AGI – also known as Agile Gear International. You’ve probably not heard of this brand before but this Taiwanese company is making headlines with the world’s first 2TB microSD card. They made the global debut last week at Computex 2024, we talked about it in our coverage, and now we have one in our hands.
This is the 2TB microSD card. The model name is AGI Supreme Pro TF138 microSD – but that name is not printed on the packaging at all. Actually, it’s 1.935TB – and depending on what operating system you use, it might display as 1.94TB or 1.75TB. Either way, this microSD card looks just like any other microSD cards – and yet I still can’t believe this little card that’s the size of my thumbnail is actually holding 2TB of data.
The question is, is this a good card? Who is this microSD card actually for? Let’s find out in today’s video, where we review this very unusual product.
The packaging of this microSD card is rather generous, I’d say. I’m surprised that they included a USB-C microSD card reader with the model number AGI CR138 that goes up to USB 3.2 speeds. Not sure if it’s Gen 1 or Gen 2, but even USB 3.2 Gen 1 is sufficient for this microSD card’s speed. So, we’ll be using the included microSD card reader to do the test in this review.
The advertised speed of this microSD card is “up to 170MB/s read and 160MB/s write”. Surprisingly, our initial benchmark did show that the microSD card is near its claimed speeds.
We used the usual CrystalDiskMark, ATTO disk benchmark, and also AS SSD, with some cooldown time in between. However, when we tried to stress the microSD card… I realized that the microSD card had thermal throttled very hard – just like any other microSD cards – and that’s an inherent issue.
Essentially, we’re only getting about 8% of the speed claimed on the packaging. The read speed though, remains unchanged – and that’s actually a good sign.
You see, since the read speed is unaffected, we can essentially use this card for the Nintendo Switch. But then again, my current 256GB microSD card is already plentiful for those Switch games that barely go up to 10GB per game.
So, I decided to put this AGI Supreme Pro TF138 2TB microSD card into the ROG Ally. And nothing happens. Welp, that sucks. I didn’t know the ROG Ally melts microSD cards and also melts the microSD card reader itself. No worries, I’ll just attach the microSD card into the card reader before attaching it to the ROG Ally.
I decided to use Genshin Impact in our test here since I’m familiar with that game as I always play the game on the Ally.
I have already copied the game files into the microSD card – which took forever, by the way – and changed the game file directory to the microSD card and booted up the game.
And of course, there’s an update. It’s here that we can see the short burst of performance works really well.
The loading time – if we compare the microSD card against the internal NVMe SSD, is obviously going to be huge. Even the loading times between regions are going to be longer – but it’s still very commendable.
I played the game for about 30 minutes or so – and there was no performance dip.
So what this means is that we can use this microSD card for gaming on the ROG Ally or the Steam Deck or anything similar. Sure, the installation time will be super long, but everything else works just fine.
Another usage for this microSD card is – as stated on their website – drones. We don’t have a drone in the studio but we do have a Sony A7c mirrorless camera that I always use to film videos. So I popped in this card to the camera and recorded a video with my usual settings of 1080p 60fps at 50Mb/s – and it worked just fine. No issues at all.
Best of all, I can record up to about 72 hours of footage with this setting.
Going by our tests, I can safely say that the AGI Supreme Pro TF138 2TB microSD card is actually performing very well for a microSD card.
What’s the price?
Currently, the price is $289.90 USD. Yes, it’s expensive – but it’s the world’s first ever 2TB microSD card and if you want the cutting edge of technology – you gotta pay the price premium.
It also comes with 5 years of warranty too – which definitely is great for this very expensive cutting-edge microSD card.
By the way, if you’re browsing at sites like Shopee and see 2TB microSD cards from Xiaomi, Lenovo, Toshiba, or whatever brand for an unbelievably low price – then it’s 100% a scam. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews! Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
