Sony Tough SF-G Series 300MB/s UHS-II V90 64GB SDXC Card Review

Introduction

The new Tough SF-G series Secure Digital memory cards were announced by Sony on August 28, 2018. Sony Tough SD cards combine 300 MB/s read and 299 MB/s write speeds of the SF-G series with a new ultra-durable construction. Tough cards are the first SD cards to have a monolithic sructure with no external case to break or voids within the card. The result is a card 18 times stronger than the SD specification. Tough SD cards are able to withstand 16 foot (five meter) drops. Further enhancing durability, the cards have no external write lock, connector ribs, or other moving parts to fail. The cards are waterproof with IPX8 rating (deeper than 1 meter) and Sony further specifies that the card with retain data after being submerged at a depth of 5 meters for 72 hours. The card is also dustproof to IP6X which means the card is fully dust-tight. When the card is dirty it can be washed with water and wiped clean without damage.

Sony Tough SD cards are V90 rated for stable recording of high resolution video including 4K and 8K. Tough SF-G cards are available in 32, 64 and 128 GB capacities. This review covers the 64GB SDXC card, model SF-G64T/T1 with UPC 027242908321. The card tested is marked Made in Taiwan on the back. Tough Series SD cards are covered by a five year warranty.

The Tough cards are backwards compatible and will operate in Standard SD and UHS-I modes although their speed will be limited when used in such devices. In UHS-I mode the card supports SDR104 mode which limits the read and write speeds to under 104MB/s.

Performance

The Sony Tough SF-G UHS-II 64GB card was tested in USB 3.0 and 3.1 card readers. In benchmark tests the Tough card reached up to 298.3 MB/s sequential read speed. The maximum sequential write speed was 267.5 MB/s. While this is slightly below the 299MB/s speed claimed by Sony, it is similar to the other SF-G Series SD cards.

In UHS-I mode the Tough SF-G 64GB SDXC card measured up to 96.6 MB/s sequential read and 93.4 MB/s sequential write speed.

Card: Sony Tough UHS-II 64GB
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

This Tough G Series 64GB UHS-II card will be tested in cameras for write speed. The results will be added to the table below when available.

Cameras tested with this card: Fuji X-T3, Nikon Coolpix P1000

The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.

The internal card register shows this Tough 64GB SDXC card was produced in September 2018. It has the OEM ID PH which indicates Phison produced the card controller.

Available sizes and prices

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