Silicon Power Superior A2 1TB microSDXC Memory Card

Model: Silicon Power Superior A2 1TB microSDXC Memory Card
Manufacturer: Silicon Power
Provided By: Silicon Power

Silicon Power is a relatively new name in the storage industry. Founded in 2003 by a group of professionals specializing in international business, global marketing and technical engineering, the company has already established itself as one of Taiwan's top manufacturers. With an eye for attractive and versatile design, Silicon Power has built its brand around the concept that its customers deserve products that represent who they are in life and mirror their personality. The end result is a variety of uniquely designed storage products including USB flash drives, memory cards and solid-state drives (SSD).

One of the more recent additions to Silicon Power's line of microSD cards is the Superior A2. Available in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities, this microSDXC card meets the UHS-I U3 and the Video Speed Class 30 (V30) standards and, with 100 MB/s read and 80 MB/s write speeds, it can be used to capture high-quality images and extended lengths of Full-HD and 4K Ultra HD video. The Superior A2 is also optimized for app performance on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. With its A2 rating, the card is capable of 4,000 random read and 2,000 random write IOPS which equates to lightning-fast launches and smoother operation of your Android-based smartphone or tablet. To top it all off, the Superior A2 is waterproof, shockproof, temperature-proof and X-ray-proof for use in extreme environments.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what the Superior A2 microSDXC card has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect, we'll take a closer look at Silicon Power's memory card and then see how well it performs. Can it deliver the value and performance we've come to expect from Silicon Power? Keep reading as we find out.

Packaging:

Like most other memory cards, Silicon Power's Superior A2 microSDXC card comes packaged in a cardboard blister pack. The front of the packaging advertises many of the card's key features including its capacity, speed class ratings and its intended use. On the back, there is a bit more information regarding the capabilities of the card as well as its 5 year warranty.

Physical Features:

As you'd expect, Silicon Power's Superior A2 microSDXC card is quite small. It measures 15.0 x 11.0 x 1.0 mm and weighs in at about 0.3g. The card is constructed out of black plastic and has a white and gray label printed on top. Along with the SP logo, the label shows the capacity and speed class ratings.

On the back of the card, you can see a row of connectors as well as the production batch and serial numbers and the country of origin. In this case, Silicon Power's Superior A2 microSDXC card is made in Taiwan.

Performance:

The test system used in this review is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700x CPU, MSI B550 GAMING PLUS motherboard, 16GB (8GB x 2) of Crucial Ballistix 3200 MHz DDR4 memory, Crucial P5 1TB SSD, GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 WINDFORCE OC 6G graphics card and a Lexar Multi-Card 2-in-1 USB 3.1 card reader. For the operating system, I used the latest version of Windows 10 Pro.

To test the performance of Silicon Power's Superior A2 1TB microSDXC card, I ran a series of benchmarks using CrystalDiskMark, ATTO Disk Benchmark and PCMark 10. To get a feel for the "real world" performance, I also copied and pasted 1GB of random files and directories as well as a single 4GB ISO file in Windows Explorer.

CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4:

First, I ran a few quick tests using CrystalDiskMark. This benchmark measures the performance of a storage device by testing its sequential and random read and write speeds.

According to Silicon Power, the Superior A2 microSDXC card is capable of reading at 100 MB/s and writing at 80 MB/s. As you can see, the card exceeded these speeds by a considerable margin in CrystalDiskMark's sequential read and write tests. Unfortunately, the card didn't come close to reaching the A2 rating of 4,000 random read or 2,000 random write IOPS.

ATTO Disk Benchmark 4.01:

I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the Superior A2 microSDXC card's sequential read and write speeds. The tests are run using blocks ranging in size from 512B to 64 MB and the total length set to 256MB.

When tested with ATTO, the Superior A2 microSDXC card's read speeds topped out at about 159 MB/s and its write speeds at 145 MB/s.

PCMark 10 - Data Drive Benchmark:

PCMark 10's Data Drive Benchmark is designed to test drives that are used for storing files rather than applications. You can also use this test with NAS drives, USB sticks, memory cards, and other external storage devices. This benchmark produces an overall score as a measure of drive performance. Comparing devices is as simple as comparing scores. The tests also measure and report the bandwidth and average access time for the drive.

"Real World" Benchmark:

To test the "real world" performance of Silicon Power's Superior A2 microSDXC memory card, I copied and pasted 1GB worth of randomly generated files and directories. All of the files are between 1KB and 95MB in size and no more than five directories deep. To see how well the cards handled large files, I also copied and pasted a 4GB ISO file.

Silicon Power's A2-rated card performed very well here, taking 16 seconds to write 1GB worth of test data and a mere 11 seconds to read it back.

Final Thoughts:

Silicon Power's Superior A2 microSDXC card is an excellent choice for the consumer looking for fast, yet affordable, storage for their smartphone, tablet, drone, or portable gaming console. The card is waterproof, dustproof, temperature-proof and X-ray-proof and, with capacity options ranging from 64GB to 1TB, you can store up to 157,600 songs, 300,800 photos, or 48 hours of 4K Ultra HD video. The Superior A2 microSDXC card is also UHS Speed Class 1 (U3) and Video Speed Class 30 (V30) rated and is capable of delivering some impressive performance numbers. In our tests, the 1TB version of the card was able to read at speeds as high as 167 MB/s and write at more than 149 MB/s. Compared to other, standard microSD cards, the Superior A2 also performed fairly well when doing random reads and writes. However, its IOPs didn't come close to what an A2-rated card should be capable of.

Silicon Power's Superior A2 microSDXC card is available now in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities. Prices on Amazon.com currently range from $8 up to $88 for the 1TB version reviewed here.