Cubed3 goes hands-on with a great solution to your Nintendo Switch 2 filling up: the SanDisk microSD Express card.
The next generation microSD card for next generation explorers is finally here! The SanDisk 256GB microSD Express card is a snazzy little storage option that comes with up to 880MB per second read speed, a maximum 650MB per second write speed, and a maintained minimum, sustained write speed of 210MB/s. Now, all of these speeds were achieved in the testing phase before release using a SanDisk PRO-READER SD Express Dual Card but there’s no denying how impress this is all-round. The primary use for Cubed3 during testing was to use the high-capacity storage card on Nintendo Switch 2 because Nintendo has decided Switch 2 will not support regular microSD cards, and space fills up quickly thanks to all the amazing games currently out there.
SanDisk is a fantastic company, with a great track record of being very reliable option indeed. Cubed3 has been using SanDisk for many years without issues, so it’s superb to get this latest SanDisk Micro SD Express card, especially a handy large-sized capacity like this that will certainly help with all those classics already gracing the Switch 2 system. The extra note about SanDisk mentioned on the box is that it’s a company responsible for looking after the environment, with mention of how the packaging is made from 20%-plus recycled material, which is a great bonus for those conscious about such sustainability aspects.
Now, something to keep in mind is that actual user storage is normally less than what it actually says on the box, meaning that you won’t get exactly 256GB in this. However, that is sort of the ballpark figure that the firm is looking at providing. Also, as mentioned earlier, the speeds are based on SanDisk’s internal testing, so your Switch 2 may slow down the transfer speed. Saying that, the company has tested this so that it’s providing as high a speed across reading and writing as possible, so that even if there is a little bit of lag on certain devices, it will still end up being very fast indeed, offering up pro-level speeds overall.
The microSD Express has SanDisk ThermAdapt, so it will not overheat, and it has 5.3K video. Now, 5.3K video is up to 5312×2988 video support, so it will vary depending on the host device, file attributes, and other factors again, but it is something that it aims for and the SanDisk team always aims high.
Getting into the box, you will find an exclusive offer for valued SanDisk customers with a special code that you can use for a free download for a 2-year subscription of Rescue Pro Deluxe Recovery Software. This is recovery software for digital media, which can help retrieve images, videos, documents, music, or just about anything – so, that comes bundled in with the package. The star of the show is without a doubt how there is 256GB worth of storage space on a teeny, tiny little card that fits on a little finger! Now, they do they look very similar to regular microSD cards, but this microSD Express SDXC has little grooves at the side that make it slightly different, and this is what you will be needing if you have your Switch 2 and you are already running out of space. Why clean out the fridge when you can just increase the capacity of your fridge?!
It’s hard to believe that something so small is so powerful! As you will see from the video below, when checking the storage and data management section of the Cubed3 Switch 2 system, the memory available was as low as 68.6MB already. That’s not good, is it? Especially given how there was no microSD Express card provided at launch, so this is a fresh insert and a true Godsend piece of kit. If you are in a similar boat, with no space, and are really struggling, with lots of games that you would like to play and not enough space to store them all, then the SanDisk microSD Express Card is definitely going to help considerably. This is going to be the answer to all of your issues!
Nobody wants to constantly have to delete software and reinstall later when they want to use it, so the best way to do this is by going under the Switch 2 stand. The Switch had its card reader slow under its flimsy plastic leg, and for Switch 2, Nintendo has very handily hidden its microSD Express port under the much sturdier and adaptable stand, to the side of the USB-C port. This is plug-and-play, so it’s as simple as going ahead and sliding and clicking the card into place, securing it away by closing the stand, and away you go! For those hoping to stay on a low firmware, though, please note that a system update is required to use the microSD Express memory card. Performing a system update doesn’t take long, though, so swiftly selecting it from the system menu is the way to go. It’s important to note that Nintendo does indeed make it very clear which type of SD card you can use on its system. The microSD Express memory cards are a specific type of microSD card. Nintendo Switch 2 is only compatible with microSD Express cards. MicroSD Express cards feature the logo shown on the Switch 2 system itself, so there’s no confusion, with it being the same logo as seen on the card itself. Once in the slot, the console automatically recognises the card and miraculously, after being so low, it’s a breath of fresh air to watch the data capacity shoot right up! Not to the full 256GB, as noted before, but in this case to 235GB free. Some storage space set aside for the operating system, firmware, updates, and so on. Nintendo always keeps a little bit of spare space for smooth functionality.
