Storage

With some Switch 2 games creating a storage dilemma, help is on the way. Suneast is marketing a 2TB MicroSD Express card without a release date or price. Amid the memory shortage, 1TB cards already cost Nintendo supporters over $300.

Qnap is launching three new NAS systems in its TS-hx56X series that can also function as direct-attached storage for fast local data transfers via two USB4 ports. Two E1.S bays accommodate high-speed SSDs.

The M4 Mac mini gave owners a cheaper way to upgrade their internal storage after purchase. Apple has now removed that option from the new M6 and M5 Pro models, leaving buyers with expensive factory upgrades or external drives. The new Mac Studio, however, still holds on to its removable storage modules.

At the recent Intel Ecosystem Conference event in China, Beelink has introduced a new Me Pro NAS lineup that's powered by the Intel Panther Lake platform. The launch is set for October 2026, and it seems there will be three models available.

Acer CEO Jason Chen disputes memory makers’ warnings of a RAM shortage lasting until 2030, arguing that suppliers are exaggerating constraints to protect AI-driven profit margins. He expects PC prices to rise through late 2026, stabilize in early 2027, and decline after midyear as new production capacity, particularly from China’s CXMT, enters the market.

HOMOLAB's FIO benchmarks show the 1TB iPhone 18 Pro Max's QLC storage can drop below microSD-card speeds once its cache is exhausted, with performance getting notably worse as the drive fills up

An influential horror franchise has returned with a new multi-platform release. The Nintendo eShop lists Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival as requiring an excessive amount of storage. While the 41 TB total for the Switch 2 game is likely an error, handheld owners are quickly running out of space.

Toshiba has updated its Canvio Ready lineup of portable hard drives. The new environment-conscious drives continue to be available in up to 4 TB capacities and boast USB 3.2 Gen 1 speeds.

The memory shortage has had some unusual side effects. So-called filler kits have been available for some time, filling empty RAM slots with modules that contain no memory chips to eliminate unsightly gaps. Fully populating every slot with actual memory has become very expensive for those seeking a clean-looking PC interior.

Lexar has introduced a new portable SSD dubbed the Muse. At just around 0.15 inches thick at its thickest point, the ultra-thin portable SSD will be available in 512 GB and 1 TB configurations.

The Disk Pro 2 from Sharge is a portable SSD enclosure with an interesting concept: It can magnetically attach to smartphones, handhelds and other devices, offers a range of ports including an SD slot for expansion cards, is incredibly fast, and is actively cooled by a fan. Is it the perfect companion for capturing, editing and more?

China’s largest DRAM manufacturer, CXMT, is suing the Pentagon over its designation as a Chinese military company, arguing that the label lacks factual evidence and relies solely on alleged government affiliations. The lawsuit seeks removal from the Section 1260H list, citing reputational harm while leaving CXMT’s commercial chip sales unaffected.

Samsung has a large booth at Gamescom 2026, where it is showcasing new monitors and storage products. Gamers can even experience games in true 3D—and all without glasses.

SanDisk has unveiled a new SD Express card at Gamescom. It allows Switch 2 owners to upgrade to 1TB of storage and is also compatible with several Asus gaming handhelds. However, the card is very expensive.

Xiaomi has released its first NAS, the Smart Storage, in China. It comes with 4 TB, 8 TB or 16 TB of storage and supports up to 60 TB. The NAS also has 2.5GbE, HDMI 1.4 and 4 GB of RAM. Prices start at CNY 2,699 (around $402).

SanDisk’s Pokémon 30th-anniversary collection features a $27.99 128GB Mew USB-C flash drive and a Mewtwo portable SSD offering up to 1,000 MB/s speeds for $119.99 to $199. The Mewtwo model closely mirrors SanDisk’s cheaper Portable SSD V3, so its exclusive artwork and collectible appeal are the main reasons to buy.

