Exascend Essential 2TB CFexpress Type B Memory Card Announced With Faster Write Speed

Storage Media

by Jakub HanOctober 3^rd, 2022

Exascend Essential 2TB CFexpress Type B memory card offers read and write speeds of up to 1,800 MB/s and 1,700 MB/s, respectively (burst speeds) and a minimum sustained write speed of 1,400 MB/s. The card comes with Exascend’s five-year global warranty and factory data recovery service.

CFexpress Type B memory cards are slowly becoming the industry standard for high-resolution and high-bitrate video recording for many camera manufacturers. Being slightly larger than SD and the same size as XQD cards, they are in my opinion the perfect size even for smaller mirrorless cameras.

Type A versus Type B

While CFexpress Type A cards win in terms of physical size, their price-per-GB is currently MUCH worse than with Type B. Just a few days ago, Sony announced the new TOUGH CFexpress Type A memory cards in 320GB and 640GB that will retail for $650 and $1,250 respectively. That gives us roughly $2 per GB of storage space. With the most affordable 180GB CFexpress Type A card from Exascend, we get around $1.7 per GB.

CFexpress Type B cards, on the other hand, currently start at $0.35 per GB (Angelbird 512GB AV PRO SE CFexpress Type B for $180) and they offer much larger sizes going all the way up to 4TB. As I said, I do not find the Type B cards too bulky in any way for most camera bodies.

The Chinese company Exascend already offers quite a few CFexpress cards, such as the “RED-approved” Archon line (up to 1TB) or the even faster Nitro line with VPG400 certification (up to 1TB). A few days ago, Exascend added a new 2TB CFexpress Type B card to the Essential line. Let’s take a look at the details.

Exascend Essential 2TB CFexpress Type B card

Although the name of the line “Essential” might hint at a budget and slightly slower card line, that is not the case. Expanding the existing line of Essential cards (128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB), the new 2TB model offers read and write speeds of up to 1,800 MB/s and 1,700 MB/s, respectively (burst speeds).

The minimum sustained write speed is 1,400 MB/s so any video recording mode with a maximum bitrate of 11,200 Mbps is theoretically supported by the card and should not drop any frames. It is, however, always recommended to test the specific media with the camera in the desired recording mode before taking it into the field.

The company claims that each card has been internally tested on camera systems such as the Canon EOS R5, Nikon Z 9, and Lumix DC-S1R to ensure full compatibility.

The good thing is, that Exascend’s entire CFexpress lineup comes with a five-year global warranty which covers any issue with the card and its components. For accidents and damage that render customers’ footage inaccessible, Exascend additionally offers a factory data recovery service that can retrieve data from even severely damaged cards.

Exascend also offers fast CFexpress Type B card readers to go with the cards. There are two models, both in a robust aluminum casing featuring a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface with a Type-C connector. One model supports up to 10 Gbps transfer speeds and the other one is twice as fast with up to 20 Gbps.

Price and availability

The new 2TB card is available now and Exascend claims orders will begin shipping in 1–2 weeks worldwide. At the time of writing this article, the card was not yet listed anywhere, so the price is also unknown. We will update the article as soon as we get more information. For reference, the 1TB version of the card currently costs between $660 and $750. I would expect around twice as much for the new 2TB model.

Do you use CFexpress Type B cards in your camera? Do you have experience with Exascend cards? Let us know in the comments section underneath the article.