Other by stefan @ 2016-03-07
The EXCERIA PRO M401 from Toshiba has left us with a very good impression regarding its performance, not only matching the rated speeds (and even exceeding the read one) but also succeeding to beat our previous Silicon Power 32GB SDXC card. While the speedy PRO M401 does not have a 128GB variant we can find it with 64GB, 32GB and 16GB capacities, all bundled with the data recovery solution from LC Technology.
At first we would like to thank Toshiba Corporation for offering a sample of their EXCERIA PRO M401 64GB microSDXC Card for testing and reviewing.
“Toshiba is a world leader and innovator in pioneering high technology, a diversified manufacturer and marketer of advanced electronic and electrical products spanning information & communications systems; digital consumer products; electronic devices and components; power systems, including nuclear energy; industrial and social infrastructure systems; and home appliances. Toshiba was founded in 1875, and today operates a global network of more than 740 companies, with 204,000 employees worldwide and annual sales surpassing 6.3 trillion yen (US$68 billion).”
RECORD AND PLAY IN 4K AND FULL HD
Now you can shoot your special moments in 4K or Full HD with your smallest devices. That's because the EXCERIA PRO™ microSD™ card series supports UHS I speed class U3 for 4K video recording and playback.
THE SPEED YOU NEED
With read speeds of up to 95 MB/s and write speeds of up to 80 MB/s, you can keep up with the action around you. When you're done shooting, you'll enjoy ultra-fast file transfer.
READY, SET, ACTION
The high performance and small size makes the EXCERIA PRO™ microSD™ card series the perfect choice for sports and action cameras.
WORK UNDER TOUGH CONDITIONS
Since the cards were specifically designed for outdoor video recording and photography, we made sure they will perform under extreme conditions. That's why they are shockproof and waterproof.
CATCH SOME RAYS
No worries at the airport security check or at your sunny vacation destination. The cards are x-ray proof to protect your precious memories.
STORE MORE MEDIA
Adding a microSD™ card lets you store more of your favorite media. For example, with 64 GB you can store 960 minutes of video, 15,250 photos or 480 hours of music - all in high quality.
QUALITY YOU CAN TRUST
Toshiba is the inventor of flash memory, and has a well-earned worldwide reputation for producing high quality technology.
The latest card we are going to look at from Toshiba is also a microSDXC model but this time a high-performance one supporting UHS speed class 3 instead of 1. It is no surprise that the packaging model is similar to the last two products, showing us the rated read (and now also write) speeds; Toshiba also steps up and recommends this card for 4K video recording too:
On the back side we will get to see that this product is backed by a 5-year warranty from the manufacturer, the approximate usable capacity in multiple languages, but also a SDHC & SDXC compatibility notice:
Besides the actual product along with the SD adapter which are held in a separate compartment, we will also receive one small leaflet with a code which activates the LC Technology Data Recovery Software; the down side is the fact that the software will be valid for only one year from the day we activate the key and download the data recovery software:
Let’s remove the products from the plastic enclosure and take a closer look:
If we do a quick check, we will get to see that the SD adapter does sport the same code name as the one we have received along with the M301-EA product:
A locking mechanism is available for setting the data in read-only mode:
Unlike the N301 and M301-EA, the M401 does feature an all-white background on the frontal side, while the product logo, supported standards and storage capacity are written with grey accents; the product logo is, though, black:
On the back side we will spot again the eight gold-plated contacts along with a small sticker with product serial numbers:
Right after we navigate to the web address mentioned on the leaflet, we will be welcomed by a page which lets us download the respective software, for both Windows and MAC platforms:
After installing the application, first we will have to head to the mentioned web address on step one and enter up the provided code from Toshiba; that web page will process the entered values and supply us with a secondary code which will be entered in the activation code area:
If all went well, the trial mode will be disabled and we will have full access to the application; in order to use it we will have to go through the included wizard stages:
In case we click on the About icon, we will get to see that this software was intended only for Toshiba CF/SD card customers:
In the first wizard step, we will have to specify the type of files we would like to have recovered, along with the manufacturer of our device:
A list of detected devices will be shown next:
We can check the options we have configured from Step 3 and now we can also specify where the recovered data should be saved:
The scanning procedure will take a while and if files are found, the software will try to recover them:
The testbench was composed from the following hardware:
CPU: Intel I5 4690K Retail @ stock
Motherboard: BIOSTAR GAMING Z97X
RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 4x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)
Video: Sparkle GTX 470 with stock and OMNI A.L.C.
Power Supply: Nexus RX-8500 850W modular
HDD: OCZ Vertex 4 240GB SSD
Case: Thermaltake Armor+ LCS, stock cooling
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64
The Toshiba EXCERIA PRO M401 64GB microSDXC Card comes formatted exFAT:
As before with the N301 and M301-EA, we have observed 16MB of unallocated space:
To determine the flash drive read speeds, the HD Tune v5 utility was used:
To measure the real life performance, I have used the Total Commander application to copy to the flash drive and from the flash drive the same file and recorded the transfer speeds, when they have stabilized.
File Copy
File Read
The EXCERIA PRO M401 from Toshiba has left us with a very good impression regarding its performance, not only matching the rated speeds (and even exceeding the read one) but also succeeding to beat our previous Silicon Power 32GB SDXC card. While the speedy PRO M401 does not have a 128GB variant we can find it with 64GB, 32GB and 16GB capacities, all bundled with the data recovery solution from LC Technology.
Thanks to the increased write speeds, we can also use the product for recording 4K video and also direct playback. The cards were specifically designed for outdoor usage, so the manufacturer has made sure that they will perform well in any condition, mentioning that they are shockproof and waterproof.
Regarding pricing, we will be able to find the 64GB version for about 40 Euros, the 32GB for 21 Euros, while the 16GB can be picked up for about 12 Euros.
We would like to thank again to Toshiba Corporation for making this review possible!