How MicroSD Express Support on the Nintendo Switch 2 Could Impact Your Budget: Here’s Why

After the big unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2, some interesting details about the console’s features have come to light. A key takeaway is the new requirement for a different type of MicroSD card known as MicroSD Express. This upgrade doesn’t come cheap. If you’re looking at current pricing trends, these cards may hit your budget quite hard. When broken down by capacity, they cost more than many of the SSDs on the market today. While you can grab a budget SSD for around 5 to 6 cents per gigabyte, these new cards will set you back about 20 to 25 cents per gigabyte. The additional cost is due to the advanced technology integrated into the cards, such as NVMe and PCIe 3.0, commonly seen in M.2 SSDs.

Sandisk offers MicroSD Express cards starting at $49.99 for 128GB, while their 256GB version costs $64.99. These cards are capable of notable speeds—up to 880 MB/s for reading, 480 MB/s for writing, and sustained write speeds of 100 MB/s. Meanwhile, Lexar announced even larger cards, going up to 1TB. However, be prepared for some sticker shock with these sizes.

Lexar’s Play Pro series includes the 1TB MicroSD Express card priced at a whopping $199.99. They also have a 512GB model for $99.99 and a 256GB one for $49.99. Lexar claims these cards can reach read speeds of up to 900 MB/s and write speeds of 600 MB/s. While Sandisk charges $0.39 per gigabyte for their 128GB card and $0.25 for the 256GB, Lexar standardizes its pricing at $0.20 per gigabyte across all sizes, while also offering higher performance specs.

Storage space has become more crucial with the Switch 2 than ever before. Although the console will come with 256GB of built-in storage, it’s not all smooth sailing. Even if you opt for a physical game cartridge, you might still need to download the complete game onto the console. Nintendo refers to these cartridges as “Game-Key Cards”, but they may just serve as fancy license keys. This change is partially driven by a need to cut costs on cartridges, especially since NAND storage prices are climbing.

Picture yourself buying the Street Fighter 6 cartridge. You’re looking at an extra 50GB download on top of the cartridge. Pretty quickly, that 256GB of initial storage will start to look small. This means that unless you’re up for frequently deleting and redownloading games, you might have to invest in these expensive new MicroSD cards.

Let’s dive a little more into what MicroSD Express is all about. At first glance, these cards may look just like any other MicroSD card, but don’t be fooled. They represent a significant upgrade from the older UHS-I standard used in the original Nintendo Switch. MicroSD Express cards are categorized by the SD Association into four different speed classes: 150, 300, 450, and 600. These numbers suggest their minimum read/write speeds in MB/s.

Unlike the old UHS-I cards, which have eight pins, MicroSD Express cards come with 16 or 17 pins. This allows them to support interfaces like NVMe and PCIe 3.0, enabling speeds up to 2GB/s with PCIe 4.0. For gamers looking for deeper tech specs, check out AnandTech’s breakdown of this technology.

While those are the theoretical capabilities, the nitty-gritty of whether the Switch 2 will tap into these speeds remains unknown. No current MicroSD Express cards have hit the top speeds advertised yet, so there’s much to watch out for when the Switch 2 and its compatible cards finally become available. In the meantime, you might want to read our hands-on review of the Nintendo Switch 2 to get a broader sense of what to expect.