What’s the best microSD card to get for the Nintendo Switch? To answer that question simply, it’s any that writes at a speed greater than 5MB/s (Megabytes per second), reads at something greater than 25MB/s, and has more than 32GB of storage. There more to consider, though — mainly lifestyle and what you plan to do with it. Another thing to consider is what brand and type of card you get. There are several choices, and it’s dangerous to go alone.
We here at NintendoFuse have all discussed what we plan on getting and have already gotten. Personally, I purchased the 128GB Samsung Evo+ microSDXC card. In the end, if you plan to be 100% digital you need storage. At this time, Nintendo, unfortunately, does not support USB hard drives for storage on the Switch. If this does come to fruition down the line, it will certainly be a welcome storage option.
I mentioned lifestyle, and you may ask “What do you mean?” What you do every day affects the life and performance of these storage mediums. The microSD card that I have is waterproof, magnet proof, temperature proof, and x-ray proof. There are a lot of ever-present dangers to your physical data. As someone who does work in IT, I have many ways to ruin a storage device, including a fairly decent data stripper. You need to look at what you do and decide from there. If you have any other storage devices such as hard disks or flash drives, you might find it very difficult to retrieve data, once it is broken. This could lead to the loss of some crucial files and documents, which have been saved on the disk. It might be possible to regain the lost data even with a damaged hard drive. You can hire a company that provides Data Recovery Services to ensure that the important data stored in your drives can be recovered successfully. If you’re out a lot, you want your card to be waterproof and shockproof. If you work around audio equipment and computers, you’ll probably want something shockproof and magnet proof. If you do quite a bit of traveling, you’ll need something that can handle the constant x-rays that luggage goes through. Try and use that discretion when purchasing a microSD card.
As for my current recommendations, here is a list of well-known quality microSD cards:
- Samsung Evo+ 128GB
- Sandisk Ultra 200GB (128GB version of this is also a recommendation)
- PNY Elite (Either the 200GB or 128GB versions will work)
- Patriot LX Series (128GB or 200GB versions will work)
You may see my recommendations are mostly 128GB or 200GB, and that’s because the price difference between the 200GB version of these cards and the 256GB versions of these cards is big. The prices are nearly negligible between 128 and 200. If you are in the mood to max out, you can look at numbers like 512 GB or even 1 TB which can be considered as the largest micro cards right now. Also, we’ll keep this list updated as more and more cards come out and our storage needs change.
As a reminder, don’t purchase cheap, no-name-brand cards and expect solid performance. It may be easier on your wallet, but it’s not worth the highly potential downsides of poor performance and data loss. Also, bare in mind that performance varies on the game and how it’s stored. In the end, make the decision that is best for you; just don’t cheap out on this.
Mike has been with NintendoFuse since January 2015 as a Social Media Manager. He has always had a passion for Nintendo games, and his favorite game series is Donkey Kong Country.
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