INTRODUCTION

   I've always liked taking pictures and shooting videos and even though I've spent quite a bit of money over the years on cameras, camcorders and accessories it's been nowhere near to what some enthusiasts and of course professionals spend. So even though for my needs microSD and SD UHS-I cards are currently just enough to cover my needs (can reach speeds up to over 100MB/s) professionals and even enthusiasts are always looking for something more and although UHS-II cards are very fast (some surpass 300MB/s and upcoming UHS-III models even surpass 600MB/s) the industry decided to take things a step further by introducing the CompactFlash Express (CFexpress) standard (A/B/C). Lexar just released their Professional Gold Series of CFexpress Type-A cards (available in 80/160GB) and with me i have the top of the line 160GB capacity model.

   For more than 25 years, Lexar has been a trusted leading global brand of memory solutions. Our award-winning lineup includes memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, solid-state drives and DRAM. With so many options, it’s easy to find the right Lexar solution to fit your needs. All Lexar product designs undergo extensive testing in the Lexar Quality Labs with more than 1,100 digital devices, to ensure performance, quality, compatibility, and reliability. Lexar products are available worldwide at major retail and e-tail stores. For more information or support, visit www.lexar.com.

   Currently three CFexpress card standards exist all of which are based around PCIe 3.0 NVMe v1.3 specification, Type-A which is based on a single lane design (Gen3x1), Type-B which is based on a dual lane design (Gen3x2) and Type-C which in turn is based on a quad lane design (Gen3x4). These standards allow the CFexpress cards to reach impressive read & write speeds of all the way up to 1000MB/s, 2000MB/s and 4000MB/s respectively (theoretical ones) meaning they are several times faster than the fastest micro SD and SD cards out there today (thus making them ideal even for 8K RAW video recording - Video Performance Guarantee 400 qualification). Now even though there aren't that many cameras that support the CFexpress Type-A and Type-B standard there are actually none that support the Type-C standard which means that in turn media storage manufacturers have yet to release any such cards. So, although due to that i can't really comment on their performance having tested Lexar's CFexpress Type-B card (review here) i have to admit that i was genuinely impressed so let's see how their Type-A model does.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE PROFESSIONAL GOLD 160GB TYPE A

Just like with their previous models Lexar uses a small black box to ship the card in the front of which is taken by a product picture, their logo and the main product features.

A product description is printed at the rear in 10 languages and is placed just over contact information for Lexar.

Just the card is placed inside the box and i think it's worth pointing out that Type-A cards are smaller compared to Type-B and Type-C cards (20x28x2.8mm / 38.5x29.6x3.8mm / 54x74x4.8mm).

Along with their Professional Gold CFexpress Type-A card Lexar also send me their latest CFexpress Type-C and SD Card USB 3.2 Gen 2 card reader.

This card reader supports speeds of up to 1000MB/s (10Gbps) so it's obviously not as fast as their USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 model which can hit double that (still enough for Type-A cards).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Memory cards are pretty much identical to flash drives so to make things easier for everyone I'll be using roughly the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read and write data transfer numbers. The benchmark suites used for memory card tests are HD Tune Pro (Read - Write average and max speeds), AIDA 64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear Read / Random Read - Write performance), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (4GB Read / Write speeds) and ATTO (Average Read / Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into the charts (0 = test was unable to complete).

   Tests are performed on the X79 test rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a HyperX Predator 480GB PCIe SSD with all updates installed up to the day of this review (for ATTO and Crystal Disk Mark cards are formatted using the NTFS file system – however partitions need to be removed for the write tests of both AIDA64 and HD Tune Pro).

* As of April 2020, I’ll be using the X299 test rig for SDXC & microSDXC UHS-II (and above) memory card reviews.
** As of March 2022 the Z590 test rig will be used for CFexpress memory cards.

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   When Lexar reached out and told me they were going to release a new CFexpress card I was really hoping it would be a Type-C one, yes there are no cameras that support them currently but I was and still am very interested in seeing how they will perform. The Type-A card that they did release however is not half bad either since it delivers almost 3 times the performance of the best SD UHS-II card available in the market today. Yes, it’s nowhere near as fast as their Type-B card but it’s not only aimed towards a different segment of the market (not as demanding users) but it should also be compatible with different camera models. Capacity is the sole “issue” i have since 160GB seems way too low, especially when most other cards are available in 256GB and 512GB capacities (some are even available in 1TB). Lexar of course could (and probably will) release higher capacities later on so this “drawback” may not last for long.

   Retailing for no less than USD399.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 318.58Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Professional Gold 160GB CFexpress Type-A card does not come cheap. On top of this it retails for roughly the same as the 256GB Type-B variant and I honestly don’t know why that is. That being said similar cards by other popular brands like SONY retail for even more so there’s that. With all that out of the way thanks to its performance and even capacity the Professional Gold 160GB CFexpress Type-A card by Lexar clearly deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Performance (Up To 900MB/s)
- Price (Compared To The Competition)
- Limited Lifetime Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Available Capacities (80/160GB)