I know there are plenty of fakes and cheap high capacity cards on eBay which are really lower capacities then advertised. Surely there's has to be some reasonably priced cards out there which are just as reliable as some of those in the SanDisk or Samsung range.
What brand card have you discovered that is just as good and where did you get it? Would be informative to know what device your using the card in and how long you've had it?
I've purchased a few of these cards in the last 5 to 10 years by now to know not cheap out on unknown or unbranded ones. I asked in the hope that there would be some success stories.
For peace of mind, the warranty on some of the cards is totally worth it for those who are storing important information or data which is frequently reading and/or writing to the card.
What ronnknee said and from what I remember when I was researching micro sd cards for my tablet San disk ultra's are really the best. Of course it depends on your usage but if this is for smart phones and tablets heck even some go pro cameras San disk ultra's are really the best or whatever decent brand is on special just divide $ per gigabyte and compare to see which are the best sale or no sale.
I bought this deal
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/293761
Mainly because I wanted to try 200gb in a mobile device or "smartphone" medium and so far in my Huawei Mediapad M3 8.4" (android tablet) it has served me well which I also bought around the time so 4-5 months constant daily usage from movies games YouTube videos to music and lots of apps. Currently at 65% of full storage or 121/183gb it overprovisions about 17gb or 8.5% which is normal.
Generally the sweet spot for micro sd cards atm I have seen is anywhere up to 128gb the extra "72" gb is usually at a minor small premium probably because they have to try sell it higher to off set rnd costs or whatever or just higher tier "tech" pricing.. 256gb gets into crazy higher price premium mode because it is the latest technology so early adopter premium.
As for brands all the reputable notable ones are good from Kingston to Lexar to SanDisk to Sony to Samsung etc
Just do a search up on whatever you are buying and you should get results and benchmarks. Here is a quick one I found typing best micro sd cards brands into Google.
https://www.ephotozine.com/articles/top-10-quickest-sd-memor…
I would avoid a too good to be true deal as their used to be scams going around of super budget storage devices like usb drives and what not I think sd cards were also included basically anything that had flash drives in them or something along those lines not sure if they are still around but they used to primarily operate on eBay and other dodgy online markets mainly Chinese or overseas. So just be aware of that.
Thanks AlienC. Some great advice here. Particularly for those who are have a tendency to buy cheap cards or are just buying their first few cards.
No problem just passing it on, today you tomorrow me.
I bought a bunch of these 2 years ago 32gb @ $5 each
the first one is still going strong in my mobile. second one is sitting gaining dust in my camera - haven't failed yet.
Good one. I'm surprised and impressed that the one in your phone is still kicking along.
I don't store anything of major importance on my phones external memory (other then music and disposable files). Photos and any files I cannot afford to lose are always stored on the internal memory so this wouldve been a great choice for my phone also.
When it comes to memory storage, it is not advisable to cheap out on them. Get proper branded ones from reputable stores.
I bought a branded one at a decent price from eBay from a seller with lots of transactions.
I suspected they were fakes.
The first thing I did was test them with a program, and surely enough, they were fakes.
Took a month but got a PayPal refund.
Do NOT cheap out on memory, ALWAYS buy from reputable sellers, and ONLY places where you can get a refund.
Streaming. zero bytes of additional storage needed.
The Lexar 300x / 633x have a good rep. Next time they're discounted, I'll be getting some.
SanDisk, Samsung. From a proper store (not eBay, not Amazon). I'd rather pay the JB tax than have to deal with returns to "xCheapxCardsx4Ux" on eBay, because anything there will be fake.
Branded memory cards are already pretty cheap these days and I can't imagine unbranded to be any significantly cheaper. SanDisk memory cards come with 25 years or lifetime warranty which gives you a peace of mind when they are that confident in the quality. Better stick with the big brands if you care about the data.