In the world there is certainly no shortage of USB sticks or Micro-SD cards, what is not common to find are USB sticks or Micro-SD cards that are able to offer a good level of performance at an attractive price. Two supports produced by Toshiba that we have had the opportunity to try in recent days belong to this category. These are the Flash Drive Transmemory U365 and the Exceria M303 MicroSDXC
Flash Drive Transmemory U365, faster than promises
Flash Drive Transmemory U365 is a classic USB stick that would not have anything special if it were not for the retractable connector (not common in all competing products) and the excellent speed promised. More than anything else, what draws attention to this USB stick (with Type-A connector) is its speed. Toshiba invented NAND memories in 1987 and with the BiCS FLASH chips it uses in these pen drives it proves really ambitious. In this price range it represents in fact one of the best keys for declared performances.
We have tried to put Toshiba's promises to the test and we have to say that the promises are not only kept but also exceeded. In the tests we in fact touched in the exFAT formatted version the 166 MB / s in writing; with Mac formatting we have reached over 210 MB / s (about 16 in writing). Excellent speeds since we are talking about a 17 euro key (Amazon price) in the 64 Gb version we tested. At these performances it will certainly not be a problem to play the film directly from the stick, without being forced to copy it to the hard disk.
The writing speed is instead quite low. As mentioned, we measured just 16MB / s, a performance that allows you to copy a 4Gb file in a couple of minutes. Not a very long waiting time but certainly not a data for which it is necessary to call home …
Flash Drive Transmemory U365 by Toshiba (also marketed under the name of Yamabiko) is available in various sizes, from 32 to 256 GB also on Amazon
M303 Exceria, the bridge between action camera and Android phone and the Mac
During the same test session of Toshiba products we also put our hand to the M303 Exceria, a 256 MicroSD, perfect for storing 4K videos on an action camera or to function as a memory expansion system for an Android mobile phone. In this package the MicroSD comes with an SD adapter which makes it compatible, both with a common USB reader and with previous Mac models that had this type of port.
Toshiba certifies the M303 as capable of supporting the UHS-I, U3 (V30) standard for 4K video. In addition, being qualified as capable of achieving performance in line with Application Performance Class A1 (1,500 random IOPS reads and 500 random IOPS writes with constant data reading up to 10MB / s) it is also able to support launch and running applications directly from internal memory on Android phones.
We ran some speed tests to understand what kind of real-world performance can be achieved with this type of card. During the benchmarks we managed to reach 66 MB / s in writing and 88 in reading, very close to the maximum speeds declared by Toshiba itself, which shares this card at 65/98 MB / s. There should be no problem using the M303 to record 4K video with any of the devices currently out there, including drones. In this regard, it should also be noted that the manufacturer presents the card as shockproof, water and X-ray proof.
An interesting aspect, as we have mentioned, in the packaging of the M303 we also find an SD adapter. Thanks to it there will never be any problem in reading the contents of the card especially when we have to use it in some of the oldest Macs, those with SD reader. In this case it represents the perfect bridge between Android mobile phones or an action camera and a computer, obviously including PCs.
The M303 in the 256 GB version we tested costs 70 euros on Amazon. The price is not very different from that of a decent SD card with the same capacity and the same speed, even if we have a double use here. 64 and 128 Gb versions are also available which cost less.
