SanDisk Extreme 1TB microSD Review

TweakTown's Rating: 91%

The Bottom Line

With performance, capacity and reliability on its side, the Extreme is one hell of a microSD solution!

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Finishing up our barrage of microSD reviews this month is the SanDisk Extreme. The Extreme moniker has long been synonymous with performance and more recently SanDisk has added a Pro and Plus to further segment their solutions into categories. With that, the standard Extreme has become their mainstream device.

With the launch of the Extreme 1TB microSD solution, SanDisk is taking aim at every market that utilizes the microSD form factor. Some of these include Android smartphones, action cameras, and drones while its perfectly acceptable for use in cameras or gaming devices like the Switch. This new solution has several speed class certifications that include V30 and A2 for application performance and video along with the standard UHS-I and U3.

Speaking on the performance, the Extreme is slated to offer 160 MB/s read, and 90 Mb/s write with capacity options ranging from 32GB to 1TB. Compatibility extends to most devices with a microSD port but do check with your device vendor for capacity limitations. MSRP of the 1TB SanDisk Extreme microSD comes in at $449.99 with a lifetime warranty.

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The packaging gives us capacity and performance to the right while above, we have several use cases including Android, drones, and action cameras. Down below, we have branding and the card centered.

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The back goes into more detail, including warranty information.

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As for the card itself, we have gold and red colorway with capacity listed next to the A2 logo. To the left, we have the full-size SD adapter that comes with.

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The backside offers regulatory information and internal model number for the microSD.

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As for performance, I was able to run this card through testing with the system below. In this case, I was able to reach 160 MB/s read, and 102 MB/s write.

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Adding in a second test to verify performance, I ran the microSD through CDM. In this case, I was able to get 167 MB/s read, and 106 MB/s write.

With SD cards only recently hitting 1TB, it really caught me off guard when SanDisk sent over a note saying they had 1TB microSD samples available. On top of this, they didn't use their Ultra value-based lineup to deliver this capacity but rather went to the Extreme, offering performance that pushes past the standard 90 MB/s read and write of old solutions.

Adding to this is build quality, and I can honestly say I've never had a bad SD card from SanDisk and this 1TB delivers on that same promise, a promise that's backed by a lifetime warranty.

As mentioned above, performance far exceeds solutions of the past and even exceeds marketing performance by a few numbers. In my testing, I was able to reach 167 MB/s read, and 102 MB/s write.

All of that leads us to pricing which has this card at $449.99 and a lifetime warranty and not one competing product in the current market.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z370 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i3 8350K (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB 4x8GB DDR4 3200 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H115i (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Air 540 (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 250GB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)
• Wi-Fi NIC: ASUS PCE-AC88 (buy from Amazon)
• 10Gbe NIC: ASUS XG-C100C (buy from Amazon)
• Thunderbolt 3: ASUS Thunderbolt EX3 (buy from Amazon)