Today, Samsung is unveiling its newest internal SSD known as the 990 EVO. Before Samsung delivered its new transparent display tech and its upcoming smart TV lineup at CES 2024, the last major release from its storage business was with the pro-grade USB 3.2 2×2 T9 portable SSDs – here’s our hands-on review. But today the brand is turning its attention to the more modest internal SSD solutions with the unveil of its new 990 EVO solid-state drives. Head below for all of the details.
New Samsung 990 EVO internal SSD
The Samsung 990 EVO is a mid-tier option with a price to match – it delivers performance for “everyday tasks, better energy efficiency,” and compatibility with both PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 interfaces. For folks who might not have upgraded to a 5.0 system yet, this new drive will maintain its optimal performance if and when you do.
Supporting both PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 5.0 x2 interfaces, the 990 EVO fits the needs for today’s systems that support PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots while also offering compatibility with PCIe 5.0 interfaces in upcoming applications.
Samsung says the new 990 EVO delivers improved performance of up to 43% compared to the previous model, the 970 EVO Plus SSD – a drive that featured up to 3,500MB/s speeds. The 990 EVO clocks in with up to 5,000MB/s write speeds and up to 4,200MB/s reads with 700K input/output operations per second (IOPS) and 800K IOPS, respectively. Samsung says that means “it takes almost half the time to access your data, minimizing loading times so you can start doing other things with the extra time.”
The latest release also delivers “improved power efficiency of up to 70% when compared its predecessor,” according to Samsung, so “you can keep working at a coffee shop, or from the comforts of your couch without needing an outlet nearby for longer.” This works alongside support for Microsoft Modern Standby “for instant on/off function with uninterrupted internet connectivity.”
Modern Standby is “a computer benchmark that ensures the device can quickly resume from sleep. Even if you’re on low power mode, you can instantly wake up your device with uninterrupted internet connectivity and seamless notification reception.”
Clearly Samsung isn’t trying to break any speed records with its latest here. This is really a more modest release for folks who don’t need super high-end internal solutions – there’s no integrated heatsink and the brand has plenty of options that reach speeds of 7,000MB/s or higher, like the 990 PRO for example. The new EVO edition, as you would imagine, comes in at a lower MSRP, will surely see some price drops in the coming months, and makes for a notable solution for more casual users.
It will be available in a 1TB and 2TB configurations at $124.99 and $209.99, respectively.
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