Three-year endurance test of 284 SD cards reveals surprising winners and losers

A Reddit user known as mikaey00 has spent three years stress-testing nearly 300 microSD cards to determine which brands truly stand the test of time. The results challenge common assumptions about reliability, especially for popular consumer brands.

The tester owns 351 cards in total, but 67 are still waiting to be tested, meaning results are available for 284 units so far. To make the data easier to digest, all cards were divided into three categories: consumer-grade, high endurance, and industrial-grade. While the full breakdown is available in the original Reddit post, the consumer-grade results have drawn the most attention for their unexpected outcomes.

Among consumer-grade cards, the most durable brands, ranked from best to slightly less reliable, are PNY, Kingston, Delkin Devices, Lexar, and Samsung. Amazon Basics received an honorable mention for its performance. On the other hand, SanDisk — one of the most widely used and trusted brands — performed surprisingly poorly. Many of its cards failed under normal operating conditions, which is a significant finding given the brand's popularity.

The user emphasized that speed is not always the most important factor when choosing an SD card, especially for applications like Raspberry Pi projects, where long-term reliability matters more than raw transfer rates. The wide variation in durability across consumer-grade cards suggests that buyers should not rely solely on brand reputation. The ongoing test also highlights that even within the same category, some cards are far more resilient than others, making it crucial to check real-world endurance data before purchasing.