Lexar Ships the World's First 1 TB MicroSD Express Card for Use With Nintendo Switch 2

[GFreeman]

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory solutions, is excited to ship of the world's first 1 TB microSD Express card. Built on the new SD card standard that combines PCI Express 3.0 and NVMe 1.3 interfaces, the PLAY PRO microSDXC Express Card delivers substantially improved performance, perfect for handheld gaming devices.

With up to 900 MB/s read and 600 MB/s write, the PLAY PRO microSDXC Express Card offers the fastest speeds in the microSD Express card format and gives gamers an epic performance power-up that delivers faster game loads and accelerated downloads. With capacity up to 1 TB, it also offers space for many large AAA games. It is backwards-compatible with UHS-I and UHS-II host devices (at UHS-I speeds), but future-proofed for tomorrow's cutting-edge handheld gaming systems and other upcoming devices that will leverage this next-gen technology.



The PLAY PRO microSDXC Express Card also comes with a limited lifetime warranty and lifetime access to the Lexar Recovery Tool, which customers can use to restore accidentally deleted or formatted files.

"The new microSD Express standard offers us a way to deliver a memory card with incomparable performance in that form factor," said Joey Lopez, Director of Brand Marketing. "We're excited to create a card for our customers that leverages the benefits of this new standard and prepares gamers for the next generation of handheld gaming."

The Lexar PLAY PRO microSDXC Express Card is available in 1 TB for an MSRP of $199.99, 512 GB for an MSRP of $99.99, and 256 GB for an MSRP of $49.99.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[LabRat 891]

So, that implies the externally-accessible storage on the Switch 2, is PCIe-based?
At last! A ubiquitous consumer device using NVME-in-SecureDigital. Hopefully, will mean these kinds of cards get cheaper and more-common.
-subsequently, cheap PCIex1 adapters will soon follow.

I cannot wait to shove little tiny (cheap) NVME devices into places they're not meant to be

 

[cvaldes]

Joe Consumer doesn't really care about what PCIe standard the new expansion card is. They will just care that it works. And that it's cheap. Cost competition will eventually force prices to come down.

And one thing for sure, Nintendo will not provide detailed technical specs on the Switch 2. Just wait for a teardown in June and maybe someone with a strong electrical engineering background will be able to identify what interface Nintendo is using.

 

[duckface]

first? and all those 1tb 2tb 4tb cards that were sold on the chinese website were fake? omg!

 

[cvaldes]

Let's explain it to you.

This is a Lexar press release copied-and-pasted by a TPU editor. There might be some fact in it. There might be some, er, creativity and/or hyperbole in the way the press release was written.

Note that this is not the first press release ever published here at TPU.

But for sure no one says "we're second, someone else got here first."

That's human nature, not something that Lexar just decided a few minutes ago. Humans have probably been doing this since the second person opened a fruit stand for business.

If you don't understand this, you don't understand people at all.

 

[Chaitanya]

first? and all those 1tb 2tb 4tb cards that were sold on the chinese website were fake? omg!

For MicroSD Express its indeed a 1st, highest capacity currently available for this format is 256GB from Sandisk with vaporware Samsung cards also topping out at that capacity.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/products/Memory-Cards/ci/1097/N/4093113320?searchWithin=sd%20express

https://news.samsung.com/global/samsungs-new-microsd-cards-bring-high-performance-and-capacity-for-the-new-era-in-mobile-computing-and-on-device-ai

 

[PRSXFENG]

first? and all those 1tb 2tb 4tb cards that were sold on the chinese website were fake? omg!

There are genuine 1 or 2TB normal MicroSD Cards, but of course they are not cheap

4TB cards seems to be have been teased by SanDisk a while back but hasn't hit the market yet

but yes, Lexar is "first" to make a 1TB MicroSD Express card

 

[blinnbanir]

Interesting, I have a a 1.5TB Sandisk Drive. Of course it is not PCie based and this is a first. So I get the notion of the article. One thing I have to mention is that the ROG Ally also has a a Micro SD slot so it would work there fine as well. Maybe not to those rated speeds but we don't know how the Ally is wired either.

 

[cvaldes]

Again, this is not an "article". It's a regurgitated press release.

BIG difference.

Not that you really care about such details based on your comment .

