We invest a lot of our hard-earned dollars in the best smartphones, drones, and action cameras that we can afford, but when it comes to the storage cards these devices rely on, many of us settle for a low-cost option from a no-name brand.
I hate being the bearer of bad news, but the microSD card you choose for your device can make or break your experience. That’s why I’ve spent countless hours sifting through a myriad of products to identify the best cards on the market. I personally use these storage cards in all my devices, and they’ve never let me down.
Also: What do all those microSD and SD card numbers and letters mean?
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What is the best microSD card right now?
Over the years, I’ve conducted hands-on testing on numerous microSD cards across numerous devices, evaluating features like capacity, price, performance, and durability. This experience has given me a comprehensive understanding of their performance in real-world scenarios, and the downfall of trusting poor quality or counterfeit cards.
Based on this extensive testing, here are my top picks for the best microSD cards, with the SanDisk Extreme microSDXC standing out as the best overall choice for its consistent quality, performance, and reasonable price.
The best microSD cards of 2025
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Why we like it: Tell me you need a microSD card, and chances are, this is the one I’ll recommend. I’ve been using SanDisk microSD cards in smartphones, tablets, action cams, dashcams and drones for years now, and I’ve not had one let me down.
Quality doesn’t have to come at a price, either. You can pick up a 2TB card for just $180, with a 1TB card costing only $90.
This is consistently one of the highest-rated microSD cards in online reviews but be careful as there are a lot of poor-quality knockoffs out there.
Who it’s for: Professionals looking for a workhorse card that’s fast enough and reliable enough to handle hard use.
Who should look elsewhere: If you need something specialized, like a high-endurance card or one that supports the microSD Express standard, look elsewhere.
SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I tech specs: Capacity: From 32GB to 2TB | Offload speed: Up to 240MB/s | Write speed: Up to 140MB/s | Performance rating: 4K and 5K UHD-ready with UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) and Video Speed Class 30 (V30) | In-app performance rating: A2 (up to 4000 read IOPS, 2000 write IOPS)
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Why we like it: Lexar, a brand I’ve trusted for well over a decade, released a new microSD card — the Lexar Professional Silver Plus microSDXC. The storage card combines professional-grade performance and reliability at a budget-friendly price, and I recently put it to the test.
The card is rated with a video class speed of V30 and a UHS speed rating of U3, meaning it can achieve a minimum of 30 MB/s. It also boasts an Application Performance Rating of A2, indicating it can handle 4,000 IOPS minimum random reads, 2,000 IOPS minimum random writes, and 10 MB/s minimum sustained sequential writes.
Review: Lexar Professional Silver Plus microSDXC
In terms of performance, this card is perfect for 4K video capture in H.265 format, which is more than enough for most people’s needs. It’s solid and reliable, and it comes with a great warranty and free recovery software in case you accidentally delete important footage.
Who it’s for: This is the card for those wanting a bit more speed than the SanDisk cards offer.
Who should look elsewhere: If you’re paying for a bit extra performance, make sure that you hardware gives you that!
Lexar Professional Silver Plus microSDXC Memory Card tech specs: Capacity: From 128GB to 1TB | Offload speed: Up to 205MB/s | Write speed: Up to 150MB/s | Performance rating: 4K and 5K UHD-ready with UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) and Video Speed Class 30 (V30)
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Why we like it: This is the card I recommend to those who either are in love with the Amazon Basics brand, or who are scared to buy another brand for fear of getting a counterfeit card.
I’ve used these cards a lot in applications where speed is not a concern — such as dashcams — and they’ve all performed as advertised.
Reviews on outlets such as Amazon are highly positive, with buyers being surprised that something on the Amazon Basics brand can be so good.
Who it’s for: Anyone who is worried about counterfeit cards or wants a cheap card to pop into a smartphone.
Who should look elsewhere: High-end pros looking for the best performance need something faster than this.
Amazon Basics Micro SDXC Memory Card tech specs: Capacity: From 32GB to 512GB | Offload speed: Up to 100MB/s | Write speed: Up to 60MB/s | Performance rating: 4K and 5K UHD-ready with UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) and Video Speed Class 30 (V30)
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Why we like it: If you’re going to be doing a lot of writing to a microSD card, these are the cards for you. They are designed to offer up to 16 years of continuous recording time for the 256GB version. In addition, they offer read and write speeds of up to 100 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 40 MB/s, respectively.
