Just How Tough Do Samsung SD Cards Get?

Samsung Electronics launched its brand memory products including SD cards and Micro SD cards in March, 2011. SD cards are small portable memory cards that are used in portable electronic devices such as digital cameras and laptops. As SD cards are widely used to store precious information, you can’t stress enough the importance of its reliability.

So however small it may be, we wanted them to be reliable, just like all Samsung products. But just how reliable? How about being water-proof – better yet, seawater-proof? What if it’s exposed to strong magnetic fields? What if it got run over by, say, a 1.9-ton truck?

Remember how we stripped down the likes of GALAXY SⅡ, GALAXY Note, GALAXY Tab 7.7, Smart TV and the Series 9 Laptop so you don’t have to tear yours apart? Well, Samsung Tomorrow cares about your products, so again, we put ours in harm’s way so you don’t have to try it at home. Tip 1. Don’t try this at home. Tip 2. Watch the video before you read on.

Reliability Test #1: Sea Water

Water is an electronic device’s nightmare. And sea-water? Ughh, even worse for your gadgets. But they say this SD card can survive salt water.

So we went to Busan, located on the southwestern coast of Korea. In the summer, it’s hot and sunny with lots and lots of people come to enjoy the beach, but this time, it was strictly business. Our experiment guy went straight to the beach to fetch some sea water in a glass. We brought it to our room and left the SD card in the glass for 24 hours.

What do you think happened? I don’t mean to spoil the video for you, but, even after 24 hours under seawater, the SD card worked perfectly without a file destroyed! Hey boss, now can I party? (No, of course not. I still have two more experiments to cover.)

Reliability Test #2: Magnetic Energy

You might damage your credit card if you expose it to too much magnetic force. It’s kind of like that for SD cards, too. But again, we had to try. And so comes the second: Is Samsung’s SD card magnet-proof?

The 15,000 Gauss used in this experiment is about the same amount of electromagnetic power emitted by an MRI machine at a hospital. 15,000 Gauss is also said to be 30 thousand greater times than the natural magnetic field of Earth – 0.5G.

Well, again the SD card lives – this strong magnet test couldn’t break the SD card either.

*Editor’s note: The press release only mentions the Samsung SD card being able to resist up to 10,000G. I don’t know why we went over our heads, up to 15,000G, but legal says we can’t guarantee that. So, just so you know: “This experiment doesn’t warrant that all products will withstand the same level of stress exhibited in this video.”

Reliability Test #3: Physical Shock

Now it’s time to scale things up a bit. What if a 1.9-ton truck runs your SD card over?

For this one, we borrowed a truck and first weighed it. It turned out it weighed a bit more than we expected, but we decided to try it anyway. The result? Another spoiler, but, our sturdy SD card survived this one too. Don’t say we didn’t tell you to watch the video first.

**Editor’s note: The press release only mentions the Samsung SD card being able to resist a hit from a 1.6-ton truck. We might have gotten lucky again with an additional 300kg, and legal says we can’t guarantee that. So again, just so you know: “This experiment doesn’t warrant that all products will withstand the same level of stress exhibited in this video.” Dejavu?

Hope you enjoyed the three experiments while we went all sadistic on our SD card. Though yes Samsung SD cards are sturdy and no there weren’t any gimmicks in this video, please don’t risk your information in your your SD cards. FYI, below are some specs for Samsung SD cards.

Samsung Electronics Memory card Specifications (left: SD card, right: microSD card)

***This experiment was only intended to help viewer’s understanding; it can be different from the actual product specifications