The Nintendo Switch 2 has been out for almost a year now, while Nintendo seems a little disappointed with its sales, it was still the best-selling console of the year. If you’re one of the many people who has grabbed a Switch 2 in the last year you’ve probably noticed that it doesn’t quite have enough storage, with only 256GB of space to fit all your games. Luckily that storage is expandable, but you will need a special MicroSD Express card to do it. And, well, they’re more expensive than regular SD cards.
The Best MicroSD Express Cards for Switch 2 Right Now
MicroSD Express cards have been around for a while, but there are only a few on the market as creative professionals haven’t really found much of a use for them. However, with the Switch 2 launch, there’s been a deluge of Express cards to fill that gap.
My colleagues and I are in the process of testing these cards – including that super cheap Walmart-brand one, which is fine – but if we were to recommend any based on experience, these are the MicroSD Express cards (an essential Switch 2 accessory!) we’d say to buy right now. These come from reputable manufacturers that have a track record of making excellent storage expansion cards. We’ll be updating this as we play around with the Switch 2 and SD cards.
Why MicroSD Express?
Unlike many devices, the Nintendo Switch 2 is mandating a MicroSD Express card for storage expansion. Nintendo hasn’t really explained its reasoning behind the decision, but it’s not hard to see why it might want to require faster storage.
For one, the flash storage built into the system is the same kind of UFS flash that powers most smartphones. This storage is much faster than the eMMC drive in the original Switch, and it’s likely Nintendo wanted its developers to be able to count on that kind of storage speed, no matter if the game is being stored internally or on an expansion card.
The only thing you can use a regular old MicroSD card for is loading screenshots and videos you took on your first-gen Switch. That means unlike something like the PS5, which allows you to store last-generation games on slower external drives, Nintendo isn’t allowing for any wiggle room here. If you want to expand the Nintendo Switch 2 storage, you’re going to need a MicroSD Express card.
1. Lexar Play Pro
The Best MicroSD Express Card
The Lexar Play Pro is the fastest and most capacious card available. Supporting read times up to 900MB/s and storage space up to 1TB, this is handily the best MicroSD Express card out there right now. After a few months of wobbly stock issues, you can now more reliably find this card out in the wild at the typical retailers. Unfortunately, it is quite expensive. But if you do want the best SD card for your Switch 2, it’s worth investing in the Lexar Play Pro for a fast card that won’t degrade quickly.
2. Samsung P9 MicroSD Express
Best Budget MicroSD Express Card
MicroSD Express cards have been out long enough now that we’re starting to see more affordable cards from some of the biggest brands. While it’s not quite as cheap as the Onn MicroSD Express card you can buy from Walmart, this Samsung card is extremely affordable for what it is. At the time of writing, you can get a 256GB version of the card for $32, while the 512GB version is a bit more expensive, at $99.
There are some caveats to this one, of course. While we found in our testing that the Samsung P9 MicroSD Express card has solid sequential read and write times, it lacks a bit when it comes to random read and write speeds. What that means is that you can copy your games over to this SD card super fast, but it’s not going to have the fastest load times. That doesn’t mean the load times aren’t fast, though; we were able to load up Donkey Kong Bananza in 21 seconds and Tears of the Kingdom in 9 seconds. So while there are faster cards out there, you’re only really losing out on a second here and there.
But for most people who just want reliable expansion storage for their Switch 2 that’s not going to break the bank, you can’t really go wrong with the Samsung P9. It’s not the absolute cheapest on the market, but you can bet it’ll last a lot longer than that Onn card.
3. SanDisk MicroSD Express
Best 256GB MicroSD Express Card
I have so many SanDisk SD cards lying around, and that shouldn’t be super surprising. Over the years, SanDisk has become one of the most prolific SD card manufacturers, and now it has a MicroSD Express card. Unlike the Lexar version, SanDisk doesn’t have a fancy name for its card. Though this card does come in a 512GB-capacity version now, 256GB would mirror the internal storage of the Nintendo Switch 2.
Still, doubling your storage isn’t a bad deal, especially if you can find this card at a lower price. It’s also not quite as fast as the Lexar Play Pro, coming in with a read speed of up to 880MB/s. That’s a minor enough disparity that you’re not going to notice any difference when you’re loading up Mario Kart World, but 20MB/s is still 20MB/s.
