Today we have here with us the latest SanDisk Ultra microSD card, that is a refreshment to the older Ultra series which SanDisk retired back in September. As such, breaking our cycle of the high-end card, comes this new refreshed card. Will this card perform better than its predecessor to make its worth or will this card be worse? Let us check it all out for you!

First of all, from the first glance, we can clearly see that the card is pretty much more or less identical to that of the previous variant. Apart from the packaging which writes “Up to 48MB/s”, they are virtually identical.

Similarly, apart from the packaging, even the given accessories are identical: an SD card adapter. So What are the differences, from the physical appearance then? Well, first of all, unlike the old variant, upon first opening the package, we have a paper protective film to cover the plastic portion, as you can see below.

Secondly, there is a difference in the back too. Like the older model, we have the serial and batch details inscribed on the back of the card, with a small little rectangle pop up, but, in this instance, we can see clearly the green board/circuit on the card as well, unlike the full black color coating of the back. That said, there is pretty much nothing else different that we are able to spot at this point of time.

Now, where is this card made in? Well, China! Like the predecessor, this card is too, made in China!

So let us now get straight to the benchmarking of the card. As seen above, this card is UHS-I and class 10 rated which tells us we can expect a minimum performance of 10MB/s for read and write speed.

So let the test begin!

 

Our first test here is the h2testw:

Next, we will run the CrystalDiskMark in various capacities. The first capacity we run it on was 4000MB or 4GB. The result can be seen below:

The next test, we ran the smallest test – 50MB:

And finally, we run the middle sized test, taking the average of 5 attempts:

When compiled into a graph:

So overall, the card has improved by A LOT over the older series, with write speeds becoming so much more consistent now, and not only that, A LOT faster too! Even on the random read and write end, speeds have increased 2 fold. Sequential read speed, however is pretty similar to that of the older model. This card has officially declared war on the Samsung Evo for the throne of best card for mobile. Nonetheless here are the speeds:

READ – 44441KB/s
WRITE – 30687KB/s

With the refreshment of the line, SanDisk has once again put their best foot forward to make their cards relevant again in today’s speed challenges. This card is highly recommended for use in mobile devices and are pretty OK for use for sequential use such as transferring of block files or for the use in the camera. Like the previous card, we weren’t able to find out whether if this card was TLC or MLC based, although we are inclined to believe that this is TLC based. With a price availability of about $45, and a 10 years (Vector Magnetics) or lifetime warranty (Kiara), this card could well be worth the penny!

Note: Model reviewed here is SDSDQUAN-064G.