So, we recently did a repair of this
Amazon Basics Micro SD adapter. And uh
someone in the comments did say these
are built to a price. They’re incredibly
cheap. Might not be the best quality.
So, I thought it might be interesting to
compare what’s inside this Amazon Basics
one with this branded SanDisk one and
see if um see if there’s any difference
or if they’re exactly the same. So, I’ve
already cracked open this Amazon basics
one that was part of the last video.
Should be up in the corner here or here.
Not sure which corner. One of the
corners. And it’s a fairly simple
construction. So, you can see that
clearly here. So, let’s open up the
SanDisk one and see if it’s any
different. But before we get into the
snapping apart of plastic, quick shout
out to PCB way. I’ve been getting a
bunch of PCBs from them. I really should
uh get on with this project and finish
it. But I do have my lovely dev board
they made that’s working really well. So
check out a link to PCB way in the
description and you too can get your own
PCB.
So that is interesting. Um not sure
where this bit came from. I think it’s
just a bit of plastic. But there’s
definitely
very similar construction, but also
quite different construction. So, let’s
just remove that bit of plastic.
So,
this is the SanDisk version and this is
the Amazon basics version. So,
definitely definitely different. So, the
Amazon basics has these little uh little
pins with a a little bend in them so
they connect. Now, I’ll put this under
the microscope in a minute so we can
really see the difference. This one is
very different. So, the pins have
different lengths. Let’s actually put in
a micro SD card and see how it actually
slots together.
And it just goes on like that.
So, the guide
is on this side.
slides in,
makes contact like that. So, it pushes
down on the pins. Now, what’s different
on this one, the SD card slides in this
way,
makes contact on the underside of these
pins. So, actually surprisingly
different. Let’s take this out and we’ll
put it
if we can grab hold of it. put it into
here.
Definitely goes that way round. And then
this slides in like that. So that’s very
different. I’m going to grab another SD
card to put into this one so we can
really compare the difference. So this
is the Amazon Basics with my little
bodgege.
And this is the the branded SanDisk
Ultra one. A very different
construction. Absolutely fascinating.
Let’s get some uh close-ups under the
microscope. So, here we go. We’re pretty
zoomed in under the microscope. This is
the Amazon Basics version. So, we have
these kind of spring-loaded connectors.
So, the SD card slides in under here and
these pins make contact. You can see my
horrible bodgege here where I fixed one
of these broken spring connectors. So if
we can compare that to the
um SanDisk version um we can see it’s
very different. So on this version we
just have these connectors here that
connect to the SD card and we slide the
SD card out. If I can do that. So SD
card out and in. Then these make the
contacts here. So I’m not sure what
you’d consider is the higher quality
one. Um it’s a bit of a challenge to
know really. They’re different but uh
quite similar. So we can actually get
quite a good view under the microscope
of the construction of these pins. So on
the left is the Amazon Basics and on the
right is the sand disk. Now to my eye,
and I might be wrong, it looks like
there’s quite a lot of gold plating on
the end of these pins.
I can kind of see it looks slightly
slightly yellow on these pins, but uh
adjusting the lighting. I think they’re
actually not goldplated at all or if
there is any gold plating, it’s pretty
minimal. Whereas on these ones, it looks
like quite a lot. Can also get quite a
nice comparison here of the of the pins.
So on the left, the Amazon basics, on
the right, the sand disc. Now, I think I
prefer the sand disc. It feels like the
right hand side might be a lot more
robust than the lefthand side. This um I
mean this is where it snapped before.
Let’s just focus on that. I mean, it’s
got it’s got some solder on it now, but
you can see there is definitely a weak
point around here. If you’re inserting
and taking cards out quite a lot, that
could fatigue quite rapidly and end up
snapping as it did on my broken one. So,
yeah. So, I I do think I prefer the
right hand side. It does look It does
look better. Let’s try and focus on this
a bit. Oh, there we go. That’s quite a
nice shot. So, left hand Amazon Basics,
right hand the um the SanDisk branded
version. I think I prefer the sand disk
banded one. Let me know what you think
in the comments. Which do you think is
better? A
or B. So, we have the SanDisk versus
Amazon Basics. Now, just ignore my
bodgege and let me know what you think
in the comments. Which do you prefer?
This one
or this one? It’s like being at the
optitians. Is it better like this or
better like this?