But the reign may well be short, as MUCH faster cards could be just around the corner
(Image credit: Nextorage, Future)
CFexpress Type A has a new speed champion: Nextorage. Boasting 950MB/s maximum read and 950MB/s max write speeds, the new NX-A1PRO series are now the fastest Type A cards you can buy for Sony cameras like the a1, a7 IV and a7S III. Until now, the quickest offerings were either Lexar Gold Series or Exascend Essential Series cards, both of which could deliver maximum 900MB/s read and 800MB/s write speeds.
This makes the new Nextorage cards comfortably faster in the write speed stakes, especially as NX-A1PRO cards are also rated for a minimum continuous write speed of 850 MB/s; 150MB/s faster than any other Type A card on the market. It also means the new cards easily qualify for VPG400 certification (400 MB/s minimum guaranteed sustained write speed).
Available capacities include 40GB, 80GB, 160GB, 320GB and 640GB. But if you need more space, Nextorage has also launched its NX-A1SE series of Type A cards. These feature the same 950MB/s read/write speeds, but in larger capacities of either 960GB or 1920GB. The downside is minimum sustained write speed is slower, meaning NX-A1SE cards only gain VPG200 certification.
As yet only Japanese pricing has been revealed. NX-A1PRO cards will range between 11,900 yen ($84) for the 40GB card, up to 79,800 yen ($561) for the range-topping 640GB capacity. 960GB and 1920GB NX-A1SE cards will cost 64,990 yen and 99,800 yen ($457 and $701), respectively.
Boasting read speeds of up to 3,650MB/s, CFexpress 4.0 Type B cards like these are twice as fast as before. Could Type A cards be about to receive the same 2x speed boost? (Image credit: Other World Computing)
This latest news is all well and good, but we've got a hunch that much faster Type A cards could be just around the corner. Next-generation CFexpress 4.0 Type B cards are already on the market, which are twice as fast as the preceding generation. As the current crop of Type A cards have a maximum theoretical performance of 1000MB/s, these new Nextorage cards are about as fast as the existing Type A technology can ever get. If Type A cards are also due to graduate to the CFexpress 4.0 standard, then this would raise the Type A theoretical speed limit to 2000MB/s, meaning we'd likely see Type A cards capable of 1700-1800MB/s right off the bat.
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Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
