The TechPowerUp team spent a short time perusing Lexar's CES 2025 booth earlier this week. Today's return trip has resulted in a closer look at the flash memory specialist's ARMOR GOLD and SILVER SDXC UHS-II cards. Write speeds differ between these models—160 MB/s (SILVER) versus 205 MB/s (GOLD). Our guy on the ground has expressed frustration regarding the fragility of bog-standard plastic casing on the vast majority of memory cards. Lexar representatives expressed plenty of confidence in the ARMOR's durability, thanks to stainless-steel construction. This change in protective material has the company claiming that ARMOR is 37 times stronger than normal plastic exteriors.

TPU was encouraged to try and bend or break a demo sample's metal shell. Many attempts at destruction have failed—perhaps fitting for products designed to survive and remain fully functional when handled constantly or utilized in the field. Both GOLD and SILVER models are IP68 rated—resistant to water, dust and fumbled drops. On closer inspection, it looks as if Lexar's design department has chosen to omit the traditional locking switch. User feedback has often focused on this common area of failure, so it is encouraging to see that the ARMOR package is not compromised by a flimsy moving piece. Advertised storage capacities include the following options: 1 TB, 512 GB, 256 GB, 128 GB and 64 GB.Lexar also showcased its Play range of microSDXC and microSD cards—designed for handheld gaming platforms.No great need for endurance here—so TPU was looking at traditional plastic cases again.