Kioxia microSD card, U301 and U365 Flash Drives Review
Kioxia is not a brand that everyone is particularly familiar with. That is why we are doing our part of informing people about them. The brand is a Japanese multinational memory manufacturer. They are a subsidiary of Toshiba and have been around for a long time. Speaking of Toshiba, you might want to check out our review of the Toshiba Canvio Gaming External Hard drive.
Back in the early 1980s, they were credited with inventing flash memory. Despite their popularity, they generated 19% of the global revenue in Q3 of 2018. So despite what you may think, the company is quite massive.
As you can probably guess, they make a lot of storage/memory-related products. These products include SD cards, Sata SSDs, storage drives, flash drives, etc. Today, we’ll be taking a quick look at three of these products. Think of this as a quick hands-on review of all three. So without any further delay, let’s start off with our first product.
Kioxia Exceria High Endurance microSD Card
The Exceria microSD card has quite a lot going on it on paper. Before we dive deep here, let us quickly get the specs out of the way. It comes in 32, 64, 128, or 256-gigabyte variants. We have the 128GB one on our hands today. This is a Class 10 microSDXC card. The XC indicated that this one has extended storage, these types of SD cards are more common these days.
If you get the 256-gig version, you can store up to 40,000 hours worth of 1080p footage. With our 128GB version, we’re looking at around 20,000 hours of 1080p video. Of course, all of this depends on the codec or format of the videos. Kioxia states that these cards are designated for surveillance purposes. Thanks to their reliability, you can use them in security cameras and dashboard cameras. The card has a green color, which makes it stand out from the rest of the card. You might also want to take a look at our selection of the best SD card readers for this card.
Other than that, you can use it any way you would normally use one of the best microSD cards. It is also a UHS-I card. UHS-I means that the memory card has a read speed of at least 10MB/s. The card also comes with some water resistance and temperature resistance. This makes it extremely reliable especially if you are using it inside a camera during rough conditions. As usual, it also comes with an SD card adapter.
Performance-wise, this microSD card is quite good. You can see the sequential read and write speeds above for yourself. Of course, that’s to be expected with a high-quality UHS-I memory card. We did further testing by transferring a 2.81GB file. It took about 46 seconds for that 2.81GB file to transfer on the Exceria microSDXC memory card.
Speaking of high-performance storage devices, be sure to check out our review of the Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe SSD.
The product is also covered by a conditional five-year warranty, which provides some peace of mind. That’s about all there is to it. This is a very solid microSD card and it comes in at an affordable price.
Kioxia U301 TransMemory Flash Drive
Next on our list is a portable flash drive for macOS, Windows, and even Linux. The U301 TransMemory flash drive comes in a white color which gives it a modern look. It comes with a white cover that goes over the connector to keep it safe. This flash drive uses USB3.2 Gen 2 technology. This means that this flash drive can deliver speeds of up to 20Gbps. You can easily transfer high-quality videos and large data files quickly and reliably.
Apart from that, 128 gigabytes is quite a lot for a portable USB flash drive. That’s enough space for files, videos, photos, music, etc. People usually keep temporary files or just back a few documents onto their flash drives, so this is more than enough for that. Apart from that, the design itself is also quite interesting. It’s similar to a previous drive from Toshiba which gives it a classic simple look.
The flash drive is lightweight and easy to carry around. It’s ideal if you want to put it in the back of a drawer or throw it in your backpack. You’ll barely notice it and have quick access to it when need be. Just like other Kioxia products, this one is also covered by five years of conditional warranty. Overall, this is quite a solid flash drive.
Kioxia U365 TransMemory Flash Drive
Last but not least, we have yet another flash drive on our hands. This time it is the U365 USB 3.2 Gen 1 drive. This is another portable USB stick that comes in a simple black color. The design is similar to old-school flash drives. The connector slides in or out for safekeeping. This way, you won’t damage the drive when it’s in a bag or inside your pocket. It also has a key ring, so that you can attach it to a keychain.
Flash storage has progressed by leaps and bounds, and this is quite evident in modern hardware.
Since the drive is small and portable, you can take it with you anywhere you want. This drive is great if you want to keep music, movies, or important files always on hand. It offers speeds of up to 10Gbps. While it’s not as fast as the drive above, it comes in at a more affordable asking price. It is also available in the form of a 256-gigabyte drive, which is quite a bit of personal storage. Considering the capacity and physical size of the drive, it performs well when transferring over large files.
U301 & U365 – Performance
When it comes to performance, both of these flash drives perform well considering the specs. Despite the difference in USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2, the results were near similar. Of course, this will vary depending on file size and the number of given files you’re moving around at any given time. We tested both of these by transferring the same 2.81GB file we used for our memory card test. It took around 2 minutes and 15 seconds for this test to be completed.
Like every other product on this list, this one is also covered by Kioxia’s conditional five-year warranty that starts from the day of purchase.
