Thursday, January 9th 2020
Samsung at CES 2020: SSD 980 PCIe Gen 4 M.2, SSD T7, and the Gorgeous Odyssey G9 Monitor
It's finally here: a high-end PCI-Express gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD by Samsung, made end-to-end by homebrew components. When it releases sometime later this year with a possible technical reveal in Q2, the SSD 980 will be possibly the only client-segment M.2 NVMe PCIe gen 4 SSD to feature MLC (2 bits per cell) NAND flash memory. This also means that the highest capacity on offer is just 1 TB. The company also put out sequential transfer rates: up to 6,500 MB/s reads, with up to 5,000 MB/s writes. The biggest payoffs of MLC would be sustained write performance and endurance (in its capacity class, compared to TLC and QLC).
Next up, is the Portable SSD T7 Touch, a successor to the T5 from 2017. This drive comes in an in-built fingerprint reader, letting you secure its data with your fingerprints. The drive is also a much needed update to the T5, which still uses 64-layer TLC NAND; and possibly uses the latest generation 96-layer V-NAND. The drive is built with an aluminium case that's drop-resistant up to 2 m. A single USB 3.2 connection handles power and data. The drive includes type-C to type-C and type-C to type-A cables, and will be compatible not just with PCs, but also Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets.Lastly, we got to see Samsung's swanky new Odyssey G9, a stunning 49-inch monitor with a steep 1,000R curvature that surrounds your field of view like no other curved monitor can (certainly not 1800R). The monitor packs what Samsung calls "dual QHD" (5120 x 1440 pixels) resolution, which is what you'd get if you placed two 1440p panels side by side. If its resolution doesn't wow you, the 240 Hz refresh-rate just might. The monitor's panel is VA with Samsung's Quantum-dot technology. It's also DisplayHDR 1000 rated. Behind is an RGB ornament that cycles between 52 presets, but it didn't seem bright enough to work as ambient light.
Next up, is the Portable SSD T7 Touch, a successor to the T5 from 2017. This drive comes in an in-built fingerprint reader, letting you secure its data with your fingerprints. The drive is also a much needed update to the T5, which still uses 64-layer TLC NAND; and possibly uses the latest generation 96-layer V-NAND. The drive is built with an aluminium case that's drop-resistant up to 2 m. A single USB 3.2 connection handles power and data. The drive includes type-C to type-C and type-C to type-A cables, and will be compatible not just with PCs, but also Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets.Lastly, we got to see Samsung's swanky new Odyssey G9, a stunning 49-inch monitor with a steep 1,000R curvature that surrounds your field of view like no other curved monitor can (certainly not 1800R). The monitor packs what Samsung calls "dual QHD" (5120 x 1440 pixels) resolution, which is what you'd get if you placed two 1440p panels side by side. If its resolution doesn't wow you, the 240 Hz refresh-rate just might. The monitor's panel is VA with Samsung's Quantum-dot technology. It's also DisplayHDR 1000 rated. Behind is an RGB ornament that cycles between 52 presets, but it didn't seem bright enough to work as ambient light.