Steam Deck owners: Don’t get excited about this 4TB microSD just yet

Western Digital announced the world’s first 4TB micro SD card, but Steam Deck owners need to leave their excitement at the door.

Western Digital, highly recognized for its fast SSDs and storage options, unveiled the “world’s first” 4TB microSD and 8TB SD cards at an official press conference on August 8.

During Future Memory Storage 2024 (FMS 24), Western Digital shared that the high-performance flash devices would “push the boundaries” and that the SDUC UHS-I cards were built for “tomorrow’s smartphones, gaming devices, drones, cameras and laptops.”

The cards in question are set to have max speeds of 104MB/.s, however, while that could be good news for Steam Deck owners, there’s one major caveat to consider — Valve’s iconic handheld isn’t compatible with SDUC cards.

As stated by the Integral Memory FAQ, SDUC memory cards (Secure Digital Ultra Capacity cards) are meant to “only be used with SDUC devices.”

The Steam Deck currently supports SD, SDXC, and SDHC cards, and so anyone planning on upping their handheld capacity with the 4TB micro SD card is out of luck.

Even the OLED model of the Steam Deck can only support speeds up to 100MB/.s, so it likely wouldn’t have made much of a difference to the Deck regardless. Both of the cards are also UHS-I, which is reportedly slower than the current UHS-II cards available for the handheld.

While Steam Deck fans have to miss out on the “world’s first” 4TB microSD card, it isn’t all doom and gloom. Currently, a whole range of 1TB microSD cards are compatible with the handheld. Plus, there are always options to upgrade the SSD of the Steam Deck to get up to 2TB worth of space.

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During the press conference at FMS 24, Western Digital also announced a proof-of-concept portable 16TB SSD and a 16TB SandDisk desk drive. While there wasn’t any mention of a 2230 NVMe SSD equivalent, it might not be entirely out of the question.

If you’re still keen on the 4TB micro SD and 8TB full-size cards for your other devices, Western Digital didn’t reveal when we can expect to pick them up. However, likely, they won’t come cheap, especially as the SanDisk 1.5TB Ultra microSDXC currently has an MSRP of $150.