8.5.2019

I have a lot of music which I like to have with me because I enjoy listening and because it calms me when I leave home, this means that I rely on the music I take with me to help distract me from the world and that often means the people around me when I visit a friend in London, for this I need a reliable micro memory card to go in my phone or Walkman (depending on how much I feel able to escape the world around me at any particular moment), Recently Amazon had a sale on the Integral micro SD card at 256gb, this is a large and fast memory card which usually command a substantially high price, this is because of the size obviously, but less obvious is the speed at which the card will work,apart from the print and name on memory cards they all look pretty much the same, they need to be the same shape to fit in so many different devices, but the speed is something that isn't seen as such, choose a card that is too slow and whether taking photographs or listening to music the card won't be able to keep up with the demands being put on it, music will pause and start playing again when the data has caught up, it's the same when taking photographs, most of us know the annoying lag of having to wait for the camera to be ready to take a picture, it's not actually the camera, it's the memory card that can't keep up with the demand being put on it, it doesn't matter how good the camera is, if you buy a card that is not meant for photography then the camera can only go at the speed of the memory card, this is why memory cards are different prices, that and the amount of memory on the card, for a fast card with 256gb of memory you can expect to pay £80-£100 and that is a bargain because it allows whatever you are using the card in to work as it was designed to, I know that there are a lot of cheaper cards for sale, but you will miss that once in a lifetime moment if you put that card in your camera, it's the same with music, I don't want to try listening to albums that keep stopping so the the memory can catch up with the player or the headphones, also when you are doing the boring task of putting the music on to the memory card or taking the pictures from the card and putting them onto your computer, that speed will make a huge difference, I put 115gb of music from my computer on to this card, it took less than two hours, I previously tried this with another good make of memory card but it is a slightly slower card, that took a day and a half and the playback was almost as slow, there's nothing wrong with that card, it's just not fast enough for music, always spend that little bit extra for memory cards, they will last much longer, get a card bigger than what you need, part of the memory is taken up by the directory (files that allow the device the card is in to access the files you put on the card) having extra memory allows the card to work at its optimal speed, the more you put on the card the slower it will get after a certain point, it's like wearing clothes that are too tight, you can't move about properly, memory has never been so inexpensive, pay that little bit more and you will be paid back time and time again and you will enjoy your music and photos and any other media that you use because you will not be thinking "is this memory card enough for what I need it to do", gadgets will just work as they were intended.

1.1.2020

I took a punt and ordered the 512GB ultimaPRO model on the 27th Dec19 at a price of £57.99. I say punt as a lot of the reviews for the 128GB and 256GB variants were negative, so I was somewhat sceptical as similar other branded products were marked up at £80+. I can only presume these reviewers fall into one of the following situations:• Did not purchased directly from Amazon and ended up with a random unscrupulous 3rd party seller, which supplied a counterfeit item.• The product was a bad apple of the batch that should of been returned within the returns time window. Alternatively the manufacturer contacted since my item states it has a 5 YEAR warranty,meaning it would of been replaced free of charge.• Misuse/understanding of the product and its limitations (more on this below).Amazon delivered the item on time with my Prime subscription, so no issues there. The MicroSD card arrived in simple packaging, plastic casing held together by cardboard with the items specs accompanied product branding.Speed wise the empty card matched the declared specification from integral, my screenshot shows the benchmarking and Windows 7 file transfer speed. I conducted my testing using a USB 3.0 Lexar MicroSD card reader (as per the attached photographs) with the intended use being to hold MP3 and FLAC music files for my FIIOX3 2nd Gen. So speed wise it lives up to my expectations, though time will tell if this continues to hold true for the life span of this product.A lot of buyers are either unaware or do not understand the difference in storage space advertised and actual available space. The manufacture states on the packaging that 1GB is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes (one billion bytes), which is a multiple of 1,000 (one thousand). However, most modern operating systems use a multiple of 1,024 (one thousand and twenty four), this leads to the disparity in advertised and available storage size. Using the 128GB microSD card as an example:• Manufacture: 128GB (12,000,000,000 bytes) : 1000 x 1000 x 1000 x 128• Operating system: 128GB (137,438,953,472 bytes) : 1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 128As you can tell the operating system sees 128GB as a higher number, due to the higher multiple. So your actual raw capacity seen by the operating system before formatting would be around 122GB+/-. Now format your MicroSD card and add the file system reduces the space further, my Samsung 128GB card this 512GB version is replacing has 119+/-GB once fully setup.Referring to my third bullet point and product limitations, the main one I believe is the item's operating temperature. I managed to thermal throttle the MicroSD card when attempting to copy 500GBs of files in one sitting, causing the card to disconnect. Whilst this card is capable of storing a large volume of data, files should be copied in small batches to allow the MicroSD card to cool in-between. I verified file integrity using SHA1 and MD5 hashes comparing both source and destination files. I investigated the heat issue by applying direct cooling either side of the card (two PC fans blowing cool air at it). This made considerable difference permitting me to copy the full capacity though at a reduced transfer speed and no disconnects.Overall a brilliant card at an attractive price, I hope it stays this way and is reliable

