SanDisk is a well-known name in the flash memory industry. Founded in 1988, they developed the first flash-based SSD. They were later acquired by Western Digital in 2016, before being spun off as a public company in early 2025.
SanDisk is a name I’ve long been aware of, and one that — prior to this project — I was biased in favor of. I have a number of single-board computers that take microSD cards, and I typically defaulted to the SanDisk Ultra 16GB for their storage — and most of the time, had no issues with them. And since they’re such a major brand, I wanted to make sure they were properly represented in this project. Since starting this project, I’ve apparently gone down a rabbit hole of testing all of the different models of microSD cards that SanDisk offers. I had this one on my Amazon wishlist, and Stanley R. Sieler Jr. was kind enough to purchase me a 4-pack of them. Thank you Stanley!
This particular card seems to be marketed towards…well…outdoor applications. The artwork — both on the package and on the cards themselves — suggests that it’s intended for use in trail cameras, where the card would be exposed to outdoor conditions for long periods of time. I don’t know what exactly SanDisk did to this card — electrically or mechanically speaking — to make it more suitable for outdoor use; however, there is one thing I noticed that could come in handy: there are bright orange patches on both the front and back of the card. This makes it easier to find if, say, you drop it in the grass. (Quite frankly, this could come in handy in some indoor applications as well.)
These cards met all of the criteria that I set out for determining what’s considered a name brand card, so their results will be included in the name brand bucket in my results.
Performance, overall, was above average — with write speeds (both sequential and random) being this card’s strength. Each component of the performance score was above average as well — just to varying degrees. This card carries the Class 10 and A1 performance marks, and performance was good enough to qualify for both of them. Keep in mind, however, that this is based off the results of a single card — I’ll have to come back and update this once I’ve had the chance to test the others.
On the endurance testing front:
- Sample #1 has survived 12,354 read/write cycles so far and has not yet experienced any errors.
- Samples #2-#4 are still in the package, waiting to be tested.
November 9, 2025 (current number of read/write cycles updates automatically every hour)