When the folks at Nintendo broke the news about the Switch 2, they introduced a curveball: expanding the device’s memory now requires cards adhering to the microSD Express standard. This announcement triggered a shopping frenzy both online and in-store, with sellers struggling to keep up. At Hermitage Akihabara in Japan, they reported a surprising rate of 337 card sales an hour. That’s quite the stir, particularly because these microSD Express cards carry a heftier price tag compared to their regular counterparts.
Prepare to Pay a Premium for microSD Express
Take, for example, the Lexar 1TB Play microSD card, which usually goes for $129.99 on Amazon. It’s currently slashed down to $69.99, boasting decent read speeds of 160 MB/s and write speeds of 100 MB/s—nothing to sneeze at, but not quite as swift as the device’s internal storage. In contrast, the microSD Express edition rockets past with a read speed of 900 MB/s and writes at a crisp 600 MB/s, delivering over five times the speed of the older version. However, speed comes at a cost. The Lexar 1TB Play Pro microSD Express debuting at $199.99, although on sale for $172.63, still demands more than double the investment compared to its non-Express sibling.
Scalping? Not This Time
Despite the dent in wallets from the Express requirement, Nintendo enthusiasts still snapped up the cards post-announcement like there was no tomorrow. It wasn’t the result of feverish scalping, though. Reports suggest that about 80% of purchasers limited themselves to just one microSD Express card, with the most ambitious buyers capping at three. This points towards genuine users gearing up their consoles for the impending Switch 2.
A Standard Worth Noting
Launched in 2019, the microSD Express standard hasn’t exactly taken the world by storm, likely due to its steep price compared to standard microSD cards and traditional SSDs. While many game consoles offer internal memory expansion via SSD swaps, this process isn’t exactly effortless. You’re looking at removing backplates and fiddling with settings—something not everyone’s comfortable with. Given Nintendo’s preference for keeping its consoles tweak-free by end-users, opting for microSD Express cards emerges as the seamless solution for amping up the Switch 2’s storage to match internal speeds. This is particularly vital with a lineup of new AAA games set to land, ready to gobble up the built-in 256 GB storage space, ensuring you always have your favorites at your fingertips with the Switch 2.
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