TechRadar Verdict

The Pro+ never delivered the dizzying performance promised, something that could be due to our benchmark setup. Overall, it is not one of the best performers I’ve tested in this category. This is not helped by the presence of a slew of 1TB microSD cards that sell for less while delivering better performance.

Headline speeds look great

Lifetime warranty

Average performance

Require pro-grade card reader to reach headline speeds

More expensive than its comparable rivals

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One-minute review

Teamgroup’s latest addition to its roster of 1TB microSD cards is the Pro+ which as its name alludes to targets those looking for more oomph from their removable storage media. The company has the Elite (reviewed two years ago), the Go, the Expert and the Gamer - the first two being slower A1 models and the other three, A2 ones.

However, the test results suggest that the Pro+ is not faster. Despite boasting some of the best claimed read/write speeds in its category, the Pro+ failed to deliver what it promised with both synthetic and real life performance lacking. And that’s not good enough when you have competitors like Silicon Power Superior that offer slightly better performance at a lower price (in both cases we’re talking of single-digit percentages).

With plenty of competition both inside its own stable and from other rivals, the Teamgroup Pro+ will have a hard time justifying the current premium it carries over other challengers.

Teamgroup Pro+: Pricing and availability

The card is widely available in capacities varying from 128GB to 1TB with a 1.5TB model likely to launch in 2024. Note that multi-pack offers are also available; you can buy the 1TB card either on its own or in pair with the latter costing a bit less. A decent addition to ourbest microSDbuying guide.

Teamgroup Pro+: Benchmark

The Teamgroup Pro+ microSD card scored lower than expected speeds, varying from 80 to 84.25 MB/s in read and from 79 to 82.25 MB/s in write, a far cry from the very optimistic headline numbers (160 in read and 110 in write). Looking at the small prints though revealed that these speeds could be achieved by using (unnamed) professional card readers, so there’s still some hope. Just don’t expect any miracles should you use this card with the internal readers found in laptops, tablets, smartphones or consumer-grade devices. Teamgroup told us that the faster speeds can be achieved using a UHS-II compatible card reader.

Teamgroup Pro+: Specs

Should I buy the Teamgroup Pro+?

Buy it if…

You want a lifetime warrantyThe Pro+ comes with a lifetime warranty but not a data recovery service. For that you will need to fork extra (but not a lot). Amazon uses After Solutions and charges $7.99 for a 3-year data protection plan but only for the 2-pack version of this product, probably because it’s not cost effective under a set threshold. If your microSD card stops working, the rescue data recovery plan will attempt to recover the data from the failed drive and recovered data will be returned on a media storage device or via secure cloud-based data storage.

Don’t buy it…

You want the cheapest 1TB microSD cardOur 5-star rated Silicon Power MicroSD card is the cheapest card you can buy right now at less than $50. It’s fast as well and comes with a 5-year warranty.

You want the fastest microSD card availableIt is relatively slow - but not by a lot. What makes it worse though was the high expectations set by Teamgroup when it claimed that the drive would hit 160MB/s on read and 110MB/s on write.

Teamgroup Pro+ alternatives

Silicon Power Superiorreceived a five-star award earlier this year and remains the top dog for this category as the best value for money microSD card around; it remains the cheapest 1TB microSD card on the market right now. It is good enough for the vast majority of tasks out there.

Gigastoneis a challenger brand that is still earning its stripes. Despite being widely available online from reputable retailers beyondAmazon, I have yet to come across a single independent review of Gigastone products so I’d advise caution. Still it is the only brand that offers a 5-year free data recovery offer on its card.

Sandisk Extreme Prois far more expensive than the Teamgroup Pro+ and while it earned its editor’s choice award fair and square, one needs to remember that it was three years ago, and that things have moved on significantly, especially when it comes to value for money.

How I tested the Teamgroup Pro+

After having formatted the Teamgroup Pro+ to exFAT, I test it the same way I test other storage components (external HDD, USB Flash drives etc). I use the latest versions of CrystalDiskMark, Atto, AS SSD and AJA benchmarks, noting the best scores achieved in each. They are all free and can be downloaded by anyone. I then transfer a folder of files, roughly 10GB in size, to get a rough idea of real life performance. I used a Startech USB Type-C card reader (SDMSDRWU3AC), connected to the Type-C connector of aHonor MagicBooklaptop.

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled inwebsite buildersandweb hostingwhen DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.

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