After taking a hands-on look at the brand’s latest T7 Shield SSD and speed-focused memory cards earlier this year, it is now time for the new Endurance PRO camera microSD cards. The latest models in Samsung’s PRO Endurance line were unveiled earlier this month with a design specifically focused on home and enterprise security systems, front door cams, and other always-on video monitoring applications. Sacrificing some speed in favor of reliability for the long haul, these cards are rated for as much as 140,000 hours of continuous capturing, and it’s now time to take a closer look in the latest Tested with 9to5Toys.
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Hands-on with Samsung’s new PRO Endurance camera microSD lineup
The new Endurance PRO camera microSD cards from Samsung deliver “enterprise-grade NAND flash memory” tailored specifically for always-on applications and are designed to withstand a good beating from the elements in outdoor setups. Positioned for both enterprise users and home consumers, they come in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and a larger 256GB model with MSRPs starting from $11.
The class 10 storage cards clock in with read/write speeds at 100MB/s and 40MB/s with video speed ratings of U3 (UHS Speed Class 3) and V30 (Video Speed Class 30). While that is somewhat slower in the MB/s department than some of more versatile options from Samsung’s previous EVO release, the Endurance camera microSD cards favor long-lasting durability and reliability over speed.
The “PRO Endurance card can deliver up to 16 years (140,160 hours) of continuous recording time to ensure every critical moment is captured,” according to Samsung. The brand says that puts a single PRO Endurance card in position to “last as long as up to 33 typical speed-focused cards,” aimed at negating the need for frequent replacements while delivering year-round reliability even in harsh outdoor conditions.
New camera microSD cards – Recording time breakdown for each model: 256GB model up to 140,160 hours, 128GB model up to 70,080 hours, 64GB model up to 35,040 hours, 32GB model up to 17,520 hours. Based on Full HD (1920×1080) video content recorded at 26Mbps (3.25MB/s).
Here’s a closer look at the spec sheet:
- Delivers up to 16 years (140,160 hours) of continuous recording
- Up to 100 MB/s read and up to 40MB/s
- Class 10, U3 (UHS Speed Class 3), and V30 (Video Speed Class 30)
- Resists magnetic fields of up to 15,000 Gauss (the equivalent of a high-field MRI scanner)
- Protects from damage caused by airport X-ray machines
- Survives up to 72 hours in 1-meter depth of seawater
- Withstands drops up to 5 meters (16.4 feet)
- Passes a durability test of 10,000 swipes
9to5Toys’ Take
The latest from Samsung’s stable of microSD card solutions is specifically focused, unlike the previously-released PRO Plus and EVO Plus models we reviewed at the top of the year. The new Endurance lineup, much like the predecessors, is really for one application; long-term, set and forget storage – home/office surveillance gear, doorbell cameras, vehicle cams, and other always-on video monitoring applications that, for the most part, you’re only going to require access to when you really need it. This may or may not be a sore spot for some users as they aren’t really as fast as similarly-priced models out there, nor are they as versatile by design.
These use cases really benefit from a storage medium you can rely on for potentially many thousands of hours of recording you’ll rarely ever need to access, unless you’re a curious cat that likes to watch your dash camera footage even when nothing particularly meaningful happened of course (I know you’re out there). For everyone else, the last thing you want is camera microSD cards installed that failed from exhaustive over-written footage captures when you needed it the most.
Samsung’s six-proof protective design also comes into to play in this regard as well. Not only are the Endurance models rated for hundreds of thousands of hours of footage recording, but they are also specifically engineered not to succumb to harsh and constant temperature changes.
Clearly, these camera microSD cards haven’t been available long enough for even the media to run them through the paces for thousands of hours, but everything has been flawless in what has been a tumultuous range of temperature conditions in my hands-on tests thus far.
If I had to find something to knock on latest PRO Endurance camera microSD cards it would be the minimal step up in terms of specs. The previous generation includes much of the same treatment, albeit with a slightly slower write speed at 30MB/s, so it would have been nice to see Samsung take an even longer leap in terms of tech here. Having said that, it does now offer the 256GB capacity as well as modern video speed class ratings with higher transfer rate speeds likely to diminish the overall reliability after years of constant use anyway. But even still, it’s hard to recommend them for anything other than a robust home security system that might also be just fine using a faster solution.
Buy the Samsung Endurance PRO camera microSD cards
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