
Fuji X-Pro2 | 19.8 |
Canon 5D Mark IV | 19.6 |
Canon 5Ds | 19.6 |
Nikon D7100 | 19.2 |
Nikon D5500 | 19.1 |
Nikon D500 | 19.1 |
Nikon D3300 | 18.9 |
Olympus E-M1 | 18.3 |
Olympus E-M5 II | 18.2 |
Sony A6000 | 18.1 |
Samsung NX1 | 18.1 |
Olympus PEN-F | 18.0 |
Nikon D750 | 17.8 |
Nikon D810 | 17.8 |
Fuji X-T10 | 17.6 |
Sony A7R II | 17.4 |
Sony A6300 | 17.1 |
Nikon D600 | 17.0 |
Nikon D5300 | 17.0 |
Canon 70D | 16.8 |
Canon 6D | 16.7 |
Olympus E-M10 | 16.2 |
Pentax K-3 II | 16.2 |
Nikon D800 | 16.2 |
Olympus E-M5 | 16.0 |
Cameras tested with this card: Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 5Ds, Canon 6D, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon 70D, Canon 80D, Canon Rebel T6i/T6s, Fuji X-Pro2, Fuji X-T10, Nikon D500, Nikon D750, Nikon D810, Nikon D800, Nikon D600, Nikon D7200, Nikon D7100, Nikon D5500, Nikon D5300, Nikon D3300, Olympus E-M1, Olympus E-M5, Olympus E-M5 II, Olympus PEN-F, Olympus E-M10, Pentax K-3 II, Samsung NX1, Sony A7R II, Sony A6000, Sony A6300
Samsung backs the new EVO series SD cards with a 10-year warranty. The card we tested is marked, "Made in Korea."
The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.
Samsung EVO 32GB SD — Internal Card Information | |
---|---|
Serial number (PSN) | 3418444885 |
Product Name (PNM) | 00000 |
Product Revision | 1.0 |
Manufacturer ID (MID) | 0x00001b |
OEM ID (OID) | SM |
Manufacture Date (MDT) | 03/2014 |
Total capacity | 31,440,502,784 bytes |
Compare prices on the Samsung EVO SD card. The lowest prices are highlighted in the table below. Prices are updated daily.
Card | Size GB | Lowest $ / GB | Prices | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon | B&H Photo | Adorama | |||
Samsung EVO SD | 16 | $0.94 | $14.99 | Check price | Check price |
Samsung EVO SD | 32 | $1.38 | $44.00 | Check price | Check price |
Samsung EVO SD | 64 | $0.77 | $49.00 | Check price | Check price |