Two upcoming Strix Halo gaming portables will debut the technology.
China’s storage industry is about to shrink SSDs to a size you can slot in like a SIM card — without sacrificing speed.
Storage manufacturer Biwin has introduced what it calls the Mini SSD (also referred to by some as the “1517”). Measuring just 15mm by 17mm and 1.4mm thick, it’s smaller than a U.S. penny and only slightly bigger than a MicroSD card. Yet, it delivers PCIe 4×2 performance with sequential read speeds of up to 3,700 MB/s and write speeds of up to 3,400 MB/s. Capacities will range from 512GB to 2TB.
That’s a huge leap over the MicroSD Express cards rumored for the Nintendo Switch 2, which max out at 985 MB/s — less than a third of the Mini SSD’s speed. Even full-size SD Express cards, while slightly faster at 3,940 MB/s, are nearly twice as large.
For comparison, here’s where it sits among other formats:
| Type |
Size (mm) |
Max Speed |
| Mini SSD |
15 × 17 × 1.4 |
3,700 MB/s |
| MicroSD |
11 × 15 × 1 |
985 MB/s |
| SD |
24 × 32 × ~2 |
3,940 MB/s |
| M.2 2230 |
22 × 30 × ~2 |
~8,000 MB/s |
| M.2 2280 |
22 × 80 × ~2 |
~14,000 MB/s |
The Mini SSD isn’t just about speed — it’s designed for portability and durability. It uses a SIM-style tray mechanism (ejectable with a pin), boasts IP68 water and dust resistance, and can survive drops from up to three meters.
While it’s not yet clear if this will become an open industry standard, Biwin is marketing the format for laptops, tablets, smartphones, cameras, and more. The first devices to support it will be two high-end Chinese gaming portables powered by AMD’s new Strix Halo chips:
Pricing and release dates for these Mini SSDs have not been announced, and no retail listings have appeared yet. But if the technology catches on, we could see a new generation of ultra-fast, swappable storage for everything from gaming rigs to smartphones.
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