Patriot LX 256GB MicroSDXC Testing and Benchmarks
In testing the Patriot LX 256GB microSDXC card, I inserted it on Kingston’s MobileLite G4 USB 3 adapter and plug it on my desktop PC (via a USB 3 port). I used ATTO Disk Benchmark tool, CrystalDiskMark, AS SSD, AJA System and Anvil’s Storage Utilities to benchmark the microSDXC card’s performance. Below are the results:
ATTO Disk Benchmark
Just to give you an idea, below are benchmark results I got while testing the Lexar 633x microSDXC USH-I 64GB and SanDisk Extreme 64GB microSDXC. All three are microSDXC cards, but the Lexar and SanDisk have smaller capacities. They also differ in terms of pricing and write speeds. It’s not really an apple to apple comparison and these are not the direct competition of the Patriot LX Series microSDXC cards. I included them just to give you an idea how other microSDXC cards may perform, and they are currently the only microSDXC cards I have on hand.
CrystalDiskMark Benchmark
AS SSD Benchmark
AJA System Benchmark
Anvil’s Storage Benchmark
0-Fill Compressible Test
46% Compressible (Applications) Test
100% Incompressible Test
Patriot LX Series 256GB MicroSDXC Review: Conclusion
The Patriot LX 256GB MicroSDXC’s performance is impressive and it’s not that far from the advertised “up to 90 MB/s of transfer speed”. I don’t usually believe in advertised speeds because most of the time they are not telling the whole story. Some companies advertised that you can get (for example) up to 100MB/s of transfer speed. But what they didn’t tell you is that it’s just read speed, and write speed could be (much) slower than that.
In the case of the LX series microSDXC card we got here, sequential read speed was pretty much spot on. I was able to get as high as 90MB/s+ on sequential read speed. However, it’s not the same for the sequential write speed. Depending on the benchmark test, write speed was playing from ~70MB/s+ to ~80MB/s++. It’s not that bad actually, considering that it’s close to 90MB/s.
The Patriot LX 256GB microSD comes with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $199 at launch. However, at the time this article was published, current retail price is around $149.99 on Amazon.com and around £159.99 on Amazon UK. The LX series microSD card does come with a hefty price tag. But take note that this is a high performance, large capacity drive. Similar high performance 256GB capacity microSDXC from the competition is priced similarly; with the “up to 95MB/s or up to 100MB/s” being priced higher. There are some cheaper alternatives, but don’t expect to get the same high performance or capacity. Please take note that prices change from time to time; sometimes they go up, but they tend to go down in the future. If you ever see the LX series cheaper than the competition, grab it.
Finally, the Patriot LX Series 256GB microSDXC card is a great storage option, offering fast read/write speeds and large capacity. If you don’t need the speed or the capacity, I wouldn’t recommend this card to you. Patriot Memory has other and (way) cheaper options for non-Pro users. However, if you need a large storage capacity and you need that speed for transferring files, capturing photos (specially RAW format), or record HD or even Ultra HD videos; consider the LX 256GB microSDXC on your top list.
