Introduction

Some of you might have never heard of Angelbird before, just like we had not until we were approached by them to review their upcoming SSD. Angelbird is a relatively young company from Austria that specializes in creating flash-bashed storage products. They design and manufacture all components in Austria (except for the chips themselves, of course).

Their latest product is the Angelbird SSD wrk, which we are reviewing today. This solid state drive is available in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB and uses a Silicon Motion 2246 controller and Micron 20 nm flash chips.

We expect the drive to be available in all major markets across Europe and the USA. The tested 512 GB version costs $299 (€240), the 128 GB version sits at $99 (€75), and the 256 GB variant will set you back $159 (€125).

Packaging

The Drive

The drive conforms to the dimensions set forth by the 2.5" form factor. It is made of metal to improve its durability, and is only 7 mm thick, which makes it compatible with Intel's Ultrabook specification.


Like most recent SSDs, the Angelbird wrk uses the SATA 6 Gbps interface. It is compatible with any older SATA standard, but will, in such a case, work at reduced performance.


You will find the SSD controller and 8 flash chips on the PCB.


The relatively unknown Silicon Motion SM2246EN is the controller.


The eight MLC flash chips are produced by Micron, sorted and tested by Angelbird, and built on a 20 nanometer process.