Here’s how to spot a fake microSD card

MicroSD cards have changed the way we store and carry our data. Having a capacity of 64, 128 or 256 GB in just a chip that is even smaller then your thumb’s nail is pretty cool. If you own an Android smartphone with external SD card slot, that’s not less then a blessing. You can always go beyond the limited internal memory of your smartphone and store tons of stuff in the little microSD card. A phone with 16 GB or 32 GB internal storage isn’t enough these days, one always needs more storage to store music, pictures, and other important data.

When it comes to choosing a genuine and right microSD card for your device, you will definitely want to get your hands on a memory chip that’s real and intact. It’s not a good idea to risk your hard earned bucks on a microSD card that says something else and does something else. The real problem while choosing the microSD cards has emerged up ever since the Chinese companies started producing the counterfeits of the genuine microSD cards.

You can get a Kingston microSD card for almost 30 – 50 bucks and you will find its Chinese counterfeit in almost 10 bucks. Apparently, there won’t be an issue going with the Chinese counterfeit as it will offer you the same amount of memory, but that’s only what it seems like. What potential issues you will face if you accidentally get your hands on a replica of a microSD card? And how well can you actually avoid picking up a fake microSD card? Well, the answers to all these questions are what we are about to discuss. Let’s begin with the potential issues that one can come across using a fake microSD card.

Fake microSD card issues

1. Applications will start crashing on a phone.
2. The phone will start acting extremely slow.
3. The software of your phone will start lacking.
4. The storage will not be exactly what’s advertised. It may be written on the packing or the card that it has 64 GB storage or 32 GB storage, but it may actually have 5 or 6 GB of storage hardly.
5. Your data will get corrupted easily.
6. Fake microSD cards have slow reading and writing speed as compared to the genuine microSD cards.

Sometimes a fake microSD card can be really hard to spot. In the world of Android, hacking is something that breaks all the barriers. It’s pretty easy to hack the Software today and make it work with something like a fake microSD card. In some cases, you need an authentic method to find out a replica microSD card.

How to tell a microSD card is fake simply be having a look on it?

Well, it doesn’t require you to be a superhuman to find out if a microSD card is fake or genuine. A fake card speaks for itself. Fake microSD card manufacturers do try their best to match their cards and its packing with the original microSD card, but it’s not always possible to make it look like the exact outlook of a genuine card.

The text, description, and colors on the fake microSD card packing are poorly aligned,  the colors are either too dull or too bright and the description is sometimes missing. Have a look at some fake and genuine microSD cards to know the difference by yourself.

Here are some microSD cards and their counterfeits

Price indicator

The price of a fake microSD card speaks for itself as well. You won’t find a 64 GB microSD card from Kingston, Sandisk, Samsung, Transcend as low as $10 easily. If you find a card with a huge amount of memory at an extremely cheap price, you will be able to find out that the card is fake. If you’re finding out a microSD card from a well-reputed store, there are mere chances that it will be a fake product. You can also avoid buying the microSD card from Chinese stores.

At the time of writing this post, the SD card with maximum storage is Sandisk 250 GB microSD which costs almost $99 at BestBuy. A 256 GB card listed on eBay costs only $7. Surprising, isn’t it? Well, it won’t take more than a few seconds to know that its fake. Have a look for yourself.

If it’s not easy for you to spot the fake microSD card simply by looking at it, you may want to find that out with the help of a software or application. Luckily, there’s an application named “SD Insight” that does this job for you. Here’s how you can use it.

How to check if a microSD is fake or genuine using SD Insight?

1. Download and install SD Insight in your Android smartphone.
2. Put your newly bought SD card in your Android smartphone.
3. Open SD Insight from the app drawer.
4. Fill all the available data about your microSD card, its manufacturer, model number and storage in the SD Insight application.
5. Let the application test your card for you. You will get to know if it’s fake or genuine. That’s all.

That’s all with this guide. We hope that you find this helpful. In case you’ve got any queries, reach us out through the comment box below.