Lexar Debuts Metal Encased "ARMOR" SD Cards at CES 2025

[T0@st]

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.

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[Wirko]

If the card gets lost, you have some chance of finding it with a metal detector.

 

[bonehead123]

The shell might be stainless steel, but that does absolutely squat to protect the interface pins, which are & always have been the most vulnerable parts of the device....

Figure out a way to protect them or make them mostly indestructible, then we can talk about so-called "Armor", otherwise...

y/A/w/n..

 

[phil6891]

Smart design choice... now they'll get cooked in dashcams.

 

[A&P211]

This has ARMOR, is it better than the Borg's ARMOR.

 

[Wirko]

The shell might be stainless steel, but that does absolutely squat to protect the interface pins, which are & always have been the most vulnerable parts of the device....

Figure out a way to protect them or make them mostly indestructible, then we can talk about so-called "Armor", otherwise...

y/A/w/n..

Really? I haven't seen a card with the second row of contacts yet but those in the first row are a little bit recessed, and quite safe. Do you regularly bite SD cards to check if the contacts are made of gold?

 

[LabRat 891]

I'm sold.
Even if it provides minimal (if any) protection, I adore 'full metal' anything.

TBQH, I'd expect these to dissipate and spread heat better than a polymer card.

 

[sLowEnd]

Sony has had some toughened SD cards too for a while now (SF-G and SF-M series), utilizing some sort of special plastic construction rather than metal.

 

[Chaitanya]

Sony has had some toughened SD cards too for a while now (SF-G and SF-M series), utilizing some sort of special plastic construction rather than metal.

Hoodman also had had their Steel series along with Sony Tough series of SD cards. Both of those cards havent recieved any updates in quite sometime.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Maybe its bad luck. But the lexar memory cards that I pick up never seem to last that long. Samsung lasts the longest followed by Sandisk/Toshiba

 

[bonehead123]

Maybe its bad luck. But the lexar memory cards that I pick up never seem to last that long. Samsung lasts the longest followed by Sandisk/Toshiba

That's because you're holding them all wrong....

or maybe it's that shit-eating grin on your avatar's face, hahahahah