Nintendo has officially revealed all regarding its upcoming console and Nintendo Switch successor, the Switch 2. That includes what memory card format it supports. Here’s everything you need to know about MicroSD Express.
Unlike the Nintendo Switch, Switch Lite and Switch OLED which supported standard MicroSD cards, the Switch 2 only works with MicroSD Express.
Here’s everything you need to know about MicroSD Express on the Nintendo Switch 2.
MicroSD Express on the Switch 2
MicroSD Express is the updated version of MicroSD, a flash memory format commonly used to store data in devices like cameras, phones and consoles.
While these two cards appear almost identical, MicroSD Express (first launched in 2019) supports significantly faster data transfers, allowing it to take advantage of the upgraded hardware coming with the Switch 2.
More specifically, a 256GB SanDisk MicroSD Express card might have a read speed of around 880 MB/s and write speeds about 650 MB/s, whereas Nintendo’s own SanDisk 256GB MicroSDXC card for the Switch offers write speeds of up to 90 MB/s and read speeds of up to 100 MB/s.
Nintendo has confirmed that MicroSD cards designed to be paired with the original Nintendo Switch, Switch Lite and Switch OLED will not be compatible with the Switch 2, meaning you’ll need to pick up a new memory card alongside your console if you want to upgrade the storage.
Thankfully, the Nintendo Switch 2 already comes with significantly more internal storage than the original Switch. The company has swapped out the 32GB internal storage in the Switch for 256GB in the Switch 2. That’s eight times more storage, allowing for faster reading and writing of data as well as more room to store your favourite titles.
That said, there’s a solid chance the higher resolution games will take up more space on your console, so you might still want to invest in a MicroSD Express card to expand that storage further.
