INTRODUCTION

   Memory cards (especially microSD type ones) are being used in far more electronic devices nowadays than ever before (at least to our knowledge) so picking out the right model to cover your needs may not be quite as easy as it used to. Well that's not strange really since currently you can use memory cards in pretty much most devices that require storage from smartphones, tablets and smart watches up to music players, all types of cameras, media players, mobile speakers, complete speaker systems, TV sets and even car navigation and multimedia systems (and we probably didn't mention everything). The arrival of the much faster UHS-II memory cards didn't only allow for high-bitrate 8k recording but also caused previous UHS-I models to become far more affordable. Patriot released their top of the line EP A1 series of UHS-I memory cards last year and today with us we have the 128GB and 256GB microSDXC models.

   Patriot started in 1985 in the San Francisco Bay Area. We dedicate ourselves to being the brand of choice for the tech industry with a high commitment to quality and outstanding customer service. Patriot Memory designs, manufactures and markets high performance memory modules, flash memory, mobile accessories and gaming equipment. Here at Patriot, we pride ourselves in developing new and innovative products that offer a sleek, modern and functional design. Along with high quality and innovative designs, our products come backed with our industry leading warranty and top of the line customer support. We ensure that every product meets or exceeds our high level of standards. For memory, that process begins with using high-quality components and ends with rigorous functional testing to ensure each module is reliable and compatible. All of our tests include real world stress tests, drop tests and over charge tests as well. We do all of this so you can rest assured that you'll be receiving a high quality product.

   The EP A1 series of microSDXC cards by Patriot (currently available in 64/128/256GB capacities) are high performance Class 10, U3 models that land in the V30 category (Video Class 30 / suitable for high-bitrate 4k recording) and are also A1 certified (Application Performance Class 1) for seamless use with Android compatible devices. Certifications aside however what really matters is their advertised data transfer performance numbers which are set at up to 100MB/s for reads and up to 80MB/s for writes (IOPS are set at 2500 for reads and 1350 for writes). Of course these numbers are slightly over one third of what the far more expensive UHS-II standard models can achieve (some can even touch the 300MB/s barrier) but these EP A1 microSDXC cards can still be used in most scenarios. Finally Patriot covers the entire line of EP A1 microSDXC cards with a 3-year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE EP A1 128GB & 256GB

Patriot ships their EP A1 microSDXC cards in blister packs so you can check them out prior to purchasing them.

Compatible devices and OS are listed at the rear of the packages alongside a few words about the product in several languages, the 3 year limited warranty and contact information about Patriot.

Along with the EP A1 microSDXC cards you are also getting SD adapters.

The capacity along with the various performance classes of the cards are all printed at the top.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Memory cards are pretty much identical to flash drives so to make things easier for everyone we'll be using roughly the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read and write data transfer numbers. The benchmark suites we'll be using for our 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 our charts (0 = we were unable to complete that test).

  As with all our storage reviews all tests are performed on our main rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a HyperX Predator 480GB PCIe SSD with all updates installed up to the 18th of January 2019 (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 AIDA 64 and HD Tune Pro).

TEST RESULTS – AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS – HD TUNE PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

CONCLUSION

   As you can all tell just by looking at our charts although the EP A1 microSDXC cards by Patriot may not be the fastest ones to reach our lab to date they do go head to head with several of the latest models by both Kingston and Toshiba and even manage to come up on top in some tests so they are quite fast and certainly as fast (perhaps even slightly faster) as advertised. If we just had to find something wrong with the EP A1 that would be their lack of industrial durability in harsh conditions something which both Kingston and Toshiba offer with some of their models. Of course, this may not be a very important feature to most consumers but it’s always good to know that your memory card can survive conditions like extreme heat (just in case).

   As mentioned earlier in our review UHS-I card prices took a dive when the first UHS-II cards were officially released and so the EP A1 128/256GB MicroSDXC models by Patriot currently retail for just USD22.99/57.78 inside the USA (Amazon.com – 128GB model price while supplies last) and for 40/49Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Combine these prices with their very good performance and the EP A1 cards by Patriot offer the ideal price/performance ratio which is why they deserve our Golden Award.

PROS

- High Performance
- Available Capacities (64/128/256GB)
- 3 Year Limited Warranty
- Included SD Adapters
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Durability Certification (For Some)