Review: Samsung Pro Endurance MicroSDXC Card
These also come in even more affordable twin-pack of cards.
I’ve read countless reviews on Reddit and Amazon for these cards, and the claims of high endurance seem to translate into real-world usage.
Who it’s for: This is a must for dashcams and video cameras.
Who should look elsewhere: Don’t bother putting this inside a phone or camera or drone, there are no benefits.
Samsung Pro Endurance MicroSDXC Card tech specs: Capacity: From 32GB to 256GB | Offload speed: Up to 100MB/s | Write speed: Up to 40MB/s | Performance rating: 4K and 5K UHD-ready with UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) and Video Speed Class 30 (V30)
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Why we like it: Speeds offered by plain old microSD cards are good enough for most things, but gaming puts extra pressures on hardware. This creates the need for faster cards that can leverage the sort of data bandwidth that PCI Express/NVMe interfaces has to offer.
PNY has come out with microSD Express cards that are up to 4.4x faster than standard UHS-I microSD cards. This means that this tiny card offers up to 890MB/s read speeds and up to 550MB/s write speeds. In addition, microSD Express cards are backward compatible with UHS-I and UHS-II host devices at the relevant speeds. These are perfect for the
Note that you’ll need a specific microSD Express card reader to get the highest possible speeds from microSD Express cards when using a card reader.
Who it’s for: Got a Nintendo Switch 2? This is for you. Want to future-proof a card purchase? This is for you.
Who should look elsewhere: Unless you have a device that supports microSD Express, there’s no point buying this card because it’ll only run and the downgraded speed.
PNY microSD Express microSD Card tech specs: Capacity: From 128GB and 256GB | Offload speed: Up to 890MB/s | Write speed: Up to 550MB/s | Performance rating: 4K and 5K UHD-ready with UHS Speed Class 3 (U3), Video Speed Class 30 (V30), and microSD Express compatible. | In-app performance rating: A1 (up to 1500 read IOPS, 500 write IOPS)
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ZDNET’s pick for the best overall microSD card is the SanDisk Extreme, but you can have different cards for different applications. For example, one person might favor performance, while another might want high endurance, and another be budget conscious.
Thankfully, there are numerous options for extra storage that can range from just a few dollars to over a hundred, with different storage offerings and read and write speeds.
|
Brand |
Price |
Capacity |
Read speed (MB/s) |
Write speed (MB/s) |
|
SanDisk Extreme |
$10 to $180 |
32GB – 2TB |
190 |
130 |
|
Lexar Professional Silver Plus |
$28 to $90 |
128GB – 1TB |
205 |
150 |
|
Amazon Basics |
$12 to $68 |
128GB – 1TB |
100 |
60 |
|
Samsung Pro Endurance |
$19 to $30 |
32GB – 256GB |
100 |
40 |
|
PNY microSD Express cards |
$39 to $120 |
128GB – 512GB |
890 |
550 |
*MSRP at the time of writing. Please note that actual prices may vary depending on available sales, deals, discounts, and coupons.
ZDNET’s pick for the best overall microSD card is the SanDisk Extreme, but narrowing down the best microSD card isn’t an easy task. Check out our other top picks and see how they compare to each other, and to your needs.
|
Choose this microSD card brand… |
If you… |
|
SanDisk Extreme |
Want a fantastic all-rounder suitable for most applications. |
|
Lexar Professional Silver Plus |
Want a professional, pro-grade card without the eye-watering cost. |
|
Amazon Basics |
Are worried about counterfeit cards with more prominent brands. |
|
Samsung Pro Endurance |
Are recording 24/7/365 to the card with CCTV or use it in a body cam or dash cam. |
|
PNY microSD Express |
These cards are aimed at devices — such as the Nintendo Switch 2 — that support microSD Express standard which is 4.4x faster than standard UHS-I microSD cards. |
ZDNET only recommends products we ourselves have tested or researched, a process that’s The process is rooted in rigorous testing, real-world application, and decades of expertise. While there are countless microSD cards available on the market, not every card is built the same.
Here are some other factors I considered when testing and curating my top selections.
