The best microSD cards for the Asus ROG Ally

The Asus ROG Ally handheld PC launches with speed, and I’m not just talking about the speedy processor that sets it apart from the Steam Deck and other competitors. ROG Ally’s UHS-II microSD card interface provides faster read and write speeds than UHS-I, the base specification found in the Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and several other devices. In other words, you will probably see much faster download speeds.

According to Lexar, UHS-II triples the maximum transfer rate of UHS-I, with a top speed of 312 MB/s instead of 104 MB/s. However, compared to the proliferation of slower microSD cards, there are terribly few UHS-II microSD cards out there. Currently, well-known names in storage like Samsung and SanDisk don’t make UHS-II microSD cards. So far it’s just Lexar, dataand some brands I’ve honestly never heard of.

The few options out there are much more expensive than what you might be used to paying for a microSD card. What’s more concerning is that the current options don’t run at the full speed allowed by the UHS-II interface. We’ll get there one day, I’m sure. There’s some good news though, which is that UHS-II microSD cards are backward compatible with UHS-I gadgets, such as the Steam Deck, though you’ll see slower transfer speeds than you paid the big bucks for.

We’ll keep this list updated as newer microSD card models come out.