The handheld gaming market has remained quiescent for a number of years as Sony and Nintendo launched their latest consoles and mobile gaming boomed on smartphones. For handheld gamers, playing anytime anywhere holds the greatest appeal and these gaming devices also provide a sense of immersion that is different from mobile games. Renowned market research organization, Gartner, stated that the handheld gaming market will grow to 14.8 million units in 20271. Therefore, handhelds will always have a place in the market. At the end of 2021, Valve launched the hit Steam Deck, ushering in a turning point in the handheld game device market. Brands such as Asus, Razer, MSI, Logitech, AYANEO, etc. began to launch their own products in succession. Even Xbox and SONY are rumored to be working on their own offering. With the proliferation of handhelds, the demand for storage capacity has also increased significantly.
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Current handheld gaming devices bring different features to the table including superior battery life, high-performance hardware, and support for cloud gaming. In terms of cloud gaming, gamers must first subscribe to a streaming service and then prioritize network quality. However, those who prefer not to game through the cloud must have enough storage space to store their favorite games. Let&rsquo;s talk today about how to expand the space of your handheld gaming device.
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Take the two most popular models on the market, the Steam Deck comes in three capacities: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, while the ROG Ally only has a 512GB option2. If you wish to upgrade storage capacity, a M.2 2230 form factor SSD is required to swap out onboard storage. For example, the XPG GAMMIX S55 is an M.2 2230 Gen4 SSD specially designed for handhelds. It has a read/write performance of 5,000/3,700MB per second and a maximum capacity of 2TB. Since there are currently few brands on the market with options in excess of 1TB, the 2TB GAMMIX S55 can meet the expansion needs of most gamers.

🡇 M.2 2230 is a rare SSD form factor in the consumer market and few brands offer large-capacity storage options

In addition, both Steam Deck and ROG Ally have microSD Card slots for additional memory. In terms of memory card expansion, gamers can reference the following when selecting a product:&nbsp;
1. High-speed transmission reduces load time.
2. High p/e cycles extend product life.
3. Product warranties protect consumers.
The ADATA Premier Pro V30S High Endurance series microSD Card features high speed, high durability, and capacity options from 256GB to 1TB. ADATA is also one of the few brands on the market that can provide 1TB microSD Cards.

🡇 The addition of a microSD Card expansion slot is a great boon for gamers who are looking for copious storage space or convenient data transfer!

In summation, today's AAA games often require 100~150GB of storage space. Coupled with DLC and updates, gamers will start to think, "Why didn't I buy a device with a larger storage capacity?" However, the higher cost of larger capacity systems will give some consumers pause. Therefore, research expansion options before purchasing a handheld gaming device. If a handheld has both an internal SSD and a microSD Card slot, it can be upgraded to an ample 3TB with the recommendations above. No matter how many AAA games are available, collect them all without needing to choose which ones to keep on your system.

Finally, a reminder that the specifications of handheld gaming devices that support microSD are also very important. Matching the wrong specifications may greatly impact the gaming experience. Please reference the following table.

<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: '微軟正黑體',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; color: black; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">1&nbsp;Source: June 30, 2023 Gartner《Semiconductor Forecast Database, Worldwide, 2Q23 Update》
2 As of the time writing in mid-March 2024.
3 The Steam Deck memory card slot only supports UHS-I specifications. The ROG Ally memory card slot supports UHS-II specifications, so it is backward compatible and supports reading and writing UHS-I.
4 USH-II microSD memory cards are backward compatible and support UHS-I but maximum read/write speed will downgrade to UHS-I level speeds.
5 uSD 7.1 Express memory cards are backward compatible and supports UHS-I, but maximum read/write speed will downgrade to UHS-I level speeds.

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The handheld gaming market has remained quiescent for a number of years as Sony and Nintendo launched their latest consoles and mobile gaming boomed on smartphones. For handheld gamers, playing anytime anywhere holds the greatest appeal and these gaming devices also provide a sense of immersion that is different from mobile games. Renowned market research organization, Gartner, stated that the handheld gaming market will grow to 14.8 million units in 2027. Therefore, handhelds will always have a