XLR8 Gaming microSDXC Flash Card
The PNY XLR8 Gaming microSDXC Flash Card is a flexible flash card that can be used for many purposes. It is designed to work best with gaming devices and in our tests, it did an admirable job performing with a Nintendo Switch. The benchmark tests showed that the flash card's read/write speeds weren't as fast as the specs stated. Aside from that, it's a stable flash card.
- DESIGN
- EASE OF USE
- PRICE
Flash card enhances the gaming experience.
If there is one accessory I can never seem to have enough of, it’s storage options. I love having a variety of SD cards, flash drives, external hard drives, and even microSD cards on hand in case I need them for any reason. One of the things I’ve been amazed about is how some flash cards – like the XLR8 Gaming microSDXC Flash Card from PNY – are built to work best with gaming devices. I was ecstatic to be able to add one to our arsenal of storage.
DETAILS
The PNY XLR8 Gaming microSDXC Flash Card comes in three different capacities – 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. It is a class 10, U3, V30 flash card and is compatible with mobile devices and portable gaming consoles. It has a sequential read speed up to 100MB/s and a sequential write speed of 90MB/s. The card features A2 app performance and can run games directly from the microSD card. The flash card is compatible with mobile devices and portable gaming devices – like the Nintendo Switch.
USER EXPERIENCE
The XLR8 Gaming microSDXC Flash Card was packaged in a pretty standard memory card wrapper. It was mainly a cardboard backing, but the flash card itself was raised up in a plastic window. I wish there was actually a better, more useful way to package flash cards, but realistically, they are so small that any other way of packaging it probably wouldn’t be practical.
The front of the package outlines all the main details of the flash card and the back has a lot of fine print in multiple languages. The main colors of the package are black and red while the flash card is white with red and black lettering. To get into the package, I used a small pocket knife to cut open the plastic.
After puncturing the plastic, the card slips right out and you can insert it into your device. Because this flash card is designed to work specifically with gaming devices, I inserted it into our Nintendo Switch and was impressed with how quickly games loaded and saved with it instead of the previous card I had included.
In addition to basic performance testing, I ran some other benchmark tests using my MacBook Air to check the data transfer speed of the flash card. Those tests include Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, AJA System Test Lite, and a real-time drag-and-drop speed test. I plugged the card into my Kensington Thunderbolt Dock, which was connected to my computer using a Thunderbolt 3 cable. The card appeared on my desktop as a mounted drive with the label “untitled.”
The System Profiler also detected the card and showed that it was formatted as exFAT and had 511.95 GB of available space. After confirming that the card was connected properly to my computer, I ran the Blackmagic Speed Test and AJA System Test Lite. After both of those tests concluded, I did a drag-and-drop test. I transferred a folder with 3.1GB of files and timed how long it took to transfer that folder with the stopwatch function on my iPhone. I have included a table below of the test results.
| READ | WRITE | TRANSFER RATE | |
| Blackmagic Disk Speed Test | 89.4 MB/s | 83.8 MB/s | |
| AJA System Test Lite | 87 MB/s | 77 MB/s | |
| Drag-and-Drop Test | 57.4 MB/s |
CONCLUSION
While the speeds weren’t quite up to spec with the ‘official’ details, the XLR8 Gaming microSDXC Flash Card still performed admirably when playing games. I didn’t have any issue accessing saved games and I think it’s a solid option for using with portable gaming devices.
