Chinese reviewer tests world’s cheapest 1TB microSD card and finds it’s not that bad — ahead of the launch of a 2TB version

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The $54 Topmore is a TF card that won’t blow you away, but can give you a much-needed low-cost space boost

Topmore 1TB microSD card
(Image credit: Topmore)

Topmore’s TA-101 card, at 389 yuan (roughly $54 dollars) is possibly the cheapest route you have for adding an extra 1TB of storage to your tablet – and testing shows it isn’t as bad as you may think.

Many of the best microSD cards out there today aren’t super quick if you compare them with the best hard drives or even SSDs. And that’s to be expected. 

The TeamGroup Elite A1 microSD card, for example, registered 92MB/s read and 87MB/s write speeds when tested via CrystalDiskMark in our review a couple of years ago. Similarly, the Samsung Pro Endurance offers read speeds of 100MB/s and write speeds of 40MB/s according to the manufacturer.  

Not all cheap devices are bad deals

Enter the Topmore TA-101 white 1TB TF card, which is what Chinese publication MyDrivers has branded the cheapest in the world. This is a TF card, rather than a microSD card, meaning it’s a previous generation of technology but serves the same purpose. 

Testing via CrystalDiskMark showed read and write speeds of 95.8MB/s and 93MB/s respectively were in line with the manufacturer’s claims. This is perfectly in line with many of the cheapest microSD cards out there, including the Silicon Power 1TB device, which has reads and writes of 100MB/s and 80MB/s respectively. This, by contrast, retails for $65.

CrystalDiskMark results are a little different, however, to judging performance in real-world contexts. When copying over a 100GB file, there were some dips in quality when assessed through HD Tune Pro, but the performance when copying over a 4K movie was relatively poor with major drops in speed at various points along the way.

While the TA-101 1TB is an enticing option, especially for its price, it may be worth waiting a little while because Topmore has recently announced that a 2TB version is in the works. Although 1TB microSD cards are rare, 2TB versions are practically unheard of.

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Keumars Afifi-Sabet
Keumars Afifi-Sabet
Channel Editor (Technology), Live Science

Keumars Afifi-Sabet is the Technology Editor for Live Science. He has written for a variety of publications including ITPro, The Week Digital and ComputerActive. He has worked as a technology journalist for more than five years, having previously held the role of features editor with ITPro. In his previous role, he oversaw the commissioning and publishing of long form in areas including AI, cyber security, cloud computing and digital transformation.