INTRODUCTION

   Whether you just want to expand the storage capacity of your smartphone/tablet or if you just got a brand new action or car dash camera (even a drone) choosing the right microSD card is essential. Unfortunately, marketing coupled with numerous card classifications has indeed made things harder for most consumers out there so it's no surprise that i hear people complaining left and right that the microSD card they chose was insufficient, either in terms of write performance or durability/endurance. Yes, nowadays microSD cards don't cost much but regardless of that it's always frustrating to spend any amount of money on something which you'll either end up not using at all or if you do end up using you'll not be happy with it. This is also part of the reason I've focused quite a bit in memory card reviews and today with me i have yet another model, the EXCERIA Plus 256GB MicroSDXC UHS-I by ΚΙΟΧΙΑ.

   KIOXIA Europe GmbH (formerly known as Toshiba Memory Europe GmbH) is the European based subsidiary of KIOXIA Corporation, a worldwide leading supplier of Flash Memory and Solid State Drives (SSDs). Toshiba Memory is known as the Inventor of NAND flash memory in 1987 and was the first in the world to begin mass-producing it in 1991. Under its new name, KIOXIA remains a storage leader today with its BiCS FLASH 3D technology, focusing on innovation, quality and reliability. This technology is an important component in almost all electronic devices where data need to be stored. KIOXIA is leading a new era by providing advanced memory solutions to enrich people’s lives. By evolving "memory", KIOXIA creates uplifting experiences and changes the world.

   The EXCERIA Plus MicroSDXC UHS-I U3/V30/C10 line by KIOXIA currently available in 32/64/128/256/512GB capacities with read-write performance levels climbing up to 100MB/s-85MB/s respectively for the 64/128/256/512GB models, 100MB/s-65MB/s for the 64/128GB models and 98MB/s-65MB/s for the 32GB model. So, since this is a UHS-I memory card line you can't expect blazing fast speeds, still since we're also talking about U3/V30 models they are enough for both Full HD 1080p and 4K video recording and as for endurance they can operate in temperatures from -25 to +85 degrees Celsius, are water (IPX7), shock and X-ray proof and also feature overheating (electrical fuse) and ESD (electrostatic discharge) protections. Of course, much like previous memory card lines KIOXIA covers the entire EXCERIA Plus series with a 5-year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE EXCERIA PLUS 256GB MICROSDXC UHS-I

Typically, the card arrived in a blister package the front of which has a clear plastic cover from where you can see both the card and the SD adapter.

The 5-year limited warranty is printed at the rear right over the main product features and contact information for KIOXIA.

KIOXIA just bundles an SDXC adapter with the EXCERIA Plus MicroSDXC 256GB UHS-I card.

UHS-I cards have but a single row of contacts at the rear so this is what we see here too.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Memory cards are pretty much identical to flash drives so to make things easier for everyone I'll be using roughly the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read and write data transfer numbers. The benchmark suites used for memory card tests are HD Tune Pro (Read - Write average and max speeds), AIDA 64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear Read / Random Read - Write performance), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (4GB Read / Write speeds) and ATTO (Average Read / Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into the charts (0 = test was unable to complete).

   Tests are performed on the X79 test rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a HyperX Predator 480GB PCIe SSD with all updates installed up to the day of this review (for ATTO and Crystal Disk Mark cards are formatted using the NTFS file system – however partitions need to be removed for the write tests of both AIDA64 and HD Tune Pro).

* As of April 2020, I’ll be using the X299 test rig for SDXC & microSDXC UHS-II (and above) memory card reviews.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TUNE PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

CONCLUSION

   The sole reason UHS-II cards were released in the market was because there wasn’t much room for UHS-I cards to go and today’s review is a clear indication of that since the EXCERIA Plus 256GB MicroSDXC UHS-I model performs roughly the same as many others before it. This is not really a bad thing however since with average performance numbers of up to 98MB/s in reads and 88MB/s in writes these cards should feel right at home with your UHS-I compatible devices. The EXCERIA Plus line of memory cards by KIOXIA however also sports better endurance numbers and protections compared to most competing products and that’s clearly what many people are looking for.

   As mentioned in the introduction page microSDXC UHS-I cards don’t cost a whole lot nowadays and so the EXCERIA Plus 256GB MicroSDXC model can be found for USD64.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 60.87Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). At the end of the day the EXCERIA Plus 256GB MicroSDXC UHS-I memory card by KIOXIA may not bring anything exciting on the table in terms of read & write performance but still it's a very fast UHS-I model (focus on the writes) which thanks to its available protections/endurance and 5-year limited warranty gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Overall Performance
- Protections / Endurance
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Only Available Up To 512GB