Samsung's P9 microSD Express card — one of the few storage products on the market built for the Nintendo Switch 2's faster card slot — has tumbled to its lowest prices yet, with retailers including Amazon and B&H Photo discounting both the 256GB and 512GB versions simultaneously. The move gives Switch 2 owners a rare opportunity to expand storage cheaply at a moment when memory prices overall are climbing.

According to deal coverage from The Verge, the 256GB P9 is now available for $47.99 at both Amazon and B&H Photo, while the 512GB model is selling for $99. Those figures represent steep cuts from typical street prices: the smaller card usually sells for around $80, and the larger option generally runs between $150 and $200.

Other outlets tracked even deeper discounts. Neowin flagged the 256GB card at just $33, and Kotaku highlighted a record-low effective price of roughly $0.13 per gigabyte — a figure that makes the P9 one of the cheapest high-speed cards per gigabyte ever listed. The spread in reported prices reflects the fast-moving nature of retailer flash sales, regional stock differences, and the fact that several outlets published their alerts at different points in the discount cycle.

Why MicroSD Express Matters for the Switch 2

The P9 is not an ordinary memory card. It uses the MicroSD Express standard, which offers sequential read speeds of up to 800MB/s — roughly four times faster than a conventional UHS-I microSD card. That speed is essential for the Switch 2, which is one of the few consumer devices that can actually take advantage of the interface.

The distinction matters because ordinary microSD cards will still work in the console, but they run at far slower speeds, leading to longer load times and, in some cases, restrictions on which games can run directly from the card. As The Verge noted in its coverage:

The P9 is great if you need more storage for your Nintendo Switch 2. The microSD Express card offers sequential read speeds of up to 800MB/s, but only gadgets with a microSD Express card slot can take full advantage of the highest speeds.

Beyond the Switch 2, the list of compatible hardware was until recently extremely short. That is beginning to change: Asus's ROG Ally X20, a Windows 11 gaming handheld, added MicroSD Express support this year, broadening the addressable market for the format and giving Samsung a second high-profile outlet for the P9.

Storage Pressure Is Real

The discount arrives at a useful moment for owners. First-party Switch 2 titles generally occupy between 10 and 30 gigabytes each — the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, for instance, weighs in at 27GB. Third-party blockbusters can be substantially larger, with Cyberpunk 2077 requiring around 60GB.

With the console's built-in storage filling up quickly after only a handful of installs, a 256GB or 512GB card effectively doubles or triples the machine's usable capacity. At current sale prices, that works out to under 20 cents per gigabyte on the 512GB model — a threshold that deal hunters have historically associated with clearance pricing on slower, older cards.

  • 256GB Samsung P9: $47.99 at Amazon and B&H Photo (reported as low as $33 by Neowin)
  • 512GB Samsung P9: $99 at Amazon and B&H Photo
  • Typical street price: ~$80 (256GB), $150–$200 (512GB)
  • Rated speed: up to 800MB/s sequential read

The Paradox: Discounts Amid a Memory Shortage

What makes the pricing unusual is that it runs counter to the broader direction of the memory market. The Verge cautioned that both cards remain more expensive than their original launch prices, "likely because of the ongoing memory shortage" — an industry-wide squeeze on NAND flash supply that has pushed up the cost of SSDs, smartphones, and removable storage alike over the past year.

The apparent contradiction — record per-gigabyte lows on one hand, elevated baseline pricing on the other — is largely a function of retail mechanics. Flash sales and inventory clearing can temporarily detach a product's price from its underlying component cost, particularly when a retailer is trying to move stock of a niche format ahead of new product cycles. Several of the alerts, including those from Kotaku and IGN, framed the discounts explicitly as clearance events, with IGN noting savings of up to 40 percent on Switch 2 memory cards its reviewers had personally tested.

What Buyers Should Know

For consumers, the practical takeaway is straightforward but time-sensitive. Deal coverage from The Verge, Neowin, and Kotaku all described limited-time pricing rather than permanent price cuts, and stock of the 256GB model in particular appeared to be moving quickly.

Buyers should also verify that any card they purchase is explicitly labeled "MicroSD Express" rather than simply "microSDXC." The two formats are physically compatible with the Switch 2's slot, but only the Express variant delivers the speed the console was designed around. And while the P9's $99 512GB price is attractive, the historical volatility of memory pricing — combined with the ongoing NAND shortage — means prices could swing in either direction in the coming weeks.

For now, though, the combination of a fast card, a compatible console, and a rare double-digit percentage discount has produced one of the more compelling storage deals of the year for Switch 2 owners.