Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

SanDisk upgraded their Extreme SD card. The new card is labeled 60MB/s and now has the UHS-I Speed Class 3 (U3) speed designation. The U3 means it can sustain at least 30 MB/s write speed for recording 4K2K video. Previously the Extreme was labeled 45MB/s (read and write). The new Extreme is advertised as 60MB/s read and 40MB/s write. One might wonder about the new card's downgraded write speed, but it is faster than advertised. I tested the new SanDisk Extreme 32GB SDHC 60MB/s card using 7 different USB 3.0 card readers. Every one exceeded 75 MB/s read and reached 55MB/s write (range was 54.8-55.3MB/s across all readers with CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 Sequential 1GB random test data, best of 5 passes). The improved write speed makes the Extreme almost as fast as the Extreme Plus measured at 60MB/s write speed but short of the Plus' 95MB/s highest read speed. Compare this with the previous generation Extreme 45MB/s, which tested between 44-47MB/s read and 41-43MB/s write. I recommended the previous version of the SanDisk Extreme quite often in the past. It was a good value considering one could spend twice as much for the Extreme Pro that probably wouldn't be much faster in most digital cameras. But more cameras today support UHS-I and can actually write above 70MB/s. For those cameras faster cards (Extreme Pro) can make a difference. With the Extreme getting a speed boost, it further increases its value and remains a great choice for many cameras.