{"id":13101,"date":"2025-04-03T03:13:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T03:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/switch-2-bigger-storage-heftier-price\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T03:13:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T03:13:38","slug":"switch-2-bigger-storage-heftier-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/switch-2-bigger-storage-heftier-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Switch 2: Bigger Storage, Heftier Price"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Nintendo Switch 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/nintendo\/the-nintendo-switch-2-arrives-on-june-5-at-450-140642208.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">had its big debut<\/a> on Wednesday, and the new console appears to be a significant, albeit straightforward, upgrade over its extremely popular predecessor. Sandwiched between the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/nintendo\/donkey-kong-bananza-is-a-brand-new-3d-platformer-for-switch-2-143108835.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">new Donkey Kong<\/a> and (pricier) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/nintendo\/mario-kart-world-features-24-player-races-off-roading-and-sick-grinds-134117381.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mario Kart games<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/nintendo\/the-switch-2s-joy-cons-can-double-as-mouse-like-controllers-133355339.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mouse mode<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/nintendo\/the-nintendo-switch-2-offers-built-in-voice-chat-and-screensharing-133334225.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">overhauled party chat<\/a> features, however, was another significant update: The device supports faster microSD Express cards. Although it may not be the most exciting feature, it should result in faster load times and better storage performance for the upcoming handheld console. During its presentation, the company briefly showcased new 256GB cards from Samsung and SanDisk, featuring Mario logos printed on them.<\/p>\n<p>However, the announcement came with a significant caveat: The console is <em>only<\/em> compatible with microSD Express. The cards most people use today, which are based on the older <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sdcard.org\/developers\/sd-standard-overview\/bus-speed-default-speed-high-speed-uhs-sd-express\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UHS-I bus interface<\/a>, will only work for loading videos and screenshots from an original Switch, not playing games, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/en-americas-support.nintendo.com\/app\/answers\/detail\/a_id\/68425\/kw\/switch%202\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nintendo\u2019s support site<\/a>. Nintendo claims that this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendo.com\/us\/whatsnew\/ask-the-developer-vol-16-nintendo-switch-2-part-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">restriction is necessary<\/a> to maintain the Switch 2\u2019s performance upgrades, and it\u2019s worth noting that the console itself comes with a more generous 256GB of space by default. Nevertheless, if you ever need to expand the device\u2019s storage, this change will likely make doing so more expensive, while drastically reducing the options you have to choose from.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 540px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:56%\">\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview has-width\" alt=\"A standard UHS-I microSD card and an SD Express card rest face down on a brown wooden board, showing how the latter includes a second row of pins to improve performance.\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/9Q8HB_Wo5ut52DEQMZtUJA--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2025-02\/eccbf260-edbf-11ef-affa-6baa4f7c8a62\" height=\"540\" width=\"960\"\/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A standard UHS-I microSD card and an SD Express card rest face down on a brown wooden board, showing how the latter includes a second row of pins to improve performance.\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/9Q8HB_Wo5ut52DEQMZtUJA--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2025-02\/eccbf260-edbf-11ef-affa-6baa4f7c8a62\" height=\"540\" width=\"960\" class=\"caas-img has-width\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\">Unlike traditional UHS-I cards, a microSD Express card like the SanDisk model on the right comes with a second row of pins on the back.<span class=\"caption-credit\"> (Jeff Dunn for Engadget)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"caas-jump-link-heading\" id=\"what-are-microsd-express-cards\">What are microSD Express cards?<\/h2>\n<p>SD Express is a relatively recent but seldom-used standard that allows SD cards to utilize the NVMe protocol and PCIe interface, which is the underlying technology used by SSDs. A microSD Express card features a second row of \u201cpins\u201d on its back and can utilize a single lane\u2019s worth of PCIe bandwidth. As a result, it can produce dramatically faster read and write speeds than its UHS-I counterparts. While the latter advertise sequential transfer rates up to 104 megabytes per second (MB\/s), microSD Express cards have a theoretical maximum of 985 MB\/s.<\/p>\n<p>This is far behind the NVMe SSDs used <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/playstation\/best-ps5-ssd-expansion-upgrade-150052315.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">by the PlayStation 5<\/a> and Xbox Series X, but in theory, it makes Express cards faster than some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/computing\/accessories\/best-ssds-140014262.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">older SATA-based SSDs<\/a> when it comes to loading game levels, retrieving saves, or copying games to external storage. It\u2019s worth noting that many UHS-I microSD cards can exceed the 104 MB\/s limit with proprietary card readers, but they still fall well short of microSD Express levels even with those.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Wednesday, the only reliably available microSD Express card we could find was <a href=\"https:\/\/shopping.yahoo.com\/rdlw?merchantId=f45797c5-bae4-4ba9-9419-9454e07b099d&amp;siteId=us-engadget&amp;pageId=1p-autolink&amp;contentUuid=8d472849-bb33-4495-b377-11b61c366141&amp;featureId=text-link&amp;merchantName=SanDisk&amp;custData=eyJzb3VyY2VOYW1lIjoiV2ViLURlc2t0b3AtVmVyaXpvbiIsImxhbmRpbmdVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3Nob3Auc2FuZGlzay5jb20vcHJvZHVjdHMvbWVtb3J5LWNhcmRzL21pY3Jvc2QtY2FyZHMvc2FuZGlzay1taWNyb3NkLWV4cHJlc3MtbWVtb3J5LWNhcmQ_c2t1PVNEU1FYRk4tMTI4Ry1HTjROTiIsImNvbnRlbnRVdWlkIjoiOGQ0NzI4NDktYmIzMy00NDk1LWIzNzctMTFiNjFjMzY2MTQxIiwib3JpZ2luYWxVcmwiOiJodHRwczovL3Nob3Auc2FuZGlzay5jb20vcHJvZHVjdH...dxc-1tb-mb-md1t0sa-am%2F&amp;refurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.engadget.com%2Fgaming%2Fnintendo%2Fthe-nintendo-switch-2-promises-major-storage-upgrades-but-itll-cost-you-193758964.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Samsung\u2019s Pro Plus<\/a> \u2014 another UHS-I card we recommend in our buying guide \u2014 which costs $17 for 128GB, $23 for 256GB, $38 for 512GB, and $80 for 1TB as of this writing. That\u2019s a huge difference.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, the Play Pro is the only purchasable microSD Express card we\u2019ve seen thus far that even supports capacities greater than 256GB. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendo.co.jp\/corporate\/release\/en\/2025\/250402.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nintendo says<\/a> the console can support up to 2TB of external storage, but no Express card with that capacity appears to exist yet.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 540px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:56%\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview has-width\" alt=\"The Nintendo Switch 2 game console being held up in the air, with the Switch 2 logo on its screen.\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/VMaU8cf4TUcwHAFV6SlXMw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2025-04\/f965c320-0ff7-11f0-bfe3-b6773b534a9b\" height=\"540\" width=\"960\"\/><br \/>\n<img alt=\"The Nintendo Switch 2 game console being held up in the air, with the Switch\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/nintendo\/the-nintendo-switch-2-promises-major-storage-upgrades-but-itll-cost-you-193758964.html?src=rss\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Source Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nintendo Switch 2 had its big debut on Wednesday, and the new console appears to be a significant, albeit straightforward, upgrade over its extremely popular predecessor. Sandwiched between the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[90,64,63,809,808,3934],"class_list":["post-13101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-gaming","tag-gear","tag-news","tag-nintendo","tag-switch-2","tag-switch-2-event"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/04\/05e96a40-0ff6-11f0-afd9-5f973c23bf7c.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}