For the average photographer who needs a rugged SD card for a reasonable price, this PNY option is a hard one to beat. The latest UHS-III standard is faster still, with speeds of up to 624MB/sec in both directions simultaneously, while the SD Express standard takes this up to a staggering 985MB/sec. However, neither standard seems to have taken off yet, either in terms of cards or the readers and devices to support them. Should I always buy the fastest card I can afford?

SD cards for 2023: top memory cards for your camera The best SD cards for 2023: top memory cards for your camera

The best microSD cards to buy in 2023 1. Integral Ultima Pro Premium High Speed: Best-value microSD card at higher capacities There are three main types of SD card: SD, SDHC (high capacity) or SDXC (extended capacity). SD cards typically offer 128MB to 2GB in storage capacity, too small for today’s modern cameras with higher resolutions. SDHC bumps this up from 4GB to 32GB, useful for most photographers and videographers. SDXC cards, meanwhile, range from 64GB to 2TB and are aimed at professional-level users who require more memory. Actual transfer speeds under our testing churned out a write speed of 33MB/s and read speed of 82MB/s; not too bad, but the write speed is close to the minimum V30 classification on the label, so that's worth bearing that in mind if write speeds are important to your work.Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test. For added peace of mind, the card comes with a warranty direct from SanDisk giving you a lifetime guarantee should any fault arise (and by lifetime, they mean 30 years). Not bad, considering we probably won’t even need SD cards that far into the future. Consistently fast read speeds and large capacities make this a good choice for recording video at higher resolutions. In our real-world tests, we found that the read and write speeds fared significantly better than other cards in its class. It only dipped 19MB/s shy of the claimed write speed at 241MB/s, making it ideal for larger data transfer such as 4K or 8K video recording, with the read speed only lagging slightly behind at 253MB/s.

SanDisk Ultra 64GB Class 10 SDXC UHS-I Memory Card up to 80MB SanDisk Ultra 64GB Class 10 SDXC UHS-I Memory Card up to 80MB

We test microSD cards in a high-speed USB microSD card reader, connected to a laptop via a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A connection. We use a combination of the CrystalDiskMark and AS-SSD benchmarks to test both sequential read and write speeds and random read/write speeds.Despite being rated faster than the Lexar 1000x, the Lexar Professional 1066x actually uses the slower UHS-I interface. This turns out not to be a big deal, though, as we still measured sequential read speeds of up to 157MB/sec and write speeds of 80MB/sec on our 64GB sample, with the faster 128GB to 512GB versions capable of over 120MB/sec.

SANDISK Extreme Plus Class 10 SDXC Memory Card - 64 GB - Currys SANDISK Extreme Plus Class 10 SDXC Memory Card - 64 GB - Currys

As a result, those hunting for the perfect balance of price and performance don’t need to look any further, and spending just a little more will get you your card bundled with Samsung’s excellent 160MB/sec USB card reader. What more could you want? We think the best SD card for most photographers is the Transcend SDXC UHS-II U3, thanks to its incredible transfer speeds and impressive durability. That said, a more affordable alternative is the SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-I, while the PNY Elite Performance SDXC is ideal for buyers on a budget.Our stand-out best SD card is the Transcend SDXC UHS-II U3. With a Class 10, V90, U3 and UHS-II rating, we thought it would be fast enough to capture almost anything modern devices could throw at it, but we weren’t expecting the speed results we got. On the face of it, the SanDisk Extreme Pro seems overpriced. This U3, V30, UHS-I card is significantly more expensive than the Samsung and Integral competition at most capacities, and when tested on our SanDisk ImageMate Pro card reader it wasn’t any faster, at least on sequential read and write speeds, which were 96MB/sec and 85.4MB/sec respectively. Thanks to the UHS-II technology in the 2000X, we can rely on this card for fast read and write speeds. Though slightly more expensive than its competitors, the Lexar name is known for reliability and consistency in performance when it comes to memory cards. We supply memory for mobile phones and digital cameras specialising in a vast collection of SD Cards, Micro SD Cards and USB Flash Drives. Our range also extends to top brands of electronics, camera accessories, Android accessories, iPhone and iPad accessories, and plenty more. Available with up to 1TB of storage capacity, this is a versatile and good value card for a wide range of stills and video shooters.