We have now come full circle with the rumors surrounding Switch 2 and SD Express cards.
As shared on Famiboards by fwd-bwd, Lexar has launched an ad for their upcoming 1 TB SD Express card. Lexar clearly advertises that their card will be a must have for the Switch 2.
We reported on the rumor that the Switch 2 apparently has an SD Express card reader inside it. However, Nintendo did not confirm they would have this component in their initial Switch 2 announcement trailer. So as strange as it seems, even after the official announcement, we would be well served to treat this as a rumor as well.
We have already reported on this before, but companies like Lexar and Samsung would be really happy if Nintendo really did adopt the SD Express card standard. While SD Express offers better performance than the popular SD card formats out there, the public has not adopted them, six years after the format launched.
Samsung themselves, who are rumored to be working on SD Express cards with Nintendo, have not shipped their Galaxy phones, tablets and laptops with SD Express card readers. If they did, they could have these devices running programs and games on those cards as quickly as if they were in the built-in memory.
We did our own research on what devices could or are using SD Express card readers, and we could literally confirm only one; the ASUS ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED. If you entered an ordinary SD card into its card reader, it would run fine. But if you spent that money on this laptop and also an SD Express card for it, you could get the best speeds for activities like digital art, PhotoShop, even video editing.
With no mass adoption, the SD Express format runs the risk of just leaving the market entirely. It’s remarkable that these companies have been waiting this long for the public to adopt these cards, but to be fair, it isn’t the first media format to have undergone such struggles.
If the rumors are true, than we should get official confirmation that the Switch 2 has an SD Express card reader this April or afterwards. They may even have official Samsung Switch 2 cards, with Mario and Nintendo iconography imprinted on those cards the way they are on the official Sandisk Switch cards now.
But there’s no magic to that official Nintendo branding, and SD Express cards made by Lexar, Sandisk, Samsung, and others will all work just fine. I the end, even after that official announcement, we are waiting on Nintendo to really show us everything about the Switch 2.
