Hiksemi NEO 8GB

  • Obtained from: AliExpress
  • Price paid: $1.03
  • Advertised capacity: 8GB
  • Logical capacity: 7,989,624,832 bytes
  • Physical capacity: 7,989,624,832 bytes
  • Fake/skimpy flash: Skimpy (0.13% skimp)
  • Protected area: 134,217,728 bytes
  • Adjusted skimp: -1.55%
  • Speed class markings: Class 10
  • CID data:
    • Manufacturer ID: 0x6f
    • OEM ID: 0x0303
    • Product name: 0x4342414453 (ASCII: CBADS*)
    • Product revision: 0x10
Sample #123Average
Serial number0xaa03666f0xaa009e750xaa00394eN/A
Manufacture dateMar 2023Mar 2023Mar 2023N/A
Sequential read speed (MB/sec)89.4991.1490.6290.42
Sequential write speed (MB/sec)47.0949.3749.9548.80
Random read speed (IOPS/sec)2,150.541,607.761,626.131,794.81
Random write speed (IOPS/sec)638.39492.78335.29488.82
Read/write cycles to first errorNot yet determined315,9347,969
Read/write cycles to 0.1% failure thresholdNot yet determined5,91719,85112,884
Read/write cycles to complete failureNot yet determined5,91719,88512,901
Total days to complete failureNot yet determined35253144
Card reader usedSmartQ DuoJJC CR-UTC4AC**JJC CR-UTC4ACN/A
Package frontN/A
Package backNot availableN/A
Card frontN/A
Card backN/A

* Keen-eyed observers might note that other cards in my survey have a product name of SDABC, and that this is simply that, but backwards. I wonder if there’s an inside joke here?

** I think

Discussion

When I first started searching for SD cards on AliExpress, I decided to sort by price from lowest to highest — and Hiksemi was a result that came up near the top of the list. At the time, they were selling the 8GB card for just $0.01 — but that was before shipping. Still, I have to say that it’s a pretty effective strategy for getting people’s attention, and the card is still an excellent value even when factoring in shipping costs.

Honestly, though, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Hiksemi’s cards as a whole. This card’s only speed class marking is a Class 10 mark, which it easily qualified for. Sequential read and write speeds were well above average (with sequential read speeds being towards the high end of the spectrum). Random read speeds were average (with sample #1 being above average, and samples #2 and #3 being slightly below average), and random write speeds were all above average.

Endurance is where these cards have really shined. As of the time of this writing:

  • Sample #1 has survived 76,983 read/write cycles so far and has not yet experienced any errors — far more than any other card in my collection thus far. It has also gone the longest without errors out of any of the cards in my collection, having gone nearly-continuously for 444 days without experiencing any errors. And, it’s also endured the most bytes written out of any of the cards I’ve tested so far, at 535.5 TiB.
  • Sample #2’s first error was a 32-sector wide corrupted data error during round 3. However, it did not experience any further errors until round 5,918, when it began to experience a large number of missing data errors. It reached the 50% failure threshold during this round, and the test was considered complete at that point. Below is a graph showing this sample’s progression:

  • Sample #3’s first error was a two-sector wide data verification error that occurred during round 15,935. It continued to do well until round 19,852, when a large number of sectors just started to return all ff‘s. It crossed the 50% failure threshold during round 19,886.

Overall, would I buy this cards again? Yes! It was a complete surprise to me, but this card scored above average in every category. The only downside is that it seems that they’re no longer available at the price point I bought them at — there are other sellers on AliExpress that are selling (what appears to be) the same card, but by the time you add in shipping, the price ends up being between 3-6x what I paid.

November 4, 2024 (current number of read/write cycles is updated automatically every hour)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *