Memory Cards, Part 1: CompactFlash From 8GB To 64GB

Samsung Plus MP-CP4G 233x (8GB)

The Samsung Plus card (MP-CP4G) is not available in all markets. We found it in European stores after receiving the test sample from Samsung, but it isn't selling in North America, it seems. This is a 233x model rather than the 600x devices we were targeting, but we still decided to include it because of its robust design and shell.

The Plus card doesn’t aim to be stylish or fancy, only functional. The metal exterior is made of Nirosta, a trademarked type of stainless steel. Samsung doesn’t detail its rugged design beyond this point, but it underlines that the Plus card won’t have issues if you sit on it or otherwise apply pressure that could bend the housing of less sturdy CF cards. Samsung also guarantees durability against X-rays at up to 4000 Gauss.

However, there are a few drawbacks to the Plus. Capacity is limited to 8GB, which isn’t a lot once you start shooting lots of raw images in a row, as in sports photography. In addition, the product’s performance isn’t as high as other cards reviewed here. We measured a peak throughput of only 47.8 MB/s, roughly half as much as the other competitors. Effective sequential throughput is between 19.2 and 35 MB/s for writes and 19.0 to 47.8 MB/s for reads.

While other cards deliver better throughput, Samsung’s Plus delivers more I/O operations per second than the other cards, qualifying it for embedded systems. This improvement stems from the SLC NAND memory employed.