With SanDisk’s card installed, it means there is the flexibility to move data between the console and the microSD Express in almost the blink of an eye. This is where the speed of transfer is really put to the test. Moving from the system memory to the microSD Express card is the test, to see how quickly it works, because time is of the essence when it comes to gamers with busy lives! To start with, moving one game only was on the cards, choosing the super speedy racer, Fast Fusion, but would the transfer be as swift as Shin’en Games’ title? We want to see how quick this takes. SanDisk boasts exponentially fast performance compared to competitors, with this being up to 4.4 times faster on transfer speeds than the company’s fastest microSD UHS-I cards. Users should be able to transfer a two-hour HD movie in less than 3.5 seconds and save up to 2.8 minutes transferring 60 minutes of 4K UHD video shot at 30 fps when paired with the SanDisk PRO-READER SD Express Dual Card. Does the Switch 2 slow things slightly, though? For the first test, a 3.8GB file sized game. This was the size before the latest DLC, since the download content couldn’t be added into the mix as there was barely any room left on the console’s internal storage. That’s the beauty of this, as several games may not be updating without you even realising, and it’s down to limited room in the fridge. The result? Mere seconds for almost 4GB of data. Mere seconds. Just check out the video above to see how speedy it was in real time!
The big test, as with any data transfers from phones, PCs, or any devices, is when taking multiple files into consideration. Test number two, then, was something a bit bigger, and several games being selected at once. Tetris 99, the Nintendo 64 Classics app Game Boy Advance, F-Zero 99, Octopath Traveler, and so on. Transferring quite a lot of information across this time, around the 10 GB mark. Now, 3.8GB on its own was very, very quick. The test now is seven various items, for which the Switch 2 estimated one minute, and getting up to 26% was very fast indeed, similar in speed to the first test. The reason for taking longer – in the end around 90 or so seconds – is because this test is not just about the size that is being transferred. This is the amount of content that’s being transferred in terms of individual files. The process is transferring each game, one by one, all of varying file sizes. It’s a test for the card, isn’t it? Think about all the calculations going on in the background. During the test, the time remaining actually went up to two minutes on the clock, but quickly shot back down. This is what happens as data transfers from the Switch itself, which is processing and recalculating all on the fly, slowing everything down, making the transfer rate also drop. There can be fluctuations based on the fact that it’s going through multiple different games, multiple different files, and it will transfer them one by one and then it has to pause, move to the next file, analyse the size and how much it will take to transfer it across, then transfer it, stop again, and then move on to the next one, and so on, and so forth. This means that, whilst still very fast indeed, users will find differences in speed that might leave them pondering why is this slower if actually the file size is not too big overall. Well, the concept is the more files you’re transferring, the more weight you are putting on the system and the more processing time it will take. Whatever the case, it ended up taking less than two minutes for the move to complete.
It is so simple to install and really easy to use. The SanDisk microSD Express Card is the one that you want to check out. There are many alternatives on the market, but SanDisk is one of the most reliable. Therefore, you are less likely to have any problems with data loss or corruptions or anything like that. It is also future-proofed, ready for future products with a PCIe-NVMe interface and performs at UHS-I speeds with microSD UHS-I and UHS-II devices. It’s a very durable piece of storage kit, with cards being waterproof, temperature-proof, humidity-proof, drop-proof, shock-proof, magnetic-proof, x-ray proof, and wear-out proof. The SanDisk ThermAdapt, as mentioned earlier, helps keep devices from overheating with a specially designed enclosure and controller that uses dynamic adaptive thermal management, which in a Switch 2 that heats up itself, is imperative. It can be a massive time-saver, as well, saving up to 2.9 minutes transferring 2,000 10MP RAW photos. Surprisingly, but this wasn’t tested, this card is waterproof, on top of being temperature-proof, humidity-proof, drop-proof, shock-proof, magnetic-proof, x-ray proof, and wear-out proof!
As a leader in microSD card design and development, SanDisk wants people to trust the team and assures gamers and PC users alike that its proprietary Flash management techniques are solid and that highly stable memory has been produced for its latest range, and, of course, on the off-chance something does go awry, the RescuePRO Deluxe file recovery software offer will help recover files images you accidentally deleted, free of charge, for two full years.
