Lexar Professional 400x 128GB SDXC UHS-I Flash Memory Card LSD128CTBNA400

I've moved to expanding the storage of my work laptop through SDXC cards to complement the 512GB SSD main drive, with each card dedicated to a topic or project. The data involved includes lots of video in AVCHD and WMV formats, so to be practical, the SDXC cards have to do reads and writes at the highest speeds possible, and they fill up quickly as well.Standardized on Sandisk Extreme 45 MB/s 128GB cards, and own a number of them, really excellent cards. But, I just had my first project folder go over 128GB, so to keep things clean and all in one place, went looking for the elusive 256GB SDXC. The Lexar was the only 256GB I could find that was actually purchasable. Their "400x" speed designation puts reported performance well above base Class 10 specs, so I decided to give it a try, hoping it would approach the Sandisk Extreme 45's. Sandisk is on top of the heap right now in overall speed and reliability, while Lexar has lagged over recent years, so I was hoping to just get close and have the speed acceptable in real world use.Net result, very good. Matches/exceeds the Sandisk in READ, but only reaches 1/2-1/3 the WRITE performance. Fine real world performance as well. See CrystalDiskMark results below. This presents an acceptable tradeoff to me for the convenience of a 256GB card that is largely used for archival purposes, with many more reads than writes.Reliability is also key, but it is way too early to tell anything in this regard.I reserved 1 star for write performance that lags behind the latest and greatest.Pros+ Capacity at the very top of what is currently available+ Excellent read speeds+ Good write speeds+ Reasonable cost for this combination of size and speedCons- Write speed lags read and competitionHighly recommended if you need the capacity.LEXAR SDXC 256 GB 400x in HP 2760p Card Slot-----------------------------------------------------------------------* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s] Sequential Read : 75.731 MB/s Sequential Write : 32.975 MB/s Random Read 512KB : 79.832 MB/s Random Write 512KB : 10.335 MB/s Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 5.020 MB/s [ 1225.6 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.279 MB/s [ 68.0 IOPS] Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 6.941 MB/s [ 1694.6 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.273 MB/s [ 66.6 IOPS] Test : 1000 MB [G: 49.6% (118.5/238.7 GB)] (x5) Date : 2012/12/02 1:10:16 OS : Windows 7 Enterprise Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)Sandisk Extreme 45 128GB SDXC in HP 2670p SD card slot-----------------------------------------------------------------------* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s] Sequential Read : 70.778 MB/s Sequential Write : 70.134 MB/s Random Read 512KB : 30.036 MB/s Random Write 512KB : 37.713 MB/s Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.431 MB/s [ 105.3 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.599 MB/s [ 146.2 IOPS] Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.455 MB/s [ 111.0 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.517 MB/s [ 126.3 IOPS] Test : 1000 MB [P: 60.7% (565.3/931.5 GB)] (x5) Date : 2012/08/27 1:09:47 OS : Windows 7 Enterprise Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)****************Feb. 24, 2013 Update*****************Unfortunately, the card just failed, not readable. All data gone, though it was backed up. Will be returning to Lexar for warranty replacement. Total life about 3 months of daily use.************* June 3rd, 2013 Update ****************Returned for replacement, nothing was recoverable from the card by any of the tools I tried. Again, as I said, had it backed up, but solid state memory is the kind of thing I expect to fail like this VERY rarely. Will update once I get the replacement and use it again for a while. I notice the 400x card seems to be gone from distribution, replaced by the 600x card, so reliability of the replacement, if it is a 400x card, may be moot.************* June 18th, 2013 Update ****************Received working replacement for failed card via RMA. Service was timely. Just tested speed of the replacement unit, tested tiny bit faster, mostly not significant, but the improved 512MB random write performance increase makes me suspect physical changes in the card, which I hope also means better reliability than with first card I received. Crystal DiskMark esults below... Back to three stars given the total experience. Now, let's see how long it lasts...-----------------------------------------------------------------------CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/-----------------------------------------------------------------------* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s] Sequential Read : 85.689 MB/s Sequential Write : 31.787 MB/s Random Read 512KB : 82.538 MB/s Random Write 512KB : 17.691 MB/s Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 6.130 MB/s [ 1496.6 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.571 MB/s [ 139.4 IOPS] Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 7.120 MB/s [ 1738.2 IOPS] Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.651 MB/s [ 159.0 IOPS] Test : 1000 MB [L: 0.0% (0.0/238.7 GB)] (x5) Date : 2013/06/18 15:08:28 OS : Windows 7 Enterprise Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)************* January 23rd, 2014 Update ****************Have been using this card as an encrypted (TrueCrypt) archive storage card that stays in the slot of my laptop 24/7 and gives me access to research data that no longer fits on my hard drive. In this capacity, it sees moderate level of reads, and infrequent writes, and the card has been working flawlessly since it was replaced last summer. Net, I moved the rating up to 4 stars.Wishing there were additional 256 or even 512GB options at a reasonable cost, as it is hard to beat the capacity for physical size and ease of use of SDXC cards for nearline personal storage.

