Real World Experience with the 32GB Leef Pro UHS-1 Micro SD Card

The super techy people know that high speed memory cards make a world of difference. The average consumer might not. While I am techy, I am also just another consumer looking for the best products at the best price possible. I heard it over and over again, “You need a Class 10 micro SD card” “Class 10 is too slow now, now you need a U1 (UHS-1)” Greek to many. If all I am doing is saving saving pictures, videos and the occasional album, why do I need to look beyond the budget class 4 SD cards? Simple answer, because it is worth it.

Prior to CES 2014 I was able to obtain a Leef Pro 32GB UHS-1 (Ultra High Speed) micro SD card. It arrived in a nice little orange box and contained the card and a full size SD card adaptor.  It is just an SD card so packaging isn’t really all that important to me personally, but the very clear “up to 45MB/s” right on the front is an eye catcher. That little extra is what really seems to set the card apart from the likes of the more popular SanDisk Ultra that makes its way around Amazon.

The specific card details are as follow:

• 16, 32, 64 GB models
• Operating Temps: -25 C to +85 C
• Up to 45 MB/s
• 5-year limited warranty
• Water and Shock Proof
• Optimized for HD videos and Photos

Leef Pro cards use an increased clock speed of 100MHz, four times faster than standard cards. This allows the cards to operate at up to 45MB per second in 4-bit transfer mode, which is found on many new devices.

Where will an average consumer see the benefits of the card? Easy. If you have one of the higher end Android devices with HD video capabilities and high resolution camera, like the Xperia Z, then the speed difference is pretty apparent when you open your gallery. If you take a lot of videos and photos with such a device and have them set to an SD card that is more standard, then you probably experience some slow loading and lag in thumbnails loading. With the Leef Pro, the gallery and thumbs loaded nearly instantly and just as fast as I could scroll I had images in the windows.

I have also noticed a dramatic improvement in transfer time when copying things to and from my device. While I did shoot quite a bit of video on my phone using the card, I am not an expert at noticing where the benefits are at with it. When opening the video to play back though, it starts quicker than I remember. For those that move appstoSD, you will also see much better performance for those apps.

I do have a SanDisk U1 32GB card as well, and bouncing back to that for things really did show the superiority of the Leef Pro card. The gallery still loaded fairly quickly, and much quicker than with a regular class 4, but just wasn’t as seamless as with the Leef Pro. Being that the card can be used in any device that supports a Micro SD, or easily adapted to a full size SD card, having a Leef Pro available for various device use is a good idea. It will cost you a little bit more than a similar size and similar rated card, but the higher clock speed and the higher max transfer speed is worth it. Of course you will varying degrees of speed depending on you are placing the card in and exactly what the PC, camera or phone supports. It performed well in my Xperia Z and plan to keep it there and use the SanDisk else where personally.

So, what ARE you looking at in terms of price. Well, a 16GB Leef Pro will set you back $24.99, 32GB is $44.99 and a 64GB is $84.99.

On a side note, Leef also announced the new Leef Bridge 3.0 Mobile USB at CES. It is a device that bridges the gap between PC and Mobile transferable/portable storage. It is similar to the Imation 2-in-1 I showed you guys earlier. The Leef Bridge 3.0 is exclusively available at Radio Shack. Go take a look at some of the other products Leef has to offer. Or go ahead and order the Leef Pro through Amazon if you fancy.