Kingston Canvas React Plus SDXC Review

Although some new formats like XQD and CFexpress have come along, the SD memory card format is the most commonly used in cameras. It’s also compatible with the memory card readers that are sometimes built into laptops and computers.

SDXC cards can be made in capacities from 32GB to 2TB. So while Kingston makes a 32GB Canvas React Plus SD card, it’s an SDHC card rather than an SDXC card.

As a UHS-II card, the Canvas React Plus has two rows of contacts visible on its back to enable fast data transfer rates. It’s rated as a V90 U3 card and has read speeds of up to 300MB/s and writes speeds of up to 260MB/s. As such, it’s capable of being used to store 4K and 8K video.

Kingston supplies the Canvas React Plus card with MobileLite Plus SD Reader. This has a USB-A type connector that is USB 3.2 Gen 1 compliant and therefore has transfer speeds of up to 5Gps or 625MB/s.

I’ve been testing the 128GB Kingston Canvas React Plus SDXC. That’s a larger capacity than the cards I tend to use and it’s proved very handy when shooting 4K video on a range of cameras like the Sony A7S II and Nikon Z7 II, and 8K video on the Canon EOS R5.

Whether I’ve been shooting stills, recording video or transferring images from the card to my computer, the Kingston Canvas React Plus SDXC has worked flawlessly, enabling me to reach the camera’s claimed frame rates and burst depths.

When the card was inserted in the SD card slot of a 2019 iMac, I was able to transfer 10.26GB of images to the desktop in around 2 minutes 34 seconds. That may sound fast, but it’s ‘only’ around 80Mb/s.

Popping the card into the supplied Kingston MobileLite Plus SD Reader and using one of the iMac’s USB-A ports reduced the time it takes to transfer the images to just under 1 minute 42 seconds. That’s still not achieving the maximum speed of the reader (which is slower than the card), but it’s a rate that I’m happy with.