7.7.2020

I've had my fingers burned. Several times.Here on Amazon, I bought a 1TB microSDXC card for £40. Too good to be true? Of course it was.Having never used large capacity cards before, I didn't realise that there are a LOT of fake cards out there. Fortunately what I had planned to do straight away was to copy a load of music files onto the card. The PC took 12 hours to copy everything over but when I checked the card, most files were corrupted or folders empty. Maybe I had done something wrong? So I reformatted the card and tried again. Same thing. My PC told me that the card could hold 1TB of data but anything that I wrote to the card either disappeared or was corrupted.If I hadn't tried to immediately copy so many files, I would have been completely oblivious to the fact that the card was nowhere near 1TB. I contacted the seller via Amazon: they apologised and gave me a full refund.So I tried another 1TB card from another site. Same problem. Again, the seller apologised and gave me a full refund immediately.I started to research what might be going wrong and it is simply that THERE ARE A LOT OF FAKE CARDS! They might be sold as 128GB 256GB 512GB or 1TB but usually they can only hold around 30GB of data. If you write more than this to the card, either the original information is overwritten or the data simply disappears. I was lucky - I was only copying music files that I already had. If you have one of these cards in your camera and you're taking masses of photos and videos, most of them will not be saved.So what did I do? Bought more cheap microSDXC cards of course, hoping each time that SOMEBODY must be selling the real thing. Each time - same problem - card useless - seller apologising and issuing a full refund.HOW TO TEST FOR A FAKE CARD?1. Copy loads of files to the card and check they are all there. (I've found usually anything over 30GB will be corrupted on a fake card).2. Try the app H2testw for Wndows. It writes 1GB of test data to every sector of the card and then reads it back to make sure it has been copied correctly. The program is very thorough but beware - it takes about 12 hours to write the data to a "512GB" card and then potentially another 12 hours to verify the files. However, if the card is fake, error messages will quickly start to show during the "verify" cycle.(Also note that writing files to any SD card seems to tie up the whole PC and even your mouse pointer might not work. I thought there was something wrong with my computer at first but now I've resigned myself to the fact that it's an SD card thing).Anyway, I've tested my Integral 512GB card and IT IS REAL! Finally, a card that is reasonably priced and is going to save my files, not just overwrite them or make them disappear.PLEASE, if you have bought a large capacity SD card and are using it to save photos or videos with your digital camera or phone, run a test on it. Otherwise, once you reach the 30GB limit, anything beyond that may not be recorded and YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING.Finally, remember that a 512GB card will not hold 512GB of your data - at least 10GB is taken up by the file structure on the card so you may only get around 500GB of actual capacity. This is not a problem with the card; it happens on all storage devices.

21.6.2020

I can only give an honest review of this on the basis of what I bought it for, and whether it did what I wanted it to do. The end result was, unfortunately, only a partial success. I'm reviewing the 128GB "8K V30 U3" version incidentally. For some reason my review has been lumped in under a totally different heading...I own a Cowon Plenue D2 MP3 player and every time I switch it on it does a lengthy database update, regardless of whether I have put any new music on it. A bit of digging around on the Internet led me to discover that this only happens when there is a card installed (because SD cards are a lot slower than the internal memory) and I realised that the card I was using was an older model with lower read/write speeds.

23.1.2019

Write speed - across the whole capacity - is 75MB/sec, using Windows 10 and a USB 3.0 card reader. Copied 232GB of 16-bit/44.1 music to it - took about 65 minutes at USB 3.0. Now happily playing in my Fiio X3 2nd gen, but there's a pause of a few seconds or so (nothing more) when using folder view and moving up to Root, but not a problem.I've only got this card today and, so far, am pleased with it. Will update this review if the situation changes. That's why the four stars for Durability and Easy To Install, as I don't know what else to give.Space available when empty 232GB (according to Win 10), and this is as the card arrived - I've not formatted it or done anything else to it.

25.8.2019

I bought this to use with my venerable Samsung Galaxy S 5 android media player as I needed more storage for my growing mp3/wma library, the card I already used was a samsung 64GB evo and the issue I always had was that because the old player will only accept a card if formatted to FAT32 the speed of almost any high capacity sd card I have tried previously would be seriously reduced, however this new integral card is amazingly fast even when formatted to FAT32 way way better than the previous Samsung card! For example when connected to a usb 3.0 card reader I was able to transfer nearly 60GB of music in less than 30mins whereas the the Samsung evo in the same card reader would take over 2 hours!