I'm revising my review after a recent outing where I was shooting action. My 5D MKIII started buffering sooner than expected, after 15 shots. I am using this Lexar SDXC 400x card and a 32GB Transcend UDMA 400x card. I wasn't sure what to blame it on so did a test.Lexar SDXC by itself: 15 shotsTranscend CF by itself: 24 shotsAlthough the Transcend CF card doesn't say officially that it is UDMA 7, it does say it is UDMA for whatever it is worth. It is fast. I initially raved about the Lexar card because it was fairly quick at file transfer and seems sufficient for those focused on video, but for action still photography I cannot recommend it.Original review:Easily formatted in my Canon EOS 5D Mark III and shows 3830 Possible Shots in RAW Only Format. That translates to an in Camera yield of about 109GB at a 29.2MB File Size.Speed on my Lenovo x220 i7 Laptop with a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD are as follows.Writing to the SDXC Card: 29MB/sReading from the SDXC Card: 72MB/s (26 minutes to transfer a full 3830 shots?)I'm reluctant to admit anything positive about Windows 8, but it does have a very nice popup now that shows file transfer speeds graphically. A welcome addition since I was able to clearly see how the speeds stabilized after about 5 seconds or so. Writing was a bit more erratic, but the read flattened like a table top.A crude test measurement on my 5DMKIII with 15 consecutive shots took 24 seconds to clear the buffer from the first shot. That is about an 18MB/s average, which is probably speed limited by the camera and not the SDXC Card.Recommended SD Card speeds in 1080P Video Mode per the Canon 5DMKIII Manual are:Video with IPB Compression: 6 MB/s or fasterVideo with ALL-I (I Only) Compression: 20MB/s or fasterThe 20MB/s speed recommendation for ALL-I would also seem to cover the still shot speeds I observed. Would this be about the limitation of the DIGIC 5+ Image Processor? The 1D X has Dual DIGIC 5+ Image Processors. I wonder if it would stress the limits of this card. Honestly I know nothing about the 1D X and how it writes to Card, I can only dream about it.Using the 109GB Storage Yield calculated by the still shots, it should get about the following total Video Record times:476 Minutes(8 hours?) in IPB or 167 Minutes(2.7 hours?) in ALL-I.I don't shoot video, yet, but I did a test with 1920@24 in ALL-I Compression and it was keeping up without problem. I did only test it for 1 minute, but the buffer light maintained the same pulse throughout, suggesting to me everything was cool.My order was purchased on Amazon and fulfilled via Adorama. It arrived quick and without problem.

My MacBook Pro with Retina Display comes with a paltry 128GB of space on the hard disk. And while I do have an external hard disk for backing up my laptop, the Lexar 128GB gives me extra flexibility when I'm on the go, without packing any additional hardware. I have read online that you don't want to use a SD card for a lot of heavy read/write use. And while it says it's 400x speed, depending on your computer, it may be limited to the bus your laptop uses (even though my laptop has a thunderbolt port and USB 3, transferring files felt more on par with USB 2, which was a little disappointing. This could, however, be due to a bottleneck in my laptop and not the performance of the card itself).That said, say I'm on the go I have to back up my phone, or I want to do something ridiculous like install a new version of the OS and I'm running out of space. This card will give me the flexibility I need in a pinch. And then some.

i purchased this card for my new canon t5i 700D. works great, and it's a fast card. the order came very quickly (within days) and for a 64Gig, it's a very affordable card. yes i'd recommend it to others like myself who are amateur photographers. i'm not sure how it would hold up to pro-photography use, i'm not the person to test it on that level.

Reads and writes fast, Class 10/ UHS-1, 64GB makes those cards relatively compatible with most SD card readers. Some tablets tops at 32GB however, so read your tablet or phone documentation before purchasing!Works flawlessly in a Canon Powershot S100 camera and Canon EOS 60D.Paid 30$+s&h when on sale. Bought two.

Got these 400x cards on sale during Black Friday. Pretty decent speeds, but the 600x cards were on sale a few days later for practically the same price... So if you can get a better deal on the 600x's go for those unless you really don't have any devices that handle 600x speeds.

I bought this before I went on my last vacation.My camera worked noticeably faster with this card compared to my old card.I'll probably get another 2 when I get a Nikon D800.

Hard to write an original review -- the card works as advertized. It is sure nice to have a big card in my camera so I can take photos all day long without worrying about filling it.