Lexar has announced its newest CFexpress memory cards at CES 2024. Both cards meet the new CFexpress 4.0 specification, offering double the speeds of previous cards. One of them is the first CFexpress 4.0 for Sony.

The two new cards are the CFexpress 4.0 Type A Gold and the CFexpress 4.0 Type B Diamond. The former offers read and write speeds of 1,800MB/sec and 1,650MB/sec, respectively, while the latter tops out at 3,600MB/sec and 3,500MB/sec.

Lexar CFexpress 4.0 Type A

Lexar’s CFexpress 4.0 Type A Gold cards are the first CFexpress 4.0 Type A cards to be announced from anyone. It’s quite surprising they’ve beat Sony to the punch, considering Sony makes CFexpress Type A cards, and the only devices that use them are Sony devices, but here we are.

The cards offer maximum read speeds of 1,800MB/sec and maximum write speeds of 1,650MB/sec. Lexar hasn’t said what the minimum guaranteed read and write speeds are. The card bears the VPG400 mark, though, guaranteeing at least 400MB/sec (3,200Mbps) sustained write speeds.

This is far beyond the needs of any current Sony model camera, but these cards are compatible with those cameras. And in the future, you’ll be able to take advantage of the extra speed.

Lexar CFexpress 4.0 Type B Diamond

Lexar joins companies such as ProGrade Digital and OWC with the announcement of the new CFexpress 4.0 Type B Diamond cards. These will start becoming more common over the next year or so as more companies switch.

This card also carries the VPG400 mark, guaranteeing at least 400MB/sec sustained write speeds. Lexar hasn’t announced the actual specifications for this card, although I expect they’ll be much higher than 400MB/sec. On potential maximums, the read speed maxes out at 3,600MB/sec and the write speed at 3,300MB/sec.

Again, this card, like the other CFexpress 4.0 cards that have been announced over the last few months, far exceeds the needs of just about any camera on the market today. It seems that companies are starting to make the switch from 2.0 to 4.0 while keeping the prices the same.

Price and Availability

Whether Lexar will stick close to their CFexpress 2.0 card prices is unknown. Lexar hasn’t actually announced prices for either of these cards yet. But other companies have, and OWC’s newest CFexpress 2.0 cards can actually be upgraded to CFexpress 4.0 cards with just a firmware flash.

No capacities have been announced yet, although we can expect both the Lexar Type A Gold and Lexar Type B Diamond to come in capacities of at least 1TB. If I were to make a guess, 512GB and 2TB cards wouldn’t be an unreasonable expectation. But this is a guess. No confirmation.

Update – 12th January 2024: We’ve received some extra information from Lexar regarding these cards. At the moment, both the CFexpress 4.0 Type A Gold and CFexpress 4.0 Type B Diamond will be available only in 1TB capacities. At least, for now, those are the only capacities that have been confirmed. Prices are still yet to come.

Lexar 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type B Diamond – It has a maximum read speed of 3,600MB/sec, a maximum write speed of 3,300MB/sec and a maximum sustained write speed of 3,200MB/sec. It’s compatible with cameras that have received a CFexpress 4.0 firmware update and will be available in the US in Q2 2024.

Lexar 1TB CFexpress 4.0 Type A Gold – This has a maximum read speed of 1,800MB/sec, a maximum write speed of 1,650MB/sec and a maximum sustained write speed of 1,400MB/sec. It will also be available in the US in Q2 2024.