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 #	1	2	3	Average
Serial number	0xaa03666f	0xaa009e75	0xaa00394e	N/A
Manufacture date	Mar 2023	Mar 2023	Mar 2023	N/A
Sequential read speed (MB/sec)	89.49	91.14	90.62	90.42
Sequential write speed (MB/sec)	47.09	49.37	49.95	48.80
Random read speed (IOPS/sec)	2,150.54	1,607.76	1,626.13	1,794.81
Random write speed (IOPS/sec)	638.39	492.78	335.29	488.82
Read/write cycles to first error	Not yet determined	3	15,934	7,969
Read/write cycles to 0.1% failure threshold	Not yet determined	5,917	19,851	12,884
Read/write cycles to complete failure	Not yet determined	5,917	19,885	12,901
Total days to complete failure	Not yet determined	35	253	144
Card reader used	SmartQ Duo	JJC CR-UTC4AC**	JJC CR-UTC4AC	N/A
Package front				N/A
Package back	Not available			N/A
Card front				N/A
Card back				N/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 79,603 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)