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A tech enthusiast spent three years testing 351 microSD cards to see how long they could survive repeated data writes. The large-scale endurance project, conducted by Matt Cole, who posts online as mikaey00, covered 111 models from 52 brands.
Of the 351 cards, 177 had already failed, 107 were still being tested, and 67 remained on a shelf waiting for a card reader. Cole’s machines pushed more than 133 petabytes of data through the cards and completed over 4.6 million program-verify-erase cycles.
The average consumer microSD card in the test lasted around 10,000 cycles. PNY ranked at the top, with 10 cards averaging 643 days and 15,700 cycles. Its PRO Elite Prime also ranked in the top 10 percent across every performance measurement recorded by Cole.
Kingston’s 12 tested cards averaged 694 days and roughly 23,500 cycles. Its Canvas Select Plus 32GB card continued to run for nearly the full three-year testing period.
Delkin’s HYPERSPEED 128GB recorded the highest amount of data written per card among consumer brands and delivered the fastest random write speeds in the collection. Lexar and Samsung completed the top five.
The lower-performing cards produced a different picture. Walmart’s onn 32GB cards averaged just 40 days and 1,400 cycles. ADATA’s Premier 32GB managed 2,350 cycles, while Gigastone cards lasted an average of 114 days.
None of Cole’s nine Silicon Power cards reached 4,000 cycles. SanDisk, despite being the biggest brand in the collection, also performed poorly. Only five of its 28 consumer cards remained operational, with an average of 384 days and 9,404 cycles.
Also Read: Best SanDisk SD Cards in 2026: Fast, Reliable Storage Options
The test also questioned whether high-endurance microSD cards justified their higher prices. These cards averaged about 14,000 cycles, compared with 10,000 cycles for regular consumer models.
Some high-endurance cards performed worse. All three SanDisk High Endurance 64GB cards failed, while Kingston’s High Endurance 32GB cards stopped working after an average of 143 days.
Industrial cards delivered a much bigger improvement, averaging roughly 122,000 cycles. Kingston’s Industrial 8GB reached 141,600 cycles.
An unusual exception was the Hiksemi NEO 8GB, an ordinary consumer card that crossed 143,800 cycles and remained operational.
Cole described the project as a torture test rather than a prediction of how long a microSD card would last in a phone or Steam Deck. He conducted the testing using mini PCs and older gaming laptops, including a Beelink Mini-S, five TRIGKEY Green G4 units, and an Asus ROG Strix Hero II.
The results suggested that the branding on a microSD card may not always indicate its real-world endurance. Instead, three years of repeated writes offered a clearer picture of how different cards handled sustained use.
