Samsung unveils 860 QVO 4-bit MLC SATA SSDs

Samsung Electronics has officially unveiled its multi-terabyte consumer-oriented quad-level cell (QLC) SSD family, the 860 QVO, which starts at a capacity of 1TB and goes up to 4TB in a 2.5" SATA form-factor.

Designed with capacity and pricing in