Samsung is addressing the DRAM and NAND chip crisis by releasing a duo of high-margin premium SSD drives in a new P-series. The P9 is the first 8 TB SSD that offers blazing fast 4,000 MB/s speeds over its modern USB4 interface.

Amazon has raised list prices for Kindle, Fire TV, Echo and eero in Germany by up to 44 percent, following the earlier hike in the US. None of the devices we checked actually sells at the new price. What changed immediately is the discount math: the same Fire TV Stick now shows 58 percent off instead of 40.

Enterprise SSD prices have soared as AI infrastructure drives demand for storage, with a 30TB TLC drive now costing around $22,600. HDDs are far cheaper, but securing their supply through 2027 is becoming increasingly difficult.

SanDisk has produced the first prototype chips of its experimental 3D Matrix Memory on 300-mm wafers. The technology could eventually offer up to four times the capacity of DRAM while cutting the cost per bit in half. But commercialization remains years away.

Despite Micron’s promise to honor warranties for its consumer brand, Crucial, its own support apparently didn’t get the memo. A Reddit user recently purchased a Crucial X10 Pro 4TB, and the external SSD died at 1% of its lifespan, but they were only offered their original purchase price back, which is roughly half the cost of a new drive currently

Lexar has introduced its latest Thor Ultra lineup of M.2 SSDs. The PCIe Gen 5.0 x4 drives are impressively fast, featuring read speeds of up to 11 GB/s and write speeds of up to 10 GB/s.

The Minisforum N5 Max is now available with 128GB of LPDDR5x RAM in the global market. This unified memory provides the headroom to run 120B-class models locally, but it has a high retail price. Specifically, the launch price is $3,599.

CD collectors are facing a strange new threat: some discs have begun cracking or even shattering because of chemical damage and fumes released by certain storage materials. The problem adds another risk to the long-term preservation of optical media.

The 4-bay Beelink ME Pro NAS has been refreshed, and the new variant comes with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470, a powerful Gorgon Point APU. It has a max rated capacity of 132TB, and the launch price is CNY 4,995, about $741.

YMTC breaks into the global NAND top three for the first time, hitting 14% shipment share in Q2 2026 as it edges out Kioxia, albeit its revenue share lags behind volume share.

The Beelink ME Pro lineup now has a two-bay NAS that's powered by the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470. Compared to the HX 370-equipped variant, there's a notable change in terms of the NPU, and there's support for higher memory clock speeds. The barebone costs CNY 4,795, about $711.

SK hynix approved 54.3 trillion won for new DRAM and NAND fabs on August 7. The first cleanrooms open in December 2028 and June 2029, and the company says it will install equipment only as demand warrants — not a near-term fix for RAM prices.

Fresh comments from memory vendors have added weight to supply-chain claims that much of 2027's DRAM production has already been allocated. As AI servers and HBM consume a growing share of global output, PC and smartphone makers could face tighter memory allocations.

SK Hynix has unveiled the first standard specifications for High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), a new memory tier designed to sit between HBM and SSDs in AI systems. The open standard supports up to 512 GB capacities, bandwidth of up to 3 TB/s and UCIe connectivity.

Apart from robotic vacuums and lawnmowers or humanoid robots, the FCC ban on foreign connected devices includes much more gear. A ban on smart inverters, for instance, could wreak havoc on off-grid and emergency home backup setups.

Kioxia has started shipping the new CM10 Series SSDs to select datacenter customers. Featuring ~92 % higher sequential read and up to ~85 % higher random read speeds over the previous PCIe 5.0 generation, the latest PCIe 6.0 NVMe 2.1 CM10 SSDs leverage ultra-fast BiCS Flash 10 memory chips, making enterprise SSDs an increasingly important component of AI infrastructure.

The Xiaomi NAS, which was recently released in China, has UPS support, and the company has just launched a new power supply for it. It has an 18Wh battery capacity, and there's no need for an additional USB cable. The launch price is CNY 349, about $51.

