New Samsung microSD card tech leads to more Switch successor speculation
A match made in Switch heaven?
Rumors about the Switch’s successor have been especially prevalent these last few days, and today brings us one of the most intriguing yet.
Very recently, Samsung revealed it’s latest line of Micro SD cards, which have some very impressive speeds and sizes. While this alone doesn’t seem to connect to a “Switch 2”, comments made by Samsung about this advancement very well could.
“For the first time in the industry, Samsung has 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.”
While there’s nothing concrete that could name Nintendo as the collaborator, the timing does lend itself to Switch successor speculation. One of the more prominent shortcomings of the standard Switch was it’s small internal memory size, and this new collaboration could fix that while increasing speed as well.
These new MicroSD cards are scheduled to release later this year, and will eventually reach sizes up to 1 TB, which certainly could be a welcome addition in a next-gen Switch. At the very least, let’s hope they are usable in whatever Nintendo comes up with!
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kingbroly
2M agoI'd definitely like faster microSD card reading speed, but I doubt Switch 2 has this.
kuribo
2M agoWorth noting the improvement is in read speed. From 60MB/s to 800MB/s.
hawk
2M agoThese would seem like good news, but I want the new console's standard internal storage to be larger and faster.
zcomuto
2M agoI think it's likely we'll see a combination of this for expandable storage, and UFS 3.0 or 3.1 for your internal storage. Both would end up being around the same speed, and cost/power efficiency would limit internal space still to probably to the 64-128GB range
nekotaku
2M agoIf Switch 2 has anything less than 1TB of storage then it's insane, they are so small and getting cheap.
Not strictly true, Nintendo can't just stack loads of low capacity modules in to make 1TB - each one costs both space, and power. The higher the capacity the higher the cost. The 7.5w TDP in the switch handheld is VERY tight and the existing eMMC chip for onboard 32GB or 64GB storage is about 1.2w of that. If Nintendo was just throwing in a standard nVME (5-7w by itself) like with the Steam Deck, sure it would be a lot cheaper, but it'd be twice as fat and half the battery life.
Those ultra low power space-saving chips are also quite expensive - a 512GB model costs about $81/unit. So - would you be ok with a switch costing $350 for the base, 64GB model or $450 for a 256GB model? I imagine not many would, which is why the SKU difference doesn't exist.
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