Lexar Professional 1066x SDXC Card Review
A Solid Mix of Performance and Price
When Lexar offered to send over their latest professional SDXC card for review, I was happy to oblige. It may not be very exciting for PC enthusiasts, but anyone who creates content via video or still photography will probably appreciate fast SD storage.
Our previous look at high-speed SDXC storage included Samsung’s PRO Plus and EVO Plus, cards which offered up to 100 MB/s reads and 90 MB/s writes. These offered very good value, and while my older SanDisk Extreme offered slightly better performance though rated for the same 90MB/s writes, it was a more expensive option at the time.
Speed is the name of the game with Lexar’s Professional 1066x, as our 128GB card is rated for up to 160 MB/s reads and 120 MB/s writes. And, in a refreshing twist amid the 2020-2021 component landscape, these are very reasonably priced for their rated performance. Let’s see if this card manages to hit those lofty numbers.
Product Specifications
- Capacity: 64GB – 512GB
- Speed Class
- 64GB – Class 10, U3, V30
- 128GB – Class 10, U3, V30
- 256GB – Class 10, U3, V30
- 512GB – Class 10, U3, V30
- Performance
- 64GB – up to 160MB/s read, up to 70MB/s write
- 128GB – up to 160MB/s read, up to 120MB/s write
- 256GB – up to 160MB/s read, up to 120MB/s write
- 512GB – up to 160MB/s read, up to 120MB/s write
- Operating Temperature: 0° to 70° C (32°F to 158°F)
- Storage Temperature: -25° to 85° C (-13°F to 185°F)
- Dimension (L x W x H): 32mm x 24mm x 2.1mm / 1.25” x 0.95” x 0.08”
Pricing
$17.99 – 129.99 USD list
Manufacturer Description
“Designed for your DSLR or mirrorless camera, the Lexar Professional 1066x SDXC UHS-I Card SILVER Series lets you quickly capture and transfer high-quality photos, including Full-HD and 4K UHD video with speeds up to 160MB/s read, and up to 120MB/s write. These cards dramatically accelerate workflow from start to finish maximizing your creativity.”
Performance
For testing the 1066x Lexar had sent along a USB card reader of their own make, model LRW450U, which “offers transfer speeds of up to 312MB/s”. I ended up re-testing the Samsung PRO Plus 128GB card with this reader for a baseline, and the numbers matched up to previous efforts, with results just under 100 MB/s with the Samsung card. But Lexar’s Professional 1066x is considerably faster, as you can see:
Read speeds using CrystalDiskMark are consistent with the advertised 160 MB/s, with a speed of 159.61 MB/s achieved at QD1. Sequential write speeds hit 125.38 MB/s in this test. As to ATTO results, as you can see from the above screenshot these were a little below CDM, though still consistently hitting 150 MB/s reads and 120 MB/s writes (it’s worth noting that CDM defaults to a 1 GiB test file, and ATTO defaults to 256MB).
To better illustrate how the Professional 1066x stacks up to the trio of recently-tested 128GB SD cards, here are a couple of charts with results from CrystalDiskMark, run at the default settings for each card:
Obviously we are in a different class of sequential performance here. The only aspect of performance that did not dominate the previously tested cards was 4K random write, which was a touch behind the Samsung cards.
Pricing and Conclusion
Pricing is a big part of the equation with SD cards, as with everything, and Samsung’s pricing was very appealing with the PRO Plus model listed at $25.99 for 128GB – and generally selling for less at retail. Lexar is targeting a more premium market, which makes sense considering the higher performance of these cards. Of course, prices have come down a bit since launch.
Lexar Professional 1066x SDXC Lineup Pricing:
64GB: List $17.99 – currently $17.99, Amazon
128GB: List $33.99 – currently $27.99, Amazon
256GB: List $64.99 – currently $54.99, Amazon
512GB: List $139.99 – currently $119.99, Amazon
The fast read and write speeds from our 128GB Lexar Professional 1066x SDXC sample make it a great option for both photo and video work, and they offer significantly higher performance than the Samsung PRO Plus and EVO Plus SDXC cards we previously looked at – with very attractive prices relative to the current market for pro-level SDXC cards. An easy recommendation.
Just buy it.
- PC Perspective, November 6, 2024
Review Disclosures
This is what we consider the responsible disclosure of our review policies and procedures.
How Product Was Obtained
The product is on loan from Lexar for the purpose of this review.
What Happens To Product After Review
The product remains the property of Lexar but is on extended loan for future testing and product comparisons.
Company Involvement
Lexar had no control over the content of the review and was not consulted prior to publication.
PC Perspective Compensation
Neither PC Perspective nor any of its staff were paid or compensated in any way by Lexar for this review.
Advertising Disclosure
Lexar has not purchased advertising at PC Perspective during the past twelve months.
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Gotta love a product numbered for the Battle of Hastings! I suppose one shouldn’t expect much write endurance out of an SD format product, so I can’t complain much about its omission in the review. Any thoughts about where the flash memory really came from?
Bottom line: thank you, this is useful. If I’m ever in the market for a standard size memory card, I’ll try to remember Lexar is back in the game.
Bro you’re such an idiot. The reason it’s going faster is because you USED LEXAR’S SPECIFIC SD CARD READER. All of these cards are capped around 98MB/s using a standard UHS-I slot. All of the other cards you tested would ALSO GO FASTER, and would even go faster than the Lexar if you used those cards’ own proprietary card reader