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MagyarPotential massive Nintendo Switch 2 storage buff could be on the Samsung SD Express microSD cards
Much of the news concerning the Nintendo Switch 2 as of late has been about the widely rumored release delay, with March 2025 now apparently being the most likely timeframe for an appearance of the Switch successor. With many expecting Nintendo to have announced or shown something of its next-generation hybrid console by now, that particular news was not met positively. Fortunately, Samsung has sort of come to the rescue, with an announcement leading to new Switch 2 speculation (via Reddit) that should generate some excitement.
An official press release from Samsung has revealed that a 256 GB SD Express microSD card sample reached sequential read speeds of “up to” 800 MB/s. Whereas that speed may leave PS5 and Xbox Series X owners with a smug smirk on their faces, it’s still a massive leap from the original Nintendo Switch console (you can get the OLED Model on Amazon), presuming that this technology is heading to the Switch 2 of course. Nintendo advises that gamers can expect transfer speeds of 60 to 95 MB/s for the Switch – so a jump to 800 MB/s would be very noticeable. But why has this press release from Samsung been linked to the Nintendo Switch 2 in the first place?
As pointed out by redditor u/anirakdream, there is a sentence in the release that could easily be talking about Nintendo: “The development was the result of a successful collaboration with a customer to create a custom product.” Naturally, this could relate to a number of other companies who would benefit from such speedy SD cards, such as phone manufacturers and camera firms. But, the size of the card and the mention of it being “optimized for high-performance and thermal management” certainly also points to something like a Nintendo Switch 2 console.
A storage buff is expected to be on the cards for the Switch successor, as it is an obvious area where Nintendo can produce a crowd pleaser for the fans. Having such advanced storage technology would explain, as is argued in the same Reddit post by u/RexVandham, how the alleged Gamescom demo was so impressive, with the hardware that was set up to emulate a Nintendo Switch 2 being able to deal with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Matrix Awakens. Samsung’s 256 GB SD Express microSD card will be made available to buy “later this year” with a 1 TB variant coming in the third quarter.
Samsung’s New microSD Cards Bring High Performance and Capacity for the New Era in Mobile Computing and On-Device AI
Korea on February 28, 2024Audio AUDIO Play/StopShare Share open/close Print
Samsung samples industry-first 256GB SD Express microSD card boasting speeds more than four times faster than current interface
Samsung’s 1TB UHS-1 microSD card in mass production based on latest V-NAND technology
Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has started sampling its 256-gigabyte (GB)1 SD Express2 microSD card with sequential read speed of up to 800 megabytes per second (MB/s) and has commenced mass production of its 1-terabyte (TB)3 UHS-1 microSD card. With the introduction of its next-generation microSD card line-up, Samsung aims to provide differentiated memory solutions required for tomorrow’s mobile computing and on-device AI applications.
“With our two new microSD cards, Samsung has provided effective solutions to address the growing demands of mobile computing and on-device AI,” said Hangu Sohn, Vice President of the Memory Brand Product Biz Team at Samsung Electronics. “Despite their tiny size, these memory cards deliver powerful SSD-like performance and capacity to help users get more out of demanding modern and future applications.”
Industry-First SD Express microSD Card Offers Maximum Speeds of 800 MB/s
For the first time in the industry, Samsung introduced a new high-performance microSD card based on the SD Express interface. The development was the result of a successful collaboration with a customer to create a custom product.
Thanks to its low-power design as well as firmware technology optimized for high-performance and thermal management, Samsung’s SD Express microSD card offers performance equivalent to SSDs in a small form factor. While read speeds for traditional microSD cards based on the UHS-1 interface were limited to 104MB/s, SD Express was able to boost it to 985MB/s, although commercial availability of the latter were not viable in microSD cards until now.
The sequential read speed of Samsung’s SD Express microSD card reaches up to 800MB/s — 1.4 times faster than SATA SSDs (up to 560 MB/s) and more than four times faster compared to traditional UHS-1 memory cards (up to 200 MB/s), allowing improved computing experiences in various applications, including PCs and mobile devices. To ensure stable performance and reliability for the small form factor, Dynamic Thermal Guard (DTG) technology maintains the optimum temperature for the SD Express microSD card, even during long usage sessions.
1TB UHS-1 microSD Card With Cutting-Edge 1Tb V-NAND
Samsung’s new 1TB microSD card stacks eight layers of the company’s 8th generation 1-terabit (Tb) V-NAND within a microSD form factor, realizing the high-capacity package that used to be possible only in SSDs. The new 1TB microSD card passes the industry’s most rigorous test settings and offers reliable usage even in challenging environments, with features such as water protection, extreme temperature, drop-proof design, wear-out protection, as well as X-ray and magnetic protection.4
Availability
The 256GB SD Express microSD card will be made available for purchase later this year, and the 1TB UHS-1 microSD card is set to launch within the third quarter of this year.
1 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1,000,000,000 bytes (1 billion bytes). Actual usable capacity may vary.
2 SD Express: The new SD card interface with PCIe Gen3x1 (based on SD 7.1 specification released in Feb. 2019), the theoretical transfer speed of an SD Express card is 985MB/s
3 1 terabyte (TB) = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes (1 trillion bytes). Actual usable capacity may vary
4 Samsung is not liable for any damages and/or loss of data or expenses incurred from memory card data recovery. The six proofs claimed is only applicable for 1TB UHS-1 microSD Card, not for 256GB SD Express microSD Card. 1M depth, salt water, 72hrs. Operating temperatures of -25℃ to 85℃ (-13°F to 185°F), non-operating temperatures of -40℃ to 85℃ (-40°F to 185°F). Withstands standard airport x-ray machines (Up to 100mGy). Magnetic field equivalent of a high-field MRI scanner (Up to 15,000 gauss). Withstand drops up to 5meters (16.4feet). Up to 10,000 swipes.
