PNY Elite-X Class 10 U3 V30 microSD Flash Memory Card product reviews

Memory cards are pretty simple things to use, and they may all seem the same at first glance but nothing could be further from the truth. With the rise of devices that can generate extremely large files at a rapid pace - in particular video recording devices such as drones and sports cameras like the GoPro - the need for cards that can be written to at super speeds with absolute reliability is becoming more or less vital. We are well past the days of megabyte storage and not far from the era of terabyte storage. It's not surprising to note that due to the market demands, and the economy of scale this brings, really big cards are showing up with really small pricetags. However, what is also on the rise is the flood of cheap quality knock-off cards with fake branding stamped on them. It's becoming a bit of a minefield trying to find a card that stores heaps, works fast and has a price tag that is not only affordable... and when you toss 'authentic' into the mix, it can seem a bit daunting at times. The basic rule of thumb is that microSD cards are not yet commonly available with more than 512GB of storage space, and if you are buying from online retailers with an open platform - such as Amazon, TomTop, Wish or Aliexpress - the chances are high that a 'real bargain' is more likely to be a gamble you're more likely to lose than win a sharp deal with.

Reliable brands like PNY are still a bit scarce in the NZ marketplace, which is a real shame because they have been in the business of making top quality digital storage devices for a lot longer than you might think, mainly because for most of their life they have been making 'blind brands' to sell to the bigger players to slap their own branding on, so seeing them finally strutting their stuff under their own banner is a huge relief - partly because you're likely to get a better price buying from the maker than their clients, but also because they haven't yet been targetted by the majority of scammers wanting to flog off lower-speed U1 cards with the higher-spec U3 mark printed on them instead. Still, buying from a retail outlet gives you a lot of extra protection under NZ law, putting the burden of sourcing legit products, or handling the fall-out from getting conned, on their shoulders rather than yours.

So, what's the big deal about the PNY Elite-X range then? First and foremost, they are rated at A1 App Performance, meaning that they work fast enough that they can be used to run apps directly off them. Not so much of a big deal for cameras, but really useful if your smartphone has a memory card slot and an OS that allows you to migrate apps from onboard to external memory. Doing this not only frees up space on the device for processing space but is also really handy if you want to take your phone on a work-free holiday and don't want to risk losing any expensive or sensitive software if the handset goes walkies unexpectedly. On a more prosaic level, these cards are U3 rated - which indicates that they can move data at one of the highest sustained speeds possible - as well as being Class-10 rated - which actually doesn't mean a lot since the U-class is a higher standard, so finding a U3 rated card is pretty much all that is relevant. There is also the V-rating on newer cards. These indicate what sort of video data the card can handle, from V6 to V90. This range is rated at V30, which is about the middle of the scale, denoting that they are suitable for HD/FullHD video, but will suffer under the digital assault of trying to save 4K video, and are definitely not suited for the growing trend of recording in 8k resolution. Still, at this price-point, they are aimed at the consumer/enthusiast market, not the studio-quality or cinematic markets. The thumbnail take from that is if your device is small enough you can carry it one-handed, these cards are going to see you right. If your gear requires a body harness or sits on your shoulder... swipe left and go seek bigger price-tagged options.

The specs for this range claim a read-speed of up to 100MB/Sec which is pretty good... if your system can do it, of course. Very few desktops and laptops are fitted with directly-attached microSD card readers - most will have, at best, an onboard SD reader which means slipping the little card into the supplied SD adaptor. However, that hardware spec is not really rated for high-bandwidth transfers, being considered 'legacy tech' these days, so expect reality to fall a wee bit short of the promised land of 100MB/Sec. I tested my card using the supplied adaptor, slotted into a USB 3.2-enabled device and was surprised to see read/write speeds about 1/3rd of the rated maximum. However, in reality, that's still about 2.5x faster than the $100+ microSD cards from another company in the same adaptor and system. If I can get 2.5x faster downloads at a third of the price... why wouldn't I switch brands and go with these, right? Exactly, I wouldn't, and didn't, hesitate. #GoTeamPNY

You may be curious to know the difference between SD, SDHC and SDXC - you'll likely have some SD cards lying around and may have seen SDHC on the packaging hanging in stores. It basically comes down to the generation of the technology, and is directly related to the amount of data you can store on the cards. There are a few technical extras, but they don't help your buying decisions really - just make sure your device is rated for at least SDHC and you'll be OK. "SD" is Gen-1 tech, is slower, and simply stands for "Secure Digital". These cards tend to top out at 2GB of storage space. Great for older devices such as the little point'n'shoot cameras that you can take on holiday and not really worry about them getting damaged, as they can usually be replaced for under $100 these days - the digital equivalent of the old disposable film cameras still popular at stag and hen parties. "SDHC" is Gen-2, rather 'creatively' stands for "Secure Digital, High Capacity" and started with the 4GB cards about 20 years ago. These usually top out at about 32GB and were the first generation to really make a point of showing off their speed/transfer ratings as digital video cameras and smartphones were becoming more commonplace. "SDXC" is Gen-3 - "Secure Digital, eXpanded Capacity" and is where today's tech is at, needing to be at least Class-10/U1/V6 to be taken seriously. The PNY Elite-X may be slightly misnamed, but they are well above this minimum level and do a very good job... in fact, I would go as far as to say they do a great job when you compare them to similarly-priced alternatives. The best card I could find in a similar price bracket was only 32GB and rated at V10. More bytes for your buck, and a bigger pipeline to shove them through.

Overall, while not a groundbreaking bit of kit, they are a definite 'upgrade' when you consider you can buy 2 or 3 of these for the same price as one similarly-spec'd offering from the major brands. You also get the usual 'bonus perk' of dedicated image recovery software - available for free download from the PNY website - that gives you that wee bit extra peace-of-mind should something unfortunate happen. The most common scenario is that your device runs out of juice, or its software crashes in mid-write and the data gets corrupted in some way. Some cards are designed to protect all previously saved data so only the image-in-progress is damaged, however, some devices can corrupt the entire card during a fault-event so having access to software specifically designed for this hardware, at no cost, is a good thing. Pro Tip: When you buy your PNY card, go get the software. Better to have it sitting in your downloads folder, uninstalled, in case you suddenly need it than find yourself fretting for even a minute while your panic-brain tries to figure out how to save the photos of Aunty Mary's 90th that you know you should really have downloaded to PC last week before you took the camera out for a day at the beach.