Summary
- PNY’s PRO Elite High Endurance microSD cards prioritize reliability and can write data continuously for up to 137,600 hours.
- These cards are waterproof, magnet-proof, and shock-proof, making them ideal for harsh conditions like action cameras.
- Priced reasonably, with a 3-pack of 64GB cards for $27.99 and a 512GB card for $59.99.
I’m sure you haven’t thought a lot about it, but microSD cards, like all other tech, do degrade. They start losing their functionality after years and several write cycles. If you don’t want to have to worry about that, PNY has some ultra-tough cards that will keep working amazingly for years and years on end.
PNY has just announced its latest PRO Elite High Endurance microSD cards. They’re mostly similar to your regular, run-of-the-mill microSD cards that you can get from a bunch of manufacturers for like $20 tops. But the real changes are inside. These SD cards are built tough, and PNY is prioritizing reliability over anything else here. The 512GB version of this card is able to write data continuously for up to 137,600 hours—or 15 years, if you want to put that in an easier-to-read number. The lower-storage versions are rated for less, as the amount of write cycles you get is reliant on the actual storage available, but they’re still good. The 64GB version, the smallest in this lineup, can write continuously for 17,200 hours, which is about two years.
Even if you’re not using a single SD card for that long, there are still reasons why you might want to get this one. These cards are, according to PNY, waterproof, magnet-proof, and shock-proof. We don’t have specific numbers of how waterproof, magnet-proof, and shock-proof they are—PNY says that they’ve been “internally tested” for these claims—but it looks like the company’s 2-year warranty might back any damage. We’ve reached out to PNY to confirm this just in case, though. But if it does, it would make these cards an amazing fit for any hardware you might use in harsh conditions, such as action cameras.
The speeds themselves are just okay, but not the very best out there. They are rated Class 10, U3, and V30, and they have read speeds up to 100 MB/s and write speeds up to 90 MB/s. They are just okay for 1080p and 4K recording, but anything above that and you might struggle heavily. They are okay for most mild usage, but you should keep the transfer speeds in mind if it’s something that will limit your usage.
It should also be noted that these are not microSD Express cards, but just regular old microSD cards. microSD Express is very specific in that it has an additional set of pins and it’s compatible with the same PCI Express/NVMe interface your SSD uses, so they’re way faster than standard cards. It’s also what the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 will be using for storage expansion. It’s way faster and allows for a more reliable connection with way less slowdowns. It’s not a widespread standard yet—most of the cards you’ll find on the market, including these new ones, are good old microSD non-Express. But if you were planning on getting this for a Nintendo Switch 2, it won’t work. For things like a GoPro camera, however, this is a much more sensible option.
Related
PNY’s New microSD Cards Go Up to 200 MB/s
Perfect for everything from cameras to Nintendo Switch consoles.
A 3-pack of 64GB cards costs $27.99, and you can get a 2-pack of 128GB cards for $29.99. 256GB and 512GB cards are available standalone—the 256GB camera costs $29.99, whereas the 512GB costs $59.99. Twice as expensive, but you get twice the storage and the whole 15 years of consistent writing. Not too shabby. You can buy these from PNY’s official website.
Source: PNY