If successful, Final Fantasy XIV Online could boost MicroSD Express card sales. The new digital-only Switch 2 version will occupy 46% of the Nintendo console’s storage capacity. Gamers also need a monthly subscription when the MMORPG launches on its August 4th release date.

TerraMaster has officially unveiled the D8 Hybrid 2 DAS. Featuring support for up to four hard drives and four NVMe SSDs, the direct-attached storage system can be equipped with up to a whopping 152 TB of storage.

The RAM and storage market has been in turmoil for over a year now thanks to massive demand from the AI industry. Fortunately, it looks like there is light at the end of the tunnel, at least for NAND flash.

SanDisk has quietly launched its compact CZB Series of USB-C flash drives, offering capacities from 64GB to 256GB and read speeds of up to 250MB/s. Starting at $20 in the US, the portable drives target everyday file transfers and backups.

There is another configuration available for the Beelink ME Pro, and this newly added option for the NAS is powered by an Intel Wildcat Lake CPU. It has 10GbE and 2.5GbE ports, marketed storage support of 124TB, and a launch price of CNY 4,719, about $697.

The four-bay Beelink ME Pro 370 has been launched in China alongside its two-bay model. It’s powered by the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, a high-performance AMD CPU, and supports up to 132TB of storage. The starting launch price is CNY 4,299, about $634.

The Beelink ME Pro is now available with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. Its two-bay variant comes with 72TB storage support, and there are 10GbE and 2.5GbE Ethernet ports. The starting price is CNY 3,999 in China, about $590.

Microsoft has restored a 25-year-old account after its handling of a hacking incident triggered widespread online backlash. The case has highlighted concerns about digital ownership, cloud storage and whether users without a large public platform can secure effective support.

Physical media is evolving, even if future PlayStation consoles only support digital games. A British tech guru believes Sony should consider small 3D NAND flash cartridges. This fast, removable storage is expensive at higher capacities, but would address complaints from collectors.

For photographers and videographers, an SD card reader is an essential feature. For most business users, however, it is no longer a deciding factor when buying a laptop. Using the Schenker Connect 15 as an example, we take a look at the transfer speeds you can typically expect from integrated card readers today and whether they are still fast enough for users who actually depend on them.

Global smartphone shipments dropped by 11% in the second quarter of 2026. Smartphone memory prices have surged as chip makers increasingly prioritize the lucrative AI data-center segment. Samsung and Apple are both handling the crisis remarkably well. By contrast, their Chinese competitors are heading downhill fast.

The Beelink ME Pro now has a more affordable 2-bay configuration. It's powered by the Intel Pentium Silver J5005, and it has two M.2 and two SATA slots. The launch price of the barebone NAS is CNY 999, around $147.

Update: Lenovo statement | Up until now, SSDs for laptops have been mostly made by well known names from the US, Korea or Japan, like Samsung, Kioxia or Western Digital. In the midst of the RAM and SSD crisis, a new player has appeared: Notebokcheck has tested a YMTC SSD, which powers a Lenovo ThinkBook 14 laptop.

The DRAM crisis is far from reaching its peak. According to data from Bernstein, memory prices will rise another 43 percent next year before RAM and SSD prices plummet in 2028. However, prices are not expected to fully return to pre-crisis levels.

The DRAM crisis is making not only RAM but also SSDs significantly more expensive. Samsung is now apparently planning a new entry-level SSD in the 990 series, which could be offered at a lower price than the 990 Evo Plus by omitting the DRAM cache and using affordable QLC NAND.

Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix face a federal class-action lawsuit accusing them of colluding to restrict consumer DRAM supply while prioritizing high-bandwidth memory for AI customers, allegedly driving prices up by as much as 700%. The case highlights mounting pressure across the tech sector, with plaintiffs seeking damages and an injunction as rising memory costs ripple through PCs, smartphones, and game consoles.

The Beelink ME Pro with the AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 has been launched in China. This 4-bay NAS has a compact form factor, 10G Ethernet port, and 136TB storage support. The launch price for the barebone is CNY 2,739, about $403.