INTRODUCTION

   I've always liked taking pictures and shooting videos and even though I've spent quite a bit of money over the years on cameras, camcorders and accessories it's been nowhere near to what some enthusiasts and of course professionals spend. So even though for my needs microSD and SD UHS-I cards are currently just enough to cover my needs (can reach speeds up to over 100MB/s) professionals and even enthusiasts are always looking for something more and although UHS-II cards are very fast (some surpass 300MB/s and upcoming UHS-III models even surpass 600MB/s) the industry decided to take things a step further by introducing the CompactFlash Express (CFexpress) standard (A/B/C). Lexar just released their Professional Gold Series of CFexpress Type-A cards (available in 80/160GB) and with me i have the top of the line 160GB capacity model.

   For more than 25 years, Lexar has been a trusted leading global brand of memory solutions. Our award-winning lineup includes memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, solid-state drives and DRAM. With so many options, it’s easy to find the right Lexar solution to fit your needs. All Lexar product designs undergo extensive testing in the Lexar Quality Labs with more than 1,100 digital devices, to ensure performance, quality, compatibility, and reliability. Lexar products are available worldwide at major retail and e-tail stores. For more information or support, visit www.lexar.com.

   Currently three CFexpress card standards exist all of which are based around PCIe 3.0 NVMe v1.3 specification, Type-A which is based on a single lane design (Gen3x1), Type-B which is based on a dual lane design (Gen3x2) and Type-C which in turn is based on a quad lane design (Gen3x4). These standards allow the CFexpress cards to reach impressive read & write speeds of all the way up to 1000MB/s, 2000MB/s and 4000MB/s respectively (theoretical ones) meaning they are several times faster than the fastest micro SD and SD cards out there today (thus making them ideal even for 8K RAW video recording - Video Performance Guarantee 400 qualification). Now even though there aren't that many cameras that support the CFexpress Type-A and Type-B standard there are actually none that support the Type-C standard which means that in turn media storage manufacturers have yet to release any such cards. So, although due to that i can't really comment on their performance having tested Lexar's CFexpress Type-B card (review here) i have to admit that i was genuinely impressed so let's see how their Type-A model does.