What Is MicroSD Specific? Every thing You Must Know

I bought my Nintendo Change 2, and my inside storage is already filling up with all my previous video games and saves! For those who’re in the identical boat, you will have additionally observed you may’t simply jam within the SD card out of your authentic Change and preserve rocking. As an alternative, you may want a brand new microSD Specific card.

This Specific commonplace was launched in late 2023and it permits write speeds within the tons of of megabytes, however till now the playing cards themselves have been as uncommon as any units that used the usual. In consequence, the playing cards are few and much between, and so they carry a major worth premium over the extra widespread microSD playing cards. Earlier than I get too caught up within the worth and availability although, let’s simply go over what the distinction is between Specific and commonplace microSD playing cards and what it means in your Change 2.

Up to date July 2025: We have clarified particulars concerning the launch and utilization of microSD Specific, added hands-on testing with Samsung’s Nintendo-branded providing, and added speed-based benchmarks to complement the sensible testing.

Specific Lane

{Photograph}: Brad Bourque

As you might need guessed from the title, microSD Specific playing cards are quicker, however to know precisely what meaning, we have to break down what we imply by velocity and the way it’s measured and displayed on microSD playing cards.

Regular, non-express playing cards use three metrics with some overlap in efficiency. We have got an in-depth technical information if you wish to know extra concerning the non-express playing cards, however I will give the brief model right here. There are three ranges: Pace Class, denoted with a C, UHS Pace Class, as marked by a U for Extremely Excessive Pace Class, and Video Pace Class, with a V.

No matter the way it’s displayed, the quantity signifies that the cardboard is ready to learn and write a minimum of that quick. For the Circle and the V, it’s a direct comparability, so a circle with a “10” in it has a 10MB/s sustained write velocity. There are two U variants, 1 and three, which correspond to 10MB/s and 30MB/s respectively. Playing cards are virtually all the time suitable with slower units, so you might even see a number of symbols and numbers on every card.

The indicator for Specific playing cards is, maybe unsurprisingly, a stylized EX or E, generally with a quantity subsequent to it. As soon as once more, this represents the cardboard’s sustained write velocity, with formally supported ranges from 150MB/s as much as 600MB/s. Do not forget that these are minimal speeds, so you might even see producers quote even larger numbers, however whether or not you can assist these speeds will depend upon the system studying and writing to the cardboard.

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