Unbranded 32GB microSD card.

After seeing so many flash drive reviews in a single day, I decided not to be the odd one out and put together a review of my own—though without a tape measure and the like.
I even remembered Gusev's line from the film *The Adventures of the Elektronic* — “I've got a voice too, I want to sing too” :).

Anyway, I was in a good mood, so I thought, why not join in the general flash drive mania?

I ordered this flash drive back in mid-December and chose Hong Kong Post for shipping, but even they couldn't beat the pre-Christmas backlog, so I didn't get the package until after New Year's.
Oh well, that's not important. Let's get to what actually arrived, against all odds :)

When I went to the post office to pick up the envelope, I expected a small, flat one, but was very surprised to find a rather puffy package. For a moment, I wondered if it was even mine.
I remember ordering a 100 W LED array once, and that envelope was much thinner.
But the name and address were mine, so the envelope had to be mine too.
Something was inside, wrapped in thick bubble wrap.


Never mind, I thought, and kept digging. They certainly didn't skimp on the packaging. The bag is made of thick plastic, so it'll come in handy for something.


Inside all those bags, envelopes, and layers of bubble wrap was a small plastic case with the flash drive.
But even all that effort didn't help—the card had still popped out of its slot.
Looks like the postal service really went all out :)


The package includes the microSD memory card itself, an SD adapter, and a little case to store it all in.
The adapter and case weren't listed in the store, so they're a nice little bonus.


The product page listed it as: 32GB Micro SD Class 10 Trans Flash TF Memory Card
We'll check the 32 GB capacity later. It's obviously a microSD card, but I still don't understand why they also call it Trans Flash.
There's absolutely no information about the manufacturer on the card itself.


There's laser marking on the back, along with some kind of hologram that rubbed off easily while I was trying to make out the markings.
The markings didn't tell me anything, though. It's an unknown beast—maybe someone knows what it is.
At least it's made in Taiwan :)


Since I rarely use memory cards like this—or anything other than USB devices, for that matter—I only have one basic card reader on hand, so that's what I'll use for testing. I bought it locally to use with a 4 GB flash drive, which is also in the photo.


The memory card was formatted as FAT32.


First, I ran a capacity test, since I'd often come across reviews of fake flash drives. That's common with drives advertised as 100500 GB for 2 dollars, but it's worth checking anyway.
All the tests were run over USB 2.0, but the memory card itself isn't very fast, so the interface wasn't a bottleneck.


Next up were synthetic speed tests in different modes.
Just to be safe, I tested it in two formats:
FAT32


And exFAT.
The difference isn't huge, but it's there.


Besides the software tests, I also did a simple speed test by copying files to the memory card.


And reading from the card.


And finally, tests using HD Tune Pro.
Actually, I ran the test with this program twice because the results were different.
The first screenshot shows a run at the very beginning of all the tests.


And here's a run with the same memory card, but after about 50 cycles of intensive rewriting and several runs with different programs.
It has clearly gotten worse, but when I compared it with a 4GB Team card I bought in a brick-and-mortar store, I felt a little better: its graph is even worse in the first half, despite having gone through fewer write/read cycles—and it's not unbranded, either.
In any case, I had to include this screenshot.


Summary.
I won't list the pros and cons this time; I think the test results speak for themselves.
But my opinion is that if you're buying one, it's probably better to look for a name-brand card. Still, if you have some points or are going to use a discount coupon in this store, this one will do just fine.
In other words, I would have liked something better, but it could have been worse.

The store chinabuye provided this card free of charge for me to experiment with and abuse.