Tiny, removable "mini SSD" could eventually be a big deal for gaming handhelds

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/tiny-removable-mini-ssd-could-eventually-be-a-big-deal-for-gaming-handhelds/

by quantummagic • 11 months ago

78 109 11 months ago

zeroq• 11 months ago

SD download option is the answer.

I think this whole issue shouldn't exist in the first place.

I do understand that full voice over and 4k ready textures comes at a price but some devs are getting lazy and some games are just ridiculous.

We're talking about handhelds like Steam Deck. Even if I plug it in as a console it won't have the juice to run at full resolution.

When I want to quickly grab an episode of a tv series to watch on my mobile I'll be super happy with 300mb 720p version. I don't need a 50gb rip in 4k in HDR with Atmos sound. Same option should be available for games.

Talanes• 11 months ago

And we know it can be done on existing download infrastructure, because it's available for all the games I own that added the hi-res textures after launch - selectable as a free DLC.

trenchpilgrim• 11 months ago

Heck, twenty years ago games like Guild Wars would download just the first few levels and then download the rest of the game in the background as you played!

NDxTreme• 11 months ago

This adds use cases to the devices. For instance, I am using my Steam Deck to type this hooked up to a 32 inch Monitor, as my daily driver on CachyOS.*

I bought the cheapest one, and upgraded the SSD. I also have an SD card. I use this for more than just playing games.

I would love to be able to just upgrade the storage and it be as fast as the internal storage. I could install a Windows install on it, and switch when it makes sense.

* Arch-by-the-way

ThatPlayer• 11 months ago

I've considered installing CachyOS on my Deck to be able to use bcachefs for a tiered storage setup with the SD card. For automatic movement of unused files to the SD card over time, because I don't want to deal with managing it myself.

Though I also did the SSD upgrade and haven't really been bothered by space, so haven't bothered. I have that setup on a spare parts PC with HDDs instead of microSD, since that's an older 1/2 TB SSD.

Zenst• 11 months ago

I think many would be amazed at how the space used on a game today is broken down in space usage. Most will be along the lines of cut scenes, graphics, audio......library and librarys galore...logic code of the program that is unique to the game and finally some text file hidden away.

But talking your AAA kind of titles that seem to be the norm, not your chess games, though even then, graphics sure has gained space in those programs. Though I'm sure somebody active in the industry could paint a better picture.

Anybody active in the industry able to offer or point to better breakdown?

codebje• 11 months ago

In general: code << world < audio << textures << video

Executable code is pretty tiny relative to everything else, including libraries. Libraries only get really big when they include media assets. When it comes to media, even high fidelity audio is relatively small. 44kHz stereo 16-bit sample audio, uncompressed, is 176kb per second of audio. A 1024x1024 texture, at 32bpp, is 4mb, uncompressed. Video depends heavily on codec, but roughly consider that 4k video is something like 4096x2160, so eight times the size of our static texture for a single frame. Encodings don't just store every frame whole, of course, but keyframes add up quick.

acomjean• 11 months ago

I had “Sargon” (chess game) on cassette tape for the Apple 2. Slow load times though it took very little memory. (The Apple 2 typically had 64kb of ram)

lxgr6• 11 months ago

Unless you're suggesting that games fit into memory completely, why would you not want your storage to be as high throughput and low latency as possible even for reduced texture sizes?

delusional2• 11 months ago

I'd argue that game sizes at this point are whack, and I think the reason for that is the speed and size of modern storage. We started chasing our own tail, faster/bigger storage leads to larger games which needs faster/bigger storage and on it goes.

The problem isn't that either of those things are inherently bad. A game being "large" doesn't mean anything as long as it works, and a storage device being fast/large is good. The problem is when both of those things conspire to spiral out of control and we end up having to invent faster/larger storage devices without any need other than "well this size worked".

I guess it's a problem of incentives. The developer of the game doesn't pay when the game is larger, I do.

kbolino2• 11 months ago

In this scenario, low latency would be a lot more useful than high throughput.

suprjami• 11 months ago

No. We have MicroSD Express. We don't need yet another form factor.

SnuffBox• 11 months ago

What if it can offer better transfer speeds? A system that downloads large files often would presumably be bottlenecked by a MicroSD's write speeds.

mrheosuper• 11 months ago

it's microSD express, unless you have multi-gigabit network, you won't saturate it.

The biggest issue with these small form memory is heat, they heat up a lot, but seem like no one care.

RainyDayTmrw2• 11 months ago

The SD and micro SD form factors are not the most robust or reliable. It would be nice to have a next step up form factor. In some ways, that's the motivation for CF Express Type B (and XQD before it), as popularized in digital photography.

a1o• 11 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFexpress

Interesting, I didn't knew about this format. Curious picture selection on the Wikipedia, I didn't knew about this manufacturer until reading the Ars article above.

kjkjadksj2• 11 months ago

Weird how this three day old comment shows up as 52 minutes old right now. What is going on with HN?

Dylan168074• 11 months ago

A step up form factor is great. The thing in the article is not a step up though, it's smaller than an SD card, and there's no great reason for it. Since it's brand new it can guarantee a better minimum speed than SD express, but that advantage falls away fast and it's not worth the hassle of an extra format.

I'm reminded of XFMEXPRESS, a tech that had some justification to exist as a low profile replaceable and coolable main storage for small devices. But it doesn't look like it went anywhere.

laidoffamazon• 11 months ago

I’m still surprised the steam deck runs so well even with games installed to microSD - I’m not sure how they do it.

LeoPanthera2• 11 months ago

The answer is probably that disk read speed just isn't that important for casual applications like games.

We had a lot of great games even when storage was spinning rust.

dontlaugh2• 11 months ago

It’s actually essential for more serious games without loading screens, which is why for example the PS5 ships with and mandates fast SSDs.

Palomides• 11 months ago

decent SD cards can do 200 or 300 MB/s of reads now

Dylan168074• 11 months ago

Those speeds are... complicated.

UHS-I cards easily go up to 100MB/s. This is the baseline for a modern SD card.

After that you can add more pins for UHS-II. This is used in a bunch of devices and goes up to 300MB/s, but you can't assume anything will have it. And UHS-III was dead on arrival.

Alternatively you can add a different set of more pins for SD Express. It can do gigabytes per second and is probably the future. It's backwards compatible with UHS-I, but not II or III.

And also SanDisk made their own spec for overclocking UHS-I which some things support. It can do about 200MB/s.

The steam deck supports none of those upgrade paths. You get about 100MB/s.

DecentShoes2• 11 months ago

Not in the Steam Deck, it maxes out at 104Mb/s.

Considering the insane tempuratures the cards reach, and that it destroys brand new SD cards, I don't want them going any faster until it works safely.

merpkz• 11 months ago

Yeah, I am using my Deck with 512GB sdcard and could never tell it is actually running from sdcard. It does a lot of game updates and always finishes those in reasonable time, at least for me. That card is going strong with all the writes going on on steam deck

userbinator2• 11 months ago

The Verge reports that a Chinese company called Biwin has developed the "Mini SSD," a 15 by 17 mm-thick card that supports read speeds of up to 3,700MB per second due to a two-lane PCI Express 4.0 interface.

So this is basically a smaller NVMe SSD?

MBCook2• 11 months ago

Yes. A very very small one.

PaulKeeble• 11 months ago

And presumably a mechanical interface designed to be external to a device to allow plugging them in and out.

unwind• 11 months ago

That size obviously doesn't parse, so it's hard to tell. It's how thick, again? I guess they just mean "15x17x1 mm" but somehow edited the 1 out and ... I don't know.

throwawayben• 11 months ago

"if you multiply by 1 it's always the same so that's pointless - I should remove that"

lxgr6• 11 months ago

So this is basically a smaller NVMe SSD?

Yes, but so is microSD Express, which already has a significant shipped base of supporting devices including the Nintendo Switch 2!

superkuh• 11 months ago

I can see the needed use case for portable devices. But I also get the feeling this shrinking down of physical volume for storage that's going to be generally available for A tier games (like on a steamdeck) is a status quo setting us back to 2010 levels of actual storage available. Again! Just when normal desktop computer SSD were finally rising in actual capacity beyond 2TB. And right when SSD storage is hitting the wall with no more multi-level cell improvements available.

Seattle3503• 11 months ago

Any chance someone builds a phone with removable storage now that we have better SD cards?

NewJazz• 11 months ago

It was never about the SD cards, it was about the removable part.

bcraven• 11 months ago

https://m.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2025&idCardslot...

195 results

DiabloD35• 11 months ago

We already have this though. SD Express, which allows SD cards to actually protocol switch to one lane PCI-E NVME. It's been part of the spec officially since 2018, and an enhancement slightly later to add more pins to allow a second lane.

And since, underneath, it becomes a standard PCI-E NVME with standard lanes, there is no inherent speed limit from the bus itself, only from the fact that SD cards are tiny and any real controller is going to cook.

seabrookmx• 11 months ago

Worth mentioning that the Nintendo Switch 2 supports SD Express, so in a few years millions of households will have these cards laying around.

echelon2• 11 months ago

I need this slot added back to my phone. Thank you very much, phone manufacturers.

dingaling• 11 months ago

*lying around

Laying is transitive and requires an object.

zoeysmithe3• 11 months ago

Hmm the article isn't about the interface being novel but the drives. The article claims the SD express cards top out a 900 MB/s but this drive does 3700 MB/s. They are using their own interface, but that's not the problem being solved here from my reading of this article.

I don't know the specifics but SD express might be patent/license encumbered so why pay when you can make your own for free?

I'm guessing this drive will eventually percolate down in the form of an SD Express card, and SD express is now in the Switch 2. The Biwin drive is currently too big to fit the SD spec, but that might not be true in the future.

I think Nintendo just sealed the deal against any SD Express competitors. This article is (probably) planted PR to promote this drive to Western buyers interested in maximizing their SD Express slots in a "Hey, why do these Chinese gamers get this amazing card and I'm stuck with this junk?" Now that lights a fire under a lot of people and Biwin can start licensing the technology or selling directly to the Western market.

Storage upgrades in handhelds seems to be a real problem. I was surprised my Steam Deck didn't have an easy to access M2 slot because of Valve's "pro-gamer" reputation. You have to take the entire thing apart to get to the SSD and the plain-jane SD slot you do get will never feel fast enough, especially since its hardware capped at 104 MB/s. Gabe didn't become a billionaire by not being ruthless I suppose, but it is disappointing.

I'm guessing a lot of these devices are sold at a premium for more storage so they don't want to make it easy to upgrade fast storage on your own. Instead we're just forced into the SD card ghetto. Maybe Biwin can change that, or the handheld makers will push against that if it means hurting their margins because the higher storage models are more profitable. Nintendo at least seems to signaling, "Do whatever you want with this fast SD slot," which is a breath of fresh air. What a time in gaming, where Nintendo is more progressive and pro-consumer than Valve.

Dylan168074• 11 months ago

Hmm the article isn't about the interface being novel but the drives. The article claims the SD express cards top out a 900 MB/s but this drive does 3700 MB/s. They are using their own interface, but that's not the problem being solved here from my reading of this article.

It's a really weak claim when you frame it properly. If you have a good controller you can use either form factor just fine, at PCIe gen 4 x2 speed.

maximizing their SD Express slots [...] Now that lights a fire under a lot of people and Biwin can start licensing the technology or selling directly to the Western market.

That would be nice!

DiabloD35• 11 months ago

The article is full of shit. SD Express cards, by virtue of being PCI-E x1 or x2, top out at whichever gen of PCI-E they implement.

Lets say its a brand new 4.0 card that implements x2 lanes, that is 3.93GB/s maximum speed (there aren't any 5.0 cards yet, afaik, but double that for 5.0).

Want to know where that 900MB/s figure came from? A 3.0 x1 card is 984MB/s. That is the first gen SD Express cards when the spec was launched, but not the currently available ones.

In other words, this is a PR release, this isn't news. It's marketing. They chose the worst case of their competitors, the best case of their own, and lied by omission.

Also, re: Valve's position on M2: they didn't support even swapping them when it first came out, although obviously allowed and expected, because you can put M2s in the device that are outside of the thermal parameters allowed by the design due to proximity to the battery and other heat producing items. This is also why they specifically used a 2230, as those are usually the lower power models meant for ultrathin laptops.

That said, Valve has worked with a few companies to get some officially blessed 2230s that actually do fit the intended use case and are also performant.

Like, if you think the Steam Deck sucks for actually doing the swap job, a) the new OLED replacement internally is a lot saner, with both construction and PCB layout, b) go try dealing with the really nasty designed laptops that don't have an externally accessible panel covering the drive bay; they're worse.

jbverschoor• 11 months ago

Yet I don’t trust any SD*. They always seem to corrupt, and I feel like the connector is not reliable enough. I’d rather not have such a thing directly connected to the bus

lxgr6• 11 months ago

They always seem to corrupt

That's entirely a function of NAND quality and controller sophistication. Why would a different form factor make a difference here?

Also, for an apples to apples comparison, you'd have to compare this new standard to microSD Express cards, not regular ones.

I feel like the connector is not reliable enough.

Have you actually had a connector wear out? I'm not the biggest fan of the spring loading myself (I've had devices catapult microSD cards into the next room in the past!), but it seems pretty reliable in terms of actually making and keeping a connection to me.

kiicia• 11 months ago

There are specialized heavy duty sd cards like Kingston industrial, Samsung pro endurance, gigastone mlc, that have MLC memory and are designed for long term storage in extended environment parameters There are also other brands but are less known, more expensive and not available in typical places with consumer electronics

Same applies to SSD drives, there are consumer drives that have colorful boxes with claims like speed or size, and there are specialized SSD drives based on MLC chips that are still available here and there

camdroidw• 11 months ago

One time where I "express" suffix makes something better, TIL

Spire42• 11 months ago

Tiny, removable "mini SSD" could eventually be a big deal for gaming handhelds

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