SanDisk’s latest Outdoors SDXC cards are the most durable SD cards we’ve seen yet

SanDisk has introduced a new line of rugged SD cards: SanDisk Outdoors. Designed for all-weather photography and any scenario where you might encounter extreme conditions, the Outdoors cards feature some of the toughest durability we’ve seen from an SD card.

(Image source: Western Digital)

Many SD cards claim to be ‘rugged’ and some are advertised as water-resistant, but SanDisk Outdoors cards offer much more than that. They’re built to be waterproof to a depth of 1 metre for 72 hours (this applies to both fresh and salt water) and have a wide operating temperature range of -25°C (-13°F) to 85°C (185°F). SanDisk also claims that Outdoors cards can withstand shocks up to 500G, drops from heights of up to 16.4 feet, relative humidity up to 95%, magnetic fields and X-rays. Finally, all Outdoors cards are housed in an easy-to-find ‘Hunter Blaze Orange’ casing for easier visibility in low light.

SanDisk Outdoors cards come in three speed varieties: HD, FHD, and 4K. The base-spec HD card is designed for use in trail cameras, binocular cameras, bow or gun-mounted POV cameras, marine plotters, and GPS mapping devices. Read/write speeds aren’t given, only that the card is designed to be fast enough to record HD (1280 x 720) video. So we’d assume it won’t be particularly fast, but it should at least be tough. 32GB is the only capacity option available, and strangely, the HD cards can’t be purchased individually, but instead can be purchased in a pack of two or four cards for $24.99 and $43.99, respectively.

The mid-range Outdoors card is the FHD variety. This time around, SanDisk is announcing the cards’ read speeds, but write speeds are still unknown. The maximum read speed also varies significantly depending on the card capacity you choose. It’s 100MB/s for 32GB and 64GB cards. Moving up to 128GB, the maximum read speed jumps to 150MB/s, while 256GB and 512GB cards are available at up to 160MB/s. The FHD cards can be purchased individually or in packs of two or four. A single 32GB card costs $12.99, while a single mid-range 128GB card costs $29.99. The top-tier 512GB capacity costs $74.99.

SanDisk’s Outdoors 4K cards are the fastest cards in the Outdoors lineup. Again, read/write speeds depend on the capacity you choose, but even the lowest-capacity (64GB) Outdoors 4K card is faster than any FHD card, boasting speeds of 170MB/s read and 80MB/s write. The 128GB 4K card gives you speeds of 190MB/s read and 90MB/s write, while the 256GB and 512GB cards offer the fastest performance of 190MB/s/130MB/s—still impressive from just a UHS-I SDXC card.