The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, consoles that are almost 20 years old had storage options that were larger.

Xbox One and Playstation 4 which are over a decade old at this point double it at worst with the option to quad-druple that or more.

256GB NAND is relatively cheap, I don't even have a USB/MicroSD Card smaller than 256GB these days... It will likely be fine for the Switch 2.0, but "spacious and advanced" it is certainly not.

And you do realize that the Google Pixel pro 8 and Apple are not the be-all, end-all of handheld manufacturers right?

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra has 16GB of Ram and targets a mid-range price. (Hint: Less than the Google Pixel.)

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra has 16GB LPDDR5X Ram.

Going from 12GB to 16GB of Ram is such an insignificant increase in price... I mean fuck... Going from 16GB of Ram on PC to 32GB is a stuff-all jump in price.

You do realize that phones can sell 100-250~ million units in a fraction of the time of a single console, right?

The ROG does not exist in a vacuum.

It's not a hybrid form factor. It doesn't physically change.

If it's like the Switch, it's 100% mobile.

Nintendo has always held things back and been conservative with hardware since the Wii.

I have also asked more from Sony and Microsoft's hardware, this isn't me being biased against Nintendo, you need to get over that.
I want all three console manufacturers to give consumers more and better hardware for the money.

It's people like -you- who make excuses on why their platform shouldn't be the best it possibly can be at the detriment of the consumers dollar.

This is not "competent" hardware for a device that will output to a TV, 12GB of Ram with only 120GB/s of bandwidth and one of the slowest RTX GPU's in nVidia's entire arsenal isn't what I would regard as competent.

Never once asked Nintendo to do a repeat of the 3DS or WiiU.

I just want better. I will always want better.
Not for you, but for me and all the other consumers in the world.

We should always expect more for our dollar, consumers should always come first, multi-billion dollar corporations should come last, not the other way around.

UFS is used in Laptops, Tablets and Phones.

It's used in hundreds of millions of products sold.

UFS uses the same kind of memory known as "NAND" that high performance SSD's use, it's just a set of standards with a bespoke interface... Every Nintendo console since the Wii has technically had an "SSD".

Keep in mind many Switch 1.0 games are 20-40GB in size, increase the graphics and asset quality in Switch 2.0 games and you could see sizes potentially double that... Which means 256GB is not going to go far.

Plus the console will have less than 256GB of usable space as the OS will steal a chunk for itself.

To be fair, I have a 1 Terabyte MicroSD card in my Switch and it's about 90% full.
But I also have a pair of 16 Terabyte Hard Drives on my Xbox Series X and that is also about 90% full.

256GB Is a lot for Nintendo games, which is why 90% of people will be buying a Switch 2.

Most first party Switch 2 games will probably be 20-30GB outside of future Zelda's & RPGs. Ratchet on PS5 is 40GB.

500GB would be great if Nintendo wanted to encourage 3rd party sales/downloads out the gate as they will most likely average 70GB for AAA ports but if the expandable memory is relatively cheap, it doesn't really matter. This is infinitely better than the 32GB which could barely hold Zelda BOTW

256 GB will hold whatever new Mario game is announce, Smash, a bunch of smaller titles, the new COD and a free to play game like Fortnight. That's a good starting point IMO but of course 500GB would be the sweet spot.

100% agreed.  1st party games, given Nintendo and their art design, will be much smaller than third party games.  256 gb is only a problem for stuff like Rebirth, GTA6, CoD, etc. 

I also think DLSS will work better for Nintendo games than third party, again given their cartoon art style.  I say that because of WWHD on CEMU.  Upscaling was amazing.  

I have the same question to be honest.  I am not finding many SD express cards at 800 mb/s that aren't $200-$300 for 512 gb.  Doesn't seem like they are readily available, at least not at Amazon or Scan.  Maybe Nintendo will have to sell custom expansions themselves?  I kind of get these cards are rare and not available.  Cameras don't need 800 mb/s, thus the market for fast SD cards is niche?  

edit

SanDisk Extreme PRO Cfexpress Card Type B, 256GB, Up To 1700MB/S, for RAW 4K Video : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Not sure if that is the same thing people are thinking for S2 storage expansion.  Kind of pricey.  

256GB was chosen for a reason, I don't think it's random, it's because Nintendo knows most 3rd party games are 150GB max ... 256GB ensures all their development partners that you can make your game on Switch 2 and every system technically has the internal storage to hold the entire game. 128GB would have been a problem, 256GB isn't.

Now a consumer may have to flush their fridge, but that's not really the publisher's problem, you can still use even bog standard dirt cheap regular SD Cards for cold storage and move games in/out of the main storage or buy one of Samsung's upcoming faster SD Cards and two pools of storage.

Yeah thanks for this, all my research has shown this faster memory could be expensive like the SSDs for PS5/Xbox series. So I'll probably be investing this holiday before Switch 2 releases. I don't get the concern though, Nintendo games will most likely still be fully playable physically unlike the other two consoles where yeah they give you about a terabyte but they also force you to install all your games and have far larger sizes. Nintendo games will likely continue to be the highest selling games on Switch 2 and will not require a download. I personally don't but anymore Nintendo games digitally to conserve space for my 3rd party games. 

Fast memory is super expensive.  I think I spent $300 for my PC M2 drive and M2 won't work with portables, gets way too hot.  

Nintendo games won't be a problem on carts.  I think LM4 was 6 gb and Pikmin 4 was 10 gb.  Most Nintendo games will be 20 gb on the S2.  Physical is a great option for 1st party games.  Third party will be the only inconvenience.  I could be wrong, but I don't see third party putting full games on carts.  They will require downloads.   

I am very curious about GTA6 file size.  I would not be surprised if it clears 200 gb.  

Faster SD Cards have been more expensive because no one buys them. There is no market for Joe Averages who want a card that fast, most people don't care about the speed. That's been more of the problem, camera enthusiasts that want cards that fast are a tiny niche market. 

From what I gather Samsung is now moving into this market and is working with some mystery hardware partner (some people speculate this is Nintendo) to bring these new high speed SD Cards to the market, my guess would be the price will be affordable because they are aiming to actually sell cards. 

They were as mentioned offering 500MB/sec cards like 7-8 years ago under the UFS format (because at the time SD Card was not fast enough) for affordable pricing, I would say it's a good bet these SD Cards will be in line with their high speed UFS cards. 

It's a real shame we won't get at least 500 GB of storage on 2025 device

Even today it's not like that much storage is in very cheap devices. 

The 512GB Steam Deck is $550. Phones and tablets with 512GB on board tend to be like $800-$1000. 

Would I like the world inside a Switch 2? Sure but it also likely can't be priced at $500-$600. For $400-$450, you have to make some pragmatic choices. 

256GB is enough to ensure even the biggest modern games can be downloaded straight onto the fast internal storage with room left over, and then there will be several cheap options for people who want extra storage past that. SD Cards only get cheaper and bigger with time and now we have a big manufacturer in Samsung also pushing higher speed cards, so that's all good news. 

I was honestly expecting 128GB ... 256GB IMO is Nintendo's concession to 3rd party publishers because Nintendo's own games sure as fuck don't need that much storage space.