After Nintendo pulled back the curtain on the highly anticipated Switch 2, the buzz was all about the technical upgrades, with one standout feature being its requirement for a new type of MicroSD card known as MicroSD Express. But be warned: these are a premium piece of kit that comes with a premium price tag. If you’re measuring cost per gigabyte, these cards are significantly more expensive than many of today’s SSDs—ranging anywhere from 20 to 25 cents per GB. In contrast, budget SSDs can be as low as 5 to 6 cents per GB. The spike in cost comes as these cards integrate NVMe and PCIe 3.0, similar to what you’d find on M.2 SSDs.
SanDisk’s price list sets the starting point at $49.99 for 128GB, with the 256GB variant at $64.99. Those figures come with impressive speed: capable of hitting up to 880 MB/s for reading and 480 MB/s for writing, with a sustained write performance at 100 MB/s.
Meanwhile, Lexar has thrown another option into the ring with their upcoming 1TB model. Brace yourself for this one: the price is steep, as expected for this top-tier storage option.
If you’re considering Lexar’s Play Pro 1TB MicroSD Express card, prepare to shell out $199.99. The 512GB model will cost you $99.99, and the 256GB option is tagged at $49.99. These prices reflect their impressive capabilities, with reading speeds of up to 900 MB/s and writing up to 600 MB/s.
Comparatively, SanDisk’s offerings cost about $0.39 per GB for the 128GB model, while the 256GB model offers a more palatable $0.25 per GB. On the other hand, Lexar’s options average out to $0.20 per GB across all sizes, and they promise robust performance.
Why does storage matter so much for the Switch 2? Well, the new console ships with a baseline of 256GB of internal storage, which sounds great until you consider a little caveat. Purchasing a physical game doesn’t mean instant gameplay anymore. Some games demand that you download and install the entire game onto the system, effectively relegating the game cartridges to mere activation keys, or as Nintendo dubs them, “Game-Key Cards.” This shift likely ties back to manufacturers looking to minimize cartridge production costs, given the rising prices of NAND storage.
Take Street Fighter 6, for instance. Even with the cartridge in hand, you’re looking at downloading an additional 50GB right off the bat. All this means that the pre-loaded 256GB is going to fill up quickly, forcing you to invest in these pricier MicroSD cards unless you want to constantly juggle between downloading and deleting your games each time you use a new Game-Key Card.
The Switch 2’s adoption of the MicroSD Express standard marks a notable development in storage capabilities. Visually, these cards may not seem all that different from their regular MicroSD counterparts, which could lead to some buyer confusion. However, the technical leap is significant. The SD Association categorizes the new cards into Speed Classes: Class 150, Class 300, Class 450, and Class 600. The digits indicate the minimum read and write speeds in MB/s. Moreover, these new cards come equipped with either 16 or 17 pins, as opposed to the merely eight pins found in the older UHS-I models.
The technology relies on NVMe and PCIe 3.0 interfaces, allowing, in theory, speeds up to 2GB/s when utilizing a PCIe 4.0 interface. For an in-depth exploration of this tech, head to our sister site, AnandTech.
Despite the anticipation surrounding the Switch 2’s performance capabilities, we remain in the dark about whether the console will fully utilize these theoretical speeds. To date, no MicroSD Express card on the market has yet reached these peak speeds.
“The new microSD Express standard offers a revolutionary way to provide unparalleled performance in this form factor,” notes Joey Lopez, Director of Brand Marketing at Lexar. “We’re thrilled to offer a card that taps into this new standard, preparing gamers for the next wave of handheld gaming.”
A clear performance gap exists between top UHS-I MicroSD Cards and the touted MicroSD Express cards. Although currently, Lexar’s Play Pro MicroSDXC Express card charts as the speed leader, it’s a waiting game until we can test these cards with the Switch 2. In the meantime, take a moment to check out our firsthand impressions of the Nintendo Switch 2.