27.12.2019

Very good value at a bit over £20. Tested capacity using f3 and it passed. Unlike some others. You have to do this as even ones that appear to be impeccably genuine, packaging, labelling etc, will turn out to have 30G capacity and not the 128 or 256 claimed.When reading reviews of flash devices, don't trust ones solely based on usage. Because if you get a 128G unit, and start writing to it, everything will appear to be fine. Until you get over, for instance 30G, at which point it will start to fail. And if you have not run a test package on it, you'll conclude it just that the device has failed, as they do.The rule is: always test all flash devices as soon as you receive them. If they fail,

24.4.2019

Review of: Integral 256GB micro SD card Premium High Speed memory microSDXC Up to 100MB/s V30 UHS-I U3Good perfomance. I get about 87MB/s seq read; 81MB seq write. Then my laptop is several years old, and the SDXC interface isn't super fast, so I'm not complaining.By comparison, on the same hardware, a Lexar Professional 1000x UHS-II 128GB SDXC card gives 82MB/s (seq read) and 50MB/s (seq write). According to cameramemoryspeed.com, this card can achieve 152MB/s (seq read) and 86MB/s (seq write) in a fast card reader.Bought to expand storage on a lightweight mini-laptop/tablet (Intel Atom based Asus T102HA). The mini-laptop/tablet only manages 60MB/s seq read ; 23MB/s seq write.

22.3.2019

I have two Integral micro SD cards now; 128gb and 256gb sized ones. I bought the 128gb for my last phone and was so impressed that the lowest priced "branded" card performed so closely to my SanDisk cards that when it came to get a larger size I didn't look anywhere else. A 256gb SD card for under £28 is priced so far below the competition it's almost no choice at all. These cards are fast enough for 4k and have read and write speeds perfect for my phone. I transferred just over a 100gb of music to the new card at speeds around 60-70mbps.Hopefully the 512gb cards will drop in price soon enough (£100 at time of review). I guess until then I'll just have to make do with mere £28 256gb cards.

11.4.2020

I rarely leave reviews and outright refuse to do so for "free gifts", which is not the case here. Nothing was offered in return for a positive review. So, take it from me when I say this is the absolute BEST super large capacity fast micro SD card you'll find at such an incredible price!I was using the Samsung Evo 256GB micro SD card with my new Nintendo Switch Lite. However, I was constantly finding upon completing downloads of games, that I was unable to play due to "corrupted data". The Samsung card is a good card which does work with other tech, like phones, laptops, cameras etc. But for some reason, it doesn't like Nintendo Switch console's.This Integral card is excellent and works across the board.

27.10.2019

You know what I think? I think that nowadays you have to be simply lucky with electronics, sd cards in this case. I bought lately a micro sd card from a company that I trusted for years. Stopped, really, just stopped working by itself after what, two weeks? I wasn't even able to recover my data. This one, I can already tell that it's gonna be working. First of all it's showing the right amount of space shortly after deleting some files in a file explorer. If you'll delete a file and the remaining free space won't change itself shortly after deletion (and not after rebooting your device) - you can be sure that it'll fail in some time. My first Integral card ever and I'm already sure that I got lucky.

26.8.2019

I purchased four of these 64Gb Integral Ultima Pro sdxc cards for my Osmo Pocket.U3 C10 A1 V30 Good enough specifications for the Osmo Pocket I thought.Every card gives the same result in the Osmo Pocket = Change SD card = Format Failed.Does not even attempt to try to format the cards.Thought that I had been sold FAKE cards ( again )But no, H2TESTW shows that all cards are good.Warning: Only 59359 of 59360 MByte tested.Test finished without errors.You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.Writing speed: 36.1 MByte/sReading speed: 38.2 MByte/sH2testw v1.4The cards format and work perfectly in the GoPro Hero 6.The cards format and work perfectly in the Mavic Pro drone.So OK,

27.11.2019

I bought this 256Gb micro SD card for my Asus Transformer Windows 10 tablet. It is incredible value, comparing very well against the competition. I chose Integral because I had recently bought an Integral 128Gb "Leave-In" flash drive and was astonished by the overall quality, performance and price.I transferred over 120Gb of FLAC music and JPEG images (about 7,000 files) from my network drive (a Western Digital server) to my Asus tablet at speeds with a write speed of around 75Mb/sec. Note that the read speed will be slightly higher. I also tried the SD card in an Asus Android Transformer tablet and an Acer Android tablet.

26.10.2018

I have used Integral cards for decades. Bought maybe as many as 60 (of various capacities) and very few of them did performed below their specified parameters. In general, I rate Integral cards, just below Lexar and better than Sandisk. Yet they are generally cheaper than Sandisk and much cheaper than Lexar.The two 128 GB cards, that I bought few days ago, were tested inside the Asus i7 SD card slot, with the help of "H2testw" utility application ... and the read / write speeds were generally above 72 MByte / second. No doubt, if the cards were tested in dedicated USB 3.0 reader, the speeds would come closer to specified 90 MB/sec write and 100MB/sec read speeds. Both cards were supplied in Integral proprietary cartons,

22.3.2019

This 256GB Micro SD Card was so cheap compared to others on Amazon that I suspected it might be a fake. However the feedback reassured me that it was worth taking a chance.I tested the card in a Sandisk USB3 card reader and these showed that is was definitely 256GB and that it was fast. I have attached a picture of the test results.I am using this to store my music library attached to a Raspberry Pi running Plex. So far it’s performance has been faultless. I will update this review if I have any problems.UPDATE: after almost six months of daily use, during which time it has been powered 24/7 the card is still working perfectly.UPDATE: as the first card was so good I bought a second and it’s performance was the same.

Integral ultimaPRO U3 V30 microSD - Reviews

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