4. Samsung MicroSD Express for Switch 2
The Best (and Only) Official MicroSD Express Card
Samsung’s MicroSD Express card is the one that’s being sold directly by Nintendo, which definitely gives it some weight. Since it came out back in May, Samsung has released its actual speeds and feeds. This MicroSD card gets 800MB/s of read speeds, which doesn’t make it the fastest SD card here, but it’ll still load games plenty fast. Plus, it has Mario on the retail packaging, so that’s a bonus, right?
The card does come with a three-year warranty, but Samsung only offers it in a 256GB size. That basically doubles the initial storage of the Switch 2, but it would still be nice to see a 512GB or 1TB option for true game archival – especially as it’s the official option.
At the end of the day, it being the “official” MicroSD Express card for the Switch 2 doesn’t mean much. It might have received Nintendo’s seal of approval, but this MicroSD card isn’t going to be much different than any other card on this list, at least beyond the red paint job.
5. Onn MicroSD Express Card
Best Cheap MicroSD Express Card
While it would be nice to be able to say something like “a MicroSD Express card is a MicroSD Express card,” they’re not all created equal. More premium cards will be able to transmit data more efficiently, while cheaper cards are obviously going to slow down a bit. But when we’re talking about a 512GB SD card that is 40% cheaper than the same size option from Lexar, a slower speed might just be worth it.
Onn is Walmart’s budget tech brand, and that should set some expectations right out of the gate. In fact, when we reviewed the Onn 512GB MicroSD Express card, we found that while the Nintendo Switch 2 worked with no issues, it had data transfer speeds that were a bit slower than the console’s native storage. That sounds bad, and it’s not great, but at the end of the day that’s only going to result in another second or so added to transfer times here and there. Definitely not the end of the world.
But what was surprising about this Onn card was that it was reliable, which is where I typically expect budget storage devices to fall flat. Throughout our testing process, performance stayed steady rather than running into the same issues that the PNY 128GB MicroSD Express card ran into. Of course, like any SD card, it’ll likely degrade over time, but as long as you’re not looking for long-term game archival, it’ll get the job done.
MicroSD Express FAQ
How much storage do I need?
While the 256GB that the Nintendo Switch 2 has is paltry, it might be enough if you only play a few games every year. However, if you’re the type of gamer that needs to install everything that comes out, even if you only play it for five minutes – you know who you are – you’re going to need quite a bit more space.
Unfortunately with the special storage standard the Switch 2 requires, large-capacity MicroSD Express cards can be quite expensive. Getting an affordable 256GB MicroSD Express card will double your storage, which should be plenty for most people. But if you want a lot of buffer room, I’d recommend a 512GB card just to be on the safe side.
Or you could just go all out and get 1TB of storage. That’ll be expensive, but you’ll probably never have to think about Switch 2 storage space ever again. Only the most archival-obsessed people need something like that, but, again, you know who you are.
How fast is MicroSD Express?
SD Express is theoretically much faster than older SD cards, and that largely comes down to how it interfaces with the device. Rather than connecting to a bespoke SD card interface, SD Express uses PCI Express 3.1, which is what SSDs use on PC.
Don’t go expecting a MicroSD Express card to be as fast as the NVMe SSDs in handheld gaming PCs, though. While the full-sized SD Express cards can come close, with read speeds up to 3,940MB/s, the MicroSD Express cards can only hit a maximum of 985MB/s. Still, that’s much faster than the older MicroSD cards used by the original Nintendo Switch.
How long will a MicroSD Express card last?
Just like any SD card, MicroSD Express cards aren’t meant to be used for long-term data storage, and so they have a shelf life. How long they’ll last depends largely on the environment it’s being used in and whether or not you’re dropping it. I wouldn’t expect a MicroSD Express card to last more than 5-10 years before it needs to be replaced, so be sure to keep anything important backed up.
How hard is it to install a MicroSD Express card?
Once you actually have a MicroSD Express card, it’s relatively easy to upgrade your Switch 2 storage. Make sure your console is off, and then open the kickstand at the back of the console, and look along the bottom for a small MicroSD Card slot, where you can insert the extra storage. You can check out IGN’s comprehensive guide to installing a MicroSD Express card for more details.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
