Are some Micro SD card brands better than others?

mohit9206

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I am looking to buy a 32gb class 10 micro SD card for my phone but there are so many brands to choose from. You have the popular ones like Samsung and Sandisk and less popular ones like Strontium, PNY, Transcend, Sony, Toshiba, Kingston, ADATA, HP, Dell, Lexar, GSkill and a few others as well.
Anyway i bought Strontium for $9.24 after doing some research and hope it does not come to bite me in the ***.
Is it true some brands have a higher failure rate than others? Is there some data on which brand has the highest and the least failure rate?
I understand most of you on the forums prefer either Sandisk or Samsung but what about your experiences with other brands. Which one is your favorite?
 

Golfdriver97

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Is it true some brands have a higher failure rate than others?
I don't know if there is actual data behind that, but I normally buy cards from OEMs that I know. Sure, you pay more for the name, but some of that money has to go into better Quality Control.

In terms of general PC storage, Kingston, ADATA, and Lexar are really good.
 

daehttub

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I pay more for SanDisk because they stand behind their cards. Samsungs at one time tended to eat SD cards due to a sequential write thing so they have replaced two 64 Gb cards for me without hassle. The unusually cheap SD cards on amazon are often fakes so I avoid them. Not sure if the other brands have the same guarantee.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk
 

UJ95x

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There definitely have to be higher quality cards in terms of maximum read/write sequences, corruption rate, etc. but I can't think of any sources with that data off the top of my head. I've never had issues with Samsung or SanDisk, so I stick with them
 

LeoRex

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Keep in mind that the tech at the core of these cards is often from same small group of fab houses. The no-name, bargain brands are often made from memory chips that the big names rejected for whatever reason. Plus, they most likely spend more time qualifying the cards, which keeps failure rates lower.

Like batteries, I'd be wary of one-off labels. But if you use them, make sure the data on them is backed up somewhere.
 

Rukbat

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1. SanDisk (in partnership with Hitachi, IIRC) invented the technology, so they know more about it than anyone else.

2. The only factories making the chips used in the cards are SanDisk and Samsung. Everyone else buys chips from them. I'd assume that SanDisk and Samsung use flawless chips.

3. When Samsung messed up the S3 and it ate cards, SanDisk came out with a modification to their cards to get around it before Samsung fixed the problem.

4. I've dealt with both companies about various matters. I'd rather deal with SanDisk - it's a LOT easier. (Tech help directly on the site, and an RMA request page to make getting a replacement card easier than going to the store.)

I have 20 year old SanDisk cards that still have the data I put on them years ago (I don't think they were even called SanDisk then.). So far I've had one bad one - I cracked a microSD card in half because I was clumsy.

I'll pay a few dollars more and buy a SanDisk card from a reputable source. (And still check it with SD Insight - an SD card made in 1970 is counterfeit - it has 0 for the date - because they hadn't invented them yet.)
 

NLab

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Haven't hear about "Strontium" that you've gotten.
But I myself would go with Kingston. Flash-drives
And RAM for PC, are working for the huge amount of time,
till now. And the RAM itself has no BAD's. Even tho it
works for about 7? years already (4+4GB).
 

D13H4RD2L1V3

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I personally go with SanDisk, mainly because I have used their SD cards before and they have never failed on me, even after 4 years.
 

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