Kingston introduced its 64GB Class 10 UHS-I Speed Class 3 (U3) microSD for smartphones and tablets last month. It is not available in India yet, but we manged to get one for review before it launches here. Since it is a UHS-1 U3 (Ultra High-Speed Bus, Speed Class 3) card, it is rated for a minimum 30MB/s read/write speed as recommended by the SD Association, but Kingston promises 90MB/s read and 80MB/s write speed. We reviewed Kingston’s 128GB UHS-1 Class 10 microSD card recently, which offered great speed than we expected, let us find out how the 64GB card performs.
Unlike 128GB microSD cards, 64GB cards are supported in several high to mid-range smartphones and a few low-end smartphones. We tested this card from the top-end LG G3, Samsung Galaxy Note 4, HTC One M8 to mid-range Samsung Galaxy A series, E series and more, which worked fine without any issues. It did not work on Moto G (2nd Gen) since the smartphone supports microSD cards only up to 32GB.
Here are some benchmarks to show how this card performs.
Read/Write speed test using CrystalDiskMark x64 – USB 3.0
Read/Write speed test using CrystalDiskMark x64 – USB 2.0
Sequential read speed was around 85MB/s and write speed was around 70MB/s in the CrystalDiskMark benchmark using USB 3.0. Using 2.0 you get sequential read speed of 36 MB/s and write speed of about 28 MB/s. Slightly less speed might be due to the use of microSD to SD adapter while testing. It could offer read and write speed as promised if it’s tested directly on a card reader without an adapter, but it still exceeds the requirements of the Speed Class 3 rating. You get 61GB of usable space in the 64GB card.
Read Speed measured using HD Tach – USB 3.0
Read Speed measured using HD Tach – USB 2.0
Read speed was steady at 73 MB/s using USB 3.0 in HD Tach. Using USB 2.0 connection, it was steady at 36 MB/s. Data transfer speed will differ when you are using it in a smartphone or if you use a USB 2.0 card reader.
Read and Write speed using A1 SD Bench for Android
Read speed was around 77.6 MB/s and the write speed was around 58.8 MB/s with the A1 SD Bench app for Android. Kingston says that faster data transfer speed will offer smooth stutter-free video recording and video playback at all resolutions up to 4K2K. We also found that capturing burst shots were faster compared to standard Class 10 cards.
Conclusion
The Kingston 64GB microSDXC UHS-I U3 card is definitely better than UHS-I U1 cards in terms of speed. It was able to deliver consistent write performance and sequential read transfers were good too. It also offers smooth 4K2K video recording. The Kingston 64GB SD UHS-I U3 card is available for $55 on Amazon in the U.S, which coverts to about Rs. 3,400. It is not available in India yet, so the Indian pricing is currently unknown. We will let you know once it goes on sale in India. The card also comes in 16GB and 32GB capacities. If you need extremely fast 64GB microSDXC card, this one is highly recommended.