- Real-world use: When I test microSD cards, I use them in a variety of systems from cameras and drones to CCTV systems under both easy and harsh conditions, to get a feel for how they actually work in the real world. This hands-on approach ensures that the cards recommended are not only fast on paper but also dependable in real-world applications.
- Brand trust: I’ve been a photographer and videographer for a couple of decades, and a drone operator for close to ten years, and during that time I’ve had the chance to use all these microSD cards in real-world situations. These are the brands of cards that I use and trust.
- Benchmarks: I’m also quite a nerd, and have carried out both real world and synthetic benchmarks on these storage cards. For benchmarking I use AmorphousDiskMark and BlackMagic Disk Speed Test.
Latest microSD card news
The biggest thing to hit the microSD card world in recent weeks is the rollout of microSD Express cards for the Nintendo Switch 2. There will no doubt be more devices coming out that support this standard over the coming months, so keep an eye out.
Alos, prices are coming down quite rapidly. Storage prices do this, but there’s a lag in this being passed on to consumers. Now 1TB cards $90, when not long ago they retailed at over $1,000, and monster 2TB cards only $180.
The main difference between an SD card and a microSD card is size. SD cards are larger, measuring 32mm x 24mm x 2.1mm, while microSD cards measure 15mm x 11mm x 1mm.
Both types of cards come in similar capacity ranges and performance classes.
Due to their larger size, SD cards are commonly used in devices with more space to accommodate them, such as digital cameras, camcorders, and older laptops. These devices often have dedicated SD card slots, making the larger form factor a non-issue.
MicroSD cards on the other hand are ideal for smaller, more portable devices like smartphones, tablets, drones, action cameras, and even some gaming consoles. Their small footprint allows manufacturers to save space in compact devices while still providing expandable storage.
No. In fact, I’ve seen people run into troubles and lose a lot of data doing this, not so much because of the microSD card, but because of their own bad practices. A terabyte microSD card can hold a lot of data, but that can lead to problem if you don’t regularly empty it and one day your camera falls into the sea or your drone flies away never to be seen again.
This is why I prefer having a handful of smaller cards. This way I change them regularly, and if the worst happens and I do lose data, the loss is limited.
The other reason is money — you usually pay a premium for the highest capacity cards, and the sweet spot in terms of price versus capacity is usually somewhere in the middle.
MicroSD Express is a next-generation flash memory card standard that focuses on performance. These cards are capable of up to 880 MB/s and write speeds of up to 650 MB/s, and hitting sustained write speeds around 210 MB/s, a huge improvement over traditional microSD cards, which rely on older UHS-I or UHS-II interfaces.
MicroSD Express cards are backward compatible with devices that support microSD UHS-I, although they will operate at reduced speeds in such devices. The most mainstream device to support microSD Express is the new Nintendo Switch 2, which require these high-speed cards.
Very robust.
I’ve been using microSD cards for closer to two decades now, and they’re incredibly durable. MicroSD cards are built to withstand extreme weather conditions, and are temperature-proof, waterproof, drop-proof, shockproof, and even X-ray proof.
It can be hard to do this. The way many find out is that their card either dies or doesn’t have anywhere near the stated capacity.
Other, more subtle giveaways include the printing on the card being poor quality, blurry, or even containing typos. The packaging itself also usually feels cheap.
Windows users can also use software tools to check the validity of their microSD cards, tools such as h2testw, USB Flash Drive Tester, and ChipGenius.
Another way it to carry out a speed check test using a tool such as BlackMagic Disk Speed Test or CrystalDiskMark and checking your results against the specs on the card’s packaging or the internet. If they are dramatically different — say by 20% or more — then you could have a fake card (or something is wrong with your test system or card reader).
The best way to avoid counterfeits is to buy from a reputable outlet.
Latest Updates
The October update sees small price drops of about $5 across the board, with the smaller capacities seeing the biggest of these price cuts.
For the September update, we’ve been careful to update all the prices, because there has been a lot of ups and downs — thankfully mostly downs. For example, the 2TB SanDisk Extreme dis below the $185 mark.
Other microSD cards worth considering
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Here’s a 5-pack of 32GB microSD cards for under $20.
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This Lexar E-Series offers three 128GB microSD cards in one pack.
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