The Truth About Generic Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Express Cards
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Nintendo Switch 2 storage expansion options are rather limited (and expensive) but as we near the end of 2025, several options outside of well-known brands such as Samsung and SanDisk have surfaced. Are these cards reliable? What even are these brands? Are these cards worth buying? Let's find out.
onn microSDXC Express Card
Walmart owns the onn brand and uses it as a way to sell electronics directly to consumers.
Are onn microSD Express cards legit?
Yes! onn microSD Express cards are manufactured by Longsys (owners of Lexar), a tested and proven leader in memory card storage manufacturing. Want to know more? Check out our deep dive at the bottom of the page.
Are onn microSD Express cards a good deal?
Walmart generally sells these microSD Express cards below the market average. Find our complete price history breakdown for all microSD Express cards right here.
Are onn microSD Express cards fast enough for Switch 2?
Yes! These microSD Express cards have an advertised speed of up to 800 MB/s.
Where to buy onn microSD Express cards
onn brand is sold exclusively at Walmart. You can find both the 512GB and 256GB options available there.
NEXT microSDXC Express Card
NEXT is a brand that sells generic video game accessories. Some of these accessories are currently sold at Best Buy stores in the United States. They are headquartered in Guangdong, China.
Are NEXT microSD Express cards legit?
Yes! NEXT microSD Express cards are manufactured by Longsys (owners of Lexar), a tested and proven leader in memory card storage manufacturing. Want to know more? Check out our deep dive at the bottom of the page.
Are NEXT microSD Express cards a good deal?
Without the name brand attached, we have seen these microSD Express cards selling below the market average. Find our complete price history breakdown for all microSD Express cards right here.
Are NEXT microSD Express cards fast enough for Switch 2?
Yes! These microSD Express cards have an advertised speed of up to 880 MB/s.
Where to buy NEXT microSD Express cards
NEXT brand is sold exclusively at Best Buy right now. You can find 1TB, 512GB, and 256GB options for sale directly from Best Buy.
GameStop microSDXC Express Card
GameStop appears to be working directly with the same parent company that manufactures the NEXT brand accessories. The accessories GameStop sells with the GameStop brand appear to be identical to those that Best Buy is selling under the NEXT name.
Are GameStop microSD Express cards legit?
Yes! GameStop-branded microSD Express cards are manufactured by Longsys (owners of Lexar), a tested and proven leader in memory card storage manufacturing. We didn't test these cards ourselves, but multiple users on Reddit have confirmed this information.
Are GameStop microSD Express cards a good deal?
GameStop has priced these cards competitively, but less expensive options are surfacing now. Find our complete price history breakdown for all microSD Express cards right here.
Are GameStop microSD Express cards fast enough for Switch 2?
Yes! These microSD Express cards have an advertised speed of up to 800 MB/s.
Where to buy GameStop microSD Express cards
GameStop brand microSD Express cards are sold exclusively at GameStop. You can find 1TB, 512GB, and 256GB options for sale directly from GameStop.
SD Card Deep Dive
Skeptical of their much lower prices, we purchased both onn and NEXT microSD Express cards so that we could investigate for ourselves. What we found is... mostly unsurprising.
Unmasking the True SD Card Manufacturer
Information is encoded on SD cards when they are produced such as product name, serial number, manufacturing date, and most importantly for us: manufacturer ID.
A Manufacturer ID (MID) is assigned to a manufacturer by the SD Association. This information is considered confidential, so there is no official list published anywhere, but some savvy nerds have diligently worked to compile lists of MIDs and companies.
Matt Cole's breakdown of SD card manufacturer IDs was an essential resource for us while researching the true manufacturer for onn and NEXT branded microSD Express cards.
system_profiler SPCardReaderDataType
With this one command (and Matt Cole's table of MIDs), we're able to quickly identify the real manufacturer of both onn and NEXT branded microSD Express cards: Longsys, a Chinese semiconductor company who purchased well-known SD card brand Lexar in 2017.
Here's the raw output from my Mac:
SDXC Card (Class 10):
Product Name: LSUSD00
Manufacturer ID: 0xad
Revision: 0.0
Serial Number: 0x30729639
Manufacturing Date: 2025-08
Specification Version: 3.0
Capacity: 1.02 TB (1,024,249,036,800 bytes)
The important bits? Product Name: LSUSD00 and Manufacturer ID: 0xad.
As best anyone can tell, LS in the product name stands for Longsys and 0xad is their MID.
In summary? Whether you go with an onn, NEXT, or GameStop-branded microSD Express card, you're going to end up with a card manufactured by Longsys / Lexar, a trusted brand.