Western Digital has announced a new line of SanDisk microSD cards in partnership with The Pokémon Company. These SD cards, which have been designed for the Nintendo Switch, feature officially licensed Pokémon designs.
The SD cards will be available to purchase directly from the Western Digital Store in addition to select physical and digital retailers and come in three capacities. The largest is the 1TB SanDisk Pokémon Snorlax microSD Card. It's a light baby blue and features a cute graphic of the Snorlax Pokémon.
There is also the 512GB SanDisk Pokémon Gengar microSD Card which, as the name would suggest, is a deep purple and features the ghost and poison type Pokémon Gengar. The final and smallest capacity model is the 256GB SanDisk Pokémon Pikachu microSD Card. It’s neon yellow and has an adorable image of a very pleased looking Pikachu.
All three editions feature prominent Nintendo Switch branding, so you don’t need to worry about any potential compatibility issues if you intend to buy them for the console. They all also offer quoted read speeds of up to 100MB/s and write speeds of 90MB/s, which is comfortably within the specifications recommended by Nintendo.
The 1TB model will retail for $129.99 / £108.99, the 512GB model for $54.99 / £47.99, and the 256GB model for $32.99 / £24.99. This makes them all a little more expensive than comparable microSD cards, but I expect that there will be plenty of discounts around major sales events such as Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday. It also seems reasonable to pay a little more for the Pokémon design and Nintendo branding.
Western Digital has previously released other licensed designs for the Nintendo Switch, including some inspired by the Super Mario series and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. They rank among some of the best SD cards for Switch thanks to their charming designs and ready compatibility with the system.