 

[inquisitor1]

sd UHSII cards are killer and I use their microsd cards in my phones, but just bought an nvme and sata ssd and both failed so mixed bag with lexar.

 

[aliceif]

Interesting, I have a a 1.5TB Sandisk Drive. Of course it is not PCie based and this is a first. So I get the notion of the article. One thing I have to mention is that the ROG Ally also has a a Micro SD slot so it would work there fine as well. Maybe not to those rated speeds but we don't know how the Ally is wired either.

The ROG Ally does not support micro SD Express according to the spec sheet and it would be really easy to confirm if it can make use of micro SD Express, since micro SD Express has extra contacts, which you could verify by tearing an Ally apart enough to check for the counterparts in the card reader.
Someone may have to sacrifice their Ally for that though.

 

[Readlight]

And get write protected in next year.

 

[yfn_ratchet]

First 1TB microSD Express card

No lmao

First 1TB microSD Express card for use with the Nintendo Switch 2

Sure, I guess? Maybe the first certified for use with Switch 2, but I doubt I'd have catastrophic issues if I slipped my E150-rated SanDisk card in there.

The speed stats are what shock me here, maybe justifies the price. If it can actually hit those speeds over SDe, then hell yeah it's worth $200 for 1TB. Some of the fastest fingernail-sized storage out there. But they base those figures on 'internal testing'... which probably means that's the fastest the NAND inside can go, if we're being cynical.

 

[aliceif]

No lmao

Do you have evidence for that? I have not found any 1TB microSD Express cards for sale - at least in Germany.

Sure, I guess? Maybe the first certified for use with Switch 2, but I doubt I'd have catastrophic issues if I slipped my A1-rated SanDisk card in there.

I mean the A1-rated SanDisk is supposed to not work since the Switch 2 specifies microSD Express only, no microSD without Express (those lack the extra contacts).

This is like an M.2 SATA vs M.2 NVMe thing - same-looking connector but different things that are not completely cross compatible.

 

[yfn_ratchet]

Do you have evidence for that? I have not found any 1TB microSD Express cards for sale - at least in Germany.


I mean the A1-rated SanDisk is supposed to not work since the Switch 2 specifies microSD Express only, no microSD without Express (those lack the extra contacts).

This is like an M.2 SATA vs M.2 NVMe thing - same-looking connector but different things that are not completely cross compatible.

Huh... I stand corrected. No 1TB microSD express cards to be found. Would have figured.

As for the latter portion, got my ratings mixed, already adjusted.

 

[Chaitanya]

Do you have evidence for that? I have not found any 1TB microSD Express cards for sale - at least in Germany.


I mean the A1-rated SanDisk is supposed to not work since the Switch 2 specifies microSD Express only, no microSD without Express (those lack the extra contacts).

This is like an M.2 SATA vs M.2 NVMe thing - same-looking connector but different things that are not completely cross compatible.

Its possible Nintendo has dropped support on their controller for UHS-I cards as SD Express is backwards compatible with older UHS speed class devices though they are limited to UHS-I speeds not UHS-II or UHS-III.

Adata Launches SD Express Cards, A Format No Camera Supports

New cards for a spec that is unsupported.

petapixel.com

Edit:

SD Express Finally Has a Use, But It Dumped Its Biggest 'Advantage'

SD Express, a format that has been ignored by the camera industry, finally has a use case. All it took was to ignore its biggest advantage.

petapixel.com

 

[Gigaherz]

That Design prolly was made in under a minute by the ceo himself. Jeez.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

$199 for a Msd card, i'd want a good warranty on that. I have had a 256gb switch card fail which was gutting enough.

 

[ZeDestructor]

So, that implies the externally-accessible storage on the Switch 2, is PCIe-based?
At last! A ubiquitous consumer device using NVME-in-SecureDigital. Hopefully, will mean these kinds of cards get cheaper and more-common.
-subsequently, cheap PCIex1 adapters will soon follow.

I cannot wait to shove little tiny (cheap) NVME devices into places they're not meant to be

Hopefully this also means that phones (particularly Sony's Xperia lineup) also move along, cause UHS-I is incredibly slow, particularly in random IO.

 

[qlum]

Hopefully this has a positive impact on the pricing / availability of microsd express cards. Definitely would be useful in more places.
Especially on phones, that being said phones are sadly phasing out micro sd slots in general.

 

[watzupken]

While it sounds great, but it does not solve SD card’s 2 biggest problem,
1. Endurance - SD card is prone to failure.
2. Cost - It’s too costly. Like the cost of a 1TB SD card rivals even reputable 1TB SSDs.
I rather they enable like a M2 slot to add a 2230 SSD instead of wasting money on high speed SD card.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Joe Consumer doesn't really care about what PCIe standard the new expansion card is. They will just care that it works. And that it's cheap. Cost competition will eventually force prices to come down.

And one thing for sure, Nintendo will not provide detailed technical specs on the Switch 2. Just wait for a teardown in June and maybe someone with a strong electrical engineering background will be able to identify what interface Nintendo is using.

I'll LOL if it's USB2

While it sounds great, but it does not solve SD card’s 2 biggest problem,
1. Endurance - SD card is prone to failure.
2. Cost - It’s too costly. Like the cost of a 1TB SD card rivals even reputable 1TB SSDs.
I rather they enable like a M2 slot to add a 2230 SSD instead of wasting money on high speed SD card.

3. Fragility. Those little cards are easy to break. So thin. I need something thicker like HuCard from TurboGrafx-16.

 

[ZeDestructor]

While it sounds great, but it does not solve SD card’s 2 biggest problem,
1. Endurance - SD card is prone to failure.
2. Cost - It’s too costly. Like the cost of a 1TB SD card rivals even reputable 1TB SSDs.
I rather they enable like a M2 slot to add a 2230 SSD instead of wasting money on high speed SD card.

Over the past 20 years or so, I have only ever had one microSD/SD card fail on me, out of 15 or so. If I include the CF and CFExpress, I get up to 3 failures, across 20 cards or so.

Cost wise, yeah, it's a bit cursed, but prices will drop to be in the same ballpark as more typical storage like M.2 NVMe. For example, my 1TB microSD card is now 85 bucks, about the same ballpark as DRAMless 4LC M.2 drives using basically the same NAND.

 

[blinnbanir]

The ROG Ally does not support micro SD Express according to the spec sheet and it would be really easy to confirm if it can make use of micro SD Express, since micro SD Express has extra contacts, which you could verify by tearing an Ally apart enough to check for the counterparts in the card reader.
Someone may have to sacrifice their Ally for that though.

The Ally is actually a cinch to take apart. They have a video tutorial on the ROG website. You can even buy an adapter to install a 2280 M2 drive on the Ally but what I mean is the APU must have at least 12 PCIE lanes available. There must be something there

CPU: AMD Ryzen™ Z1 Extreme Processor ("Zen4" architecture with 4nm process, 8-core /16-threads, 24MB total cache, up to 5.10 Ghz boost)
GPU: AMD Radeon™ Graphics (AMD RDNA™ 3, 12 CUs, up to 2.7 GHz, up to 8.6 Teraflops)
TDP: 9-30W

Maybe they are dedicating 16 lanes to the IGPU but that would still leave 4 lanes open as there is only 1 M2. Maybe the USB C port is wired at PCIe 4. x4. IS that not USB 4 spec though, I don't see them advertising that. I will have to try some external benchmarks to see if they can push a 4.0 drive to top sequential.

 

[ZeDestructor]

The Ally is actually a cinch to take apart. They have a video tutorial on the ROG website. You can even buy an adapter to install a 2280 M2 drive on the Ally but what I mean is the APU must have at least 12 PCIE lanes available. There must be something there

View attachment 393128

CPU: AMD Ryzen™ Z1 Extreme Processor ("Zen4" architecture with 4nm process, 8-core /16-threads, 24MB total cache, up to 5.10 Ghz boost)
GPU: AMD Radeon™ Graphics (AMD RDNA™ 3, 12 CUs, up to 2.7 GHz, up to 8.6 Teraflops)
TDP: 9-30W

Maybe they are dedicating 16 lanes to the IGPU but that would still leave 4 lanes open as there is only 1 M2. Maybe the USB C port is wired at PCIe 4. x4. IS that not USB 4 spec though, I don't see them advertising that. I will have to try some external benchmarks to see if they can push a 4.0 drive to top sequential.

That wouldn't work for Nintendo - remember, it's gotta be upgradeable by a 5 year old.