Samsung PRO Plus Review: Fast microSD card with 1 terabyte of memory

Whether drone, action cam or handheld: many devices require a microSD card for memory expansion. However, in times of big games and 4K or 8K videos, 128 GB is no longer enough. This is where the Samsung PRO Plus comes into play, which offers up to 1 terabyte of storage space and scores with fast read and write speeds. Our test.

The manufacturer does not include an SD card adapter with the Samsung PRO Plus microSD card, which comes in a dark blue color. Instead, the memory card comes with a USB 3.0 adapter, which is designed to enable the full speed of the card via USB-A.

This is very practical, as it allows the card to be used on PCs and notebooks that do not have a card reader. The microSD card is also extremely robust and comes with a six-fold resistance to environmental influences.

It can be used between -25 degrees Celsius and 85 degrees Celsius, is waterproof at a depth of up to two meters, X-ray-proof, magnet-resistant, drop-proof and wear-free with up to 10,000 mating cycles. In concrete terms, the resistance is as follows:

A genuine and particularly durable all-rounder that is also covered by a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty.

The Samsung PRO Plus offers a sequential read speed of up to 180 MB/s and a sequential write speed of up to 130 MB/s. This makes it one of the fastest microSD cards. This makes it one of the fastest microSD cards, with the SD Express cards from Samsung even reaching up to 800 MB/s – but of course at a significantly higher price.

However, this is due to the interface, as the PRO Plus uses the generally accepted UHS-I standard. However, this achieves a maximum of 104 megabytes per second at peak times – so if you want to take advantage of the full speed of the microSD card, you need an end device that also enables corresponding speeds.

High and stable speeds are of course particularly important for photo and video cameras, drones and action cams, but also for gaming handhelds. If you want to use the Samsung PRO Plus with the USB adapter like a USB stick, you can do so – but fast USB sticks offer more speed, not to mention external SSDs and hard disks.

Nevertheless, Samsung does not promise too much in terms of speed. Using my external card reader, I achieved a speed of around 95 megabytes per second reading and 88 MB/s writing in the benchmark test.

My SanDisk Extreme Pro SD card, which is rated at 170 MB/s, achieves exactly the same values. On a faster reader, the manufacturer’s specifications can therefore be regarded as realistic. The microSD card can then really call up the full speed via the enclosed USB adapter.

The PRO Plus is also available in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 terabyte. The latter offers space for 47.1 hours of 4K videos or 437,298 4K photos. More than enough space, including for handhelds and drones.

With the Samsung PRO Plus, the manufacturer has created a really high-quality, robust and fast micoSD card that is suitable for numerous areas of application. The promised speeds of 180 MB/s / 130 MB/s can actually be achieved in correspondingly fast devices and card readers, or with the help of the USB adapter.

However, the price is somewhat higher than that of the competition – microSD cards with 1 terabyte storage capacity are available from around 80 euros. But then not at this speed. So it’s worth buying if you want to expand your drone, camera, handheld etc. with a large and fast memory.

Fast and robust microSD card that comes with a practical USB-A adapter and is well worth the money.