Nextorage CFexpress Type A Memory Cards Review

As we've discussed before, memory cards play a crucial role in the image creation process, and their failure to perform can be catastrophic in that regard. Despite the importance of its role, the ideal memory card is boring. It stays out of the photographer's way, quickly and reliably doing its job while avoiding attention.

As discussed recently in the Nextorage CFexpress Type B and SDXC Memory Card review, those are the characteristics I have experienced with Nextorage cards, and the CFexpress Type A cards have performed the same in this regard. These cards read and write quickly and have presented no issues.

About Nextorage

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Who is Nextorage?

Nextorage was established in 2019 as an affiliate of Sony. While 2019 isn't so long ago, the core members are a group of experts who have been involved in memory storage products for over 20 years as part of Sony's memory storage division, including involvement in the development and sales of the Sony Memory Stick, broadcast memory cards, and XQD cards. In January 2021, Nextorage left the Sony Group, becoming an independent company specializing in memory storage, with an investment from Phison Electronics, the giant of memory controller solution companies.

"With the goal of becoming No. 1 in the memory storage industry, we are developing new products and technologies as well as marketing products that meet customer needs." [Nextorage]

In their effort to meet that goal, Nextorage, this time, provided a set of CFexpress Type A memory cards for review.

Nextorage 160GB NX-A1PRO Series 950 MB/s VPG400 CFexpress Type A Memory Card
Nextorage 1920GB NX-A1SE Series 950 MB/s VPG200 CFexpress Type A Memory Card

Build Quality

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The Nextorage memory cards feature excellent build quality, leaving nothing to want for.

Durability claims include:

Heat resistance: -10°C to 70°C (guaranteed operating temperature)

Shock resistance (EIA-364-27A compliant)

X-ray resistant (ISO7816-1 compliant)

UV resistant (ISO7816-1 compliant)

Magnetic resistance (based on Nextorage's own testing)

Electrostatic resistance (conforms to IEC 61000-4-2)

Speed

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Speed and price are memory card differentiating factors, and when these cards arrived, I was formulating a complicated total solar eclipse photography plan that involved potential buffer full issues during rapid bracketed exposure capture. The Sony Alpha 1 was one of my best camera options, and using a moderately fast ProGrade Digital 64GB 200MB/s V60 UHS-II Memory Card fills that camera's buffer with about 88 lossless-compressed RAW format images at its highest frame rate. Writing the buffer contents to the referenced card is a very slow process, taking a long 49.3 seconds and potentially impacting the eclipse capture rate at a critical time.

The Nextorage 1920GB NX-A1SE Series 950 MB/s VPG200 card netted about 84 frames and emptied the buffer in 12.64 seconds. The faster-writing Nextorage 160GB NX-A1PRO Series 950 MB/s VPG400 Card netted about 103 frames in 5.5 seconds and, impressively, emptied the buffer in only 3.2 seconds. When speed matters, get a fast card. These cards enable the optimal eclipse rapid bracketing capture and are slated for that use.

The other camera availed during this review was the Sony Alpha 9 III, featuring an incredible 120 fps frame rate. While that camera's internal memory stores a large number of frames, writing those images to the card can be troublesomely time-consuming. For example, a medium-fast Delkin V60 UHS-II SDXC enabled 106 frames before the buffer capacity was reached and then required 26 seconds to empty it. 106 is a considerable number of frames, a second is short, and 26 seconds feels like forever when another full-capacity burst is imminently needed.

Using the review-time fastest available CFexpress Type A card (Nextorage 160GB NX-A1PRO Series VPG400, 950 MB/s max read and write, 850 MB/s min sustained write), the a9 III again captured 106 frames in slightly under a second before filling the buffer but only required 5.0 seconds to empty it.

A fast write speed dramatically reduces the buffer write time, and if you are getting a high-performance camera, feed it high-performance memory cards to fully realize the performance.

Following are the CrystalDiskMark performance results. CFexpress card testing utilized an USB-connected Excellon reader. Remember that write performance matters most when capturing movies and photos, and read speed is important for playback and uploading images to a computer.

Load Comparison Images

"Nextorage's unique power saving technology, "Dynamic Auto Power Save," reduces power consumption by up to 88% compared to the case without. In addition to reducing power consumption during video recording, thermal throttling* is also suppressed by reducing the temperature rise of the card itself. (*Thermal throttling: a control function that attenuates the transfer rate to prevent thermal runaway)" [Nextorage]

Reliability

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These cards have performed flawlessly. A couple of months does not meet a "long-term" use definition, but my Nextorage cards have many thousands of images written to them with no issues.

Price and Value

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At review time, only CFexpress Type A version 4.0 cards are faster. Despite having a premium feature set, the Nextorage cards are only modestly priced, and the 40GB card is cheap. All are attractive deals, and it is now time to make the move to CFexpress Type A cards.

The Type A cards come in a type-B card-sized plastic storage case, and Nextorage provides a Memory Card File Rescue app as a free download.

Summary

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I'll continue using the Nextorage cards for daily needs. Those needs recently included the total solar eclipse and my daughter's university graduation. These cards perform great, I trust their reliability, and the price is attractive.