If you have ever tried shopping for an SD card for your camera or to expand the storage on your smartphone, chances are that you have come across the name Lexar before. They are a popular brand mostly known for their consumer storage devices and accessories like computer SSDs, USB flash drives, and memory expansion cards.
They are growing more popular by the day in markets like Europe and have gathered a sizable chunk of market share in other countries, with plans to expand their global reach even more in the near future.
Lexar recently launched their professional Gold Pro SDXC Express series of SD cards, and besides having the longest SD card name I’ve ever seen, they have a few more things that are special.
The new Lexar Express series SD card is based on the new SD 8.0 standard and is the very first consumer SD card to support it. The SD 8.0 was only finalized recently, and what sets it apart from the normal SD cards we know and love is that it uses PCIe standards instead of flash memory, reaching theoretical speeds of up to 4 Gbps. And yes, we are talking gigabytes here for an SD card.
The new Lexar “Professional Gold Pro SDXC Express,” while not hitting the theoretical maximum, still boasts a read and write speed of 1700 Mbps and 1000 Mbps, respectively, which is more than most desktop-grade SATA SSDs.
Now, the thing is, while the speeds it offers are very impressive and clearly a breakthrough when it comes to the current SD card speed standards, no one can use it. Yes, no one, because the currently available consumer devices like cameras, drones, and smartphones do not yet support the new SD 8.0 standard. While it is backwards compatible and you can buy it, and it will “work” on your device, the speeds will be limited to the UHS-I standard, which can only reach up to 100 Mbps. Sigh.
The availability of devices that support the new SD 8.0 standard can improve in the future, but for now, you can buy this shiny new card and use it like any other SD card. It’s like a walk in the park, with a Ferrari.
If you are still interested in buying shiny SD cards, you can check out Lexar’s new silver and gold series that are made of stainless steel. While not as fast, they will at least work as intended in the current devices you own.