Research of 200 MicroSD maps reveals false speed reviews, unreliable endurance and widespread capacity fraud
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- MicroSD map examination tested 200 models to discover fake suitcases, performance gaps and endurance
- Fake flash was common in cheap cards with high capacity, where data was thrown beyond the true limits
- Name-brand cards generally performed better than off-brand models in speed, reliability and total writing endurance
One man has taken the task of testing microSD cards to a level that most users would never entertain.
In the course of a year, Tech enthusiast Matt Cole bought and tested 200 different models, ranging from 8 GB to 1 TB, with a special focus on identifying fakes, test performance and measuring sustainability.
Fifty -one of those cards failed during testing.
Write more than 100 TB of data per day
Cole is the maker of The Great MicroSD Card SurveyA deep, evolving benchmark report (and a serious work of love), which started in July 2023.
He built a test installation with eight machines and nearly 70 card readers that are continuously run and write more than 100 TB of data per day.
To date, the set -up has written more than 18 petabytes of data to the cards under test conditions. Impressive, his whole effort is financed himself, although he has a Amazon Wishlist If someone wants to buy him further tickets to test.
Cole’s goal was to understand how these small storage devices differ between brand, price and origin.
One of his most important goals is the identification of ‘fake flash’, where a card tells the host device that it has more storage than it really is.
A 1 TB card can really only store 8 GB. Once that real limit has been reached, new data will be quiet. He also emphasizes “Skimpy Flash”, where a map is technically real, but offers less useful space than advertised, a common problem, even between cards with a name brand.
His research does not stop at capacity. Cole also tested whether cards live up to their advertised speed class reviews, such as U1, U3 or V30.
He carried out consecutive and random I/O tests and then followed endurance through repeated writing and reading cycles.
Some cards survived more than 20,000 cycles, while others failed before they reached 500. Temperature monitoring was also part of the process, although it is still unclear how much heat the performance affects in the long term.
Under the Best microSD cards Were the Kingston Canvas go! Plus 64 GB, Pny Pro Elite Prime 64 GB, Sandisk Extreme 64 GB, Delkin Devices HyperSpeed 128 GB, and Samsung Evo Plus 64 GB.
These models performed well in multiple statistics and came close to advertised specifications.
Cole’s blog contains graphs and summaries to help buyers quickly find reliable options and it is frankly a beautiful piece of work. He is also not ready either. Testing continues, with more cards in the queue, hopefully including some of the biggest capacity models.
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