60 second review

There’s not much that differentiates one microSD card from another, and that’s one thing Sabrent’s Rocket V30 will have to contend with. If one excludes the range of dodgy-looking 1TB cards, Amazon lists 14 branded microSD models, including its own. 

Yes, there are some performance differences to take into account (more on that below) but unless Sabrent gets realistic and slashes the cost of its cards further, it will have a very hard time selling them.

Sabrent Rocket V30: Pricing and availability

The Rocket V30 is available in three variants direct from Sabrent: 256GB ($30), 512GB ($50) and 1TB ($130), the one we’re reviewing here. Sabrent orders can be shipped to most countries and international shipping prices vary by territory. As always, customers are responsible for the cost of any duties or additional taxes incurred. You can also buy from other popular online retailers (Amazon, Walmart, Newegg) although pricing and availability will vary. 

Sabrent also offers the possibility to pay in four separate installments ,and bundles a three-year warranty when you register with the company. 1TB cards still carry a small but significant premium on 512GB capacities; remember that 1.5TB cards are already available with 2TB models on the horizon. They won’t be cheap but will suit professionals and use cases that require as much capacity as possible.

Sabrent Rocket V30: Features

The card comes in a small box with a card adaptor and some protective foam. There’s no software applications on the card and this is something we’d encourage vendors to bundle. Better have some sort of protection than none at all, either in the form of a data recovery service or a cloud storage or cloud backup.

The V30 has an A2 V30 rating; these are industry-wide performance standards that highlight the minimum speed expectations for the card. A2 means that it will reach 4K/2K IOPS on random read/write while V30 means that it will hit at least 30MB/s in sustained write speeds, enough for 4K video recording. Additionally, it is certified UHS-1, which means that it will reach speeds of up to 100MB/s on sustained read speeds. There’s currently no agreed industry standard for endurance and reliability.

How do I test microSD cards?

To test the Sabrent Rocket V30, I used a card reader, the Startech SDMSDRWU3AC, which supports USB 3.1 Gen 1 (up to 5Gbps). It comes with USB Type-C and USB Type-A connectors and I used the former to connect to my test laptop, the Honor MagicBook 14 2022, which has a USB 4.0 connector. For storage-based benchmarking, I use the latest versions of the following popular, free software package. All can be downloaded by you, the reader, to build your own test bench. Bear in mind that benchmarks evolve and it can be sometimes tricky to compare performance when different versions of any particular benchmark are used.

• AJA
• Crystal Disk Mark
• ATTO
• AS SSD
• Fastcopy

Sabrent Rocket V30: Performance

Sabrent claims to use the newest 3D flash NAND with improved endurance, which infers that some may be using some sort of inferior NAND components. The reality is that if you’re not a manufacturer like Sandisk or Samsung, chances are that you will buy the NAND from one and are therefore at the mercy of demand and supply. The NAND that you used in a microSD card last year may no longer be available or you may have a better one for the same price.

The card huffed and puffed in our benchmarks, with some poor to average performance in synthetic benchmarks (AJA, CrystalDiskMark) but somehow managed a more than honorable score (77.1MB/s) in our real life file transfer, a serendipitous tie with the PNY Pro Elite. 

Remember that your card performance will also depend on the host device, and we’d wager that the best performance can be had with a dedicated microSD card reader (connected to a type-C connector) rather than an integrated one.

Should I buy the Sabrent Rocket V30

Buy if...

Don’t buy if...

Also Consider

If you are looking to speed up your content creation, but are cognizant that the content needs to be SEO-friendly, then AIWriter could be what you’re looking for. 

Want to try AIWriter? Check out the website here

While it may sound like a dream come true, AIWriter does have some drawbacks that could be a deal breaker. Don’t count on the tool to fully automate your content creation, but it can speed up the process. Read on to find out its advantages and disadvantages.

Plans and pricing

We love free trials, especially ones that do not require you to give out your credit card details. With that said, AIWriter ticks all of these boxes, and with the 7-day free trial, it also offers three different pricing plans. 

The Basic plan is affordable at $29 per month, making it one of the cheaper options in the AI writing niche. For all plans, if you opt for an annual subscription, you get 2 months free. The Standard plan costs $59 per month, and the Power plan $375 per month. 

All three plans basically have the same offer, of the text generator, a bland SEO editor, (Sub) Topic discoverer, API, and integration for WordPress publishing. The major difference in the plans revolves around the number of users and articles the platform can create for you. The Basic plan can create up to 40 articles per month for 1 user, the Standard offers 150 articles for 1 user and the Power plan up to 1000 articles for up to 10 users.  

While it may seem pricy, the Power plan offers the best buy option if you’re churning out a lot of articles per month.

Features

Perhaps the best option AIWriter offers is the (Sub) Topic discoverer that analyzes what other content creators have written about a certain topic. The platform then creates unique topics for you to help you offer a new perspective on a topic. 

For firms looking to “freshen up” old content, text rewording is another useful feature of AIWriter. Once you upload your content, you can have the platform spin out new SEO-optimized content, but make sure to double-check it, as accuracy can sometimes be off. 

Speaking of SEO optimization, the SEO text editor that it offers is bland at times, but overall can be helpful when you’re looking to create SEO-optimized content. 

Unfortunately, during our 7-day free test, the platform tended to be quite slow, taking anywhere between 5 to 8 minutes to create a text of 500 words. It wouldn’t be that bad if the generated content was 100% accurate and would not need editing from the user.

Interface and in use

There is not much to report on AIWriter’s interface, as it looks pretty bland for our taste. The main workspace is clutter-free, and if you’re looking to create new content, all you need to do is type in the topic and click on “Write article.” 

The board on the left-hand side of the screen contains all of the navigation options, but opening them up will present you with the same drab UI seen on the home screen. 

Aesthetics aside, the UI is user-friendly and is geared towards those new in the AI writing assistant niche.

Support

The platform offers a Tutorial Videos section, which, at the time of writing, had only eight videos in its library. That pretty much sums up the learning curve of the tool, whose goal of simplicity and ease of use is reflected in the amount of support it offers. 

Furthermore, the FAQ is pretty basic, covering some of the questions that can be inferred simply by using the platform and others that are just one Google search away. 

Regardless, the support is passable at best, with email communication being the best bet if you have questions for the team behind AIWriter. 

In terms of usage, it is so simple that you will probably not need any support at all.

Security

There is little to no information on the security of the platform. While the web-hosted platform supports HTTPS protocol, the safest bet is for users to ensure that their connection is secure.

Test

We’ve given the platform our standard test of writing a simple topic. The goal was to cover “Artificial intelligence helps writers be more succinct” utilizing its Research & Write option. It took its time to write the article (roughly 5 minutes), and the results were passable. 

The paragraphs seemed like separate units, not connected to each other, almost as if each was part of a separate text. However, the fact that you get citations can help you delve deeper into the topic and adjust the output you get.

The competition

Jasper is one of the main competitors to AIWriter, offering content creation for websites, Google ads, and Blogs. It is a level above in terms of the design and content quality, but it comes at a higher price point, despite offering per-word pricing. 

Writesonic also competes in the same sphere but offers much more than AIWriter. It has a complex platform compared to AIWriter and if you’re looking to churn out more content, could be cheaper if opting for higher-tiered plans.

Final verdict

AIWriter is a bland AI writing assistant that focuses on simplicity of use. Its pricing point makes it a more affordable option than its competition, but there are free options in the market that give it a “run for its money.” 

The content that it creates is passable; however, be mindful that you will have to do some heavy editing if you want to use the content it offers you.

• Check out our list for the best AI writer