Best microSD cards for Asus ROG Ally

The Asus ROG Ally offers superior performance compared to the Steam Deck and some other portable devices. The more powerful ROG Ally X, launching in 2024, widens the gap with better performance, an improved screen and improved ergonomics. Not only that, but the entire ROG Ally family features a UHS-II microSD card slot, allowing for cards that read and write faster than UHS-I, the base specification found in the Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and several other devices. devices. In other words, you’ll likely see much faster download speeds if you have the right card.

According to Lexar, UHS-II triples the maximum data transfer speed of UHS-I, peaking at 312 MB/s instead of 104 MB/s. However, despite the proliferation of microSD cards, there are Very There are several UHS-II microSD cards available. Currently, well-known companies such as Samsung and SanDisk do not produce UHS-II microSD cards. The few UHS-II options that exist are much more expensive than what you’re used to paying for a microSD card. What’s even more concerning is that current options don’t operate at the full speeds allowed by the UHS-II interface.

If you’re comfortable opening the ROG Ally (it won’t void your warranty), we suggest you consider buying an M.2 SSD and installing it instead, as it’s more cost-effective in terms of storage and delivers faster results. More efficient storage than microSD. However, if you’d rather take the simpler route and are willing to pay more for maybe a little extra speed, we’ve found a few readily available models below.

If you’re just looking for a high-capacity microSD card and don’t mind it not being on the cutting edge of speed, there are plenty of options from SanDisk, Samsung, Lexar and others that can offer up to 1.5TB of additional storage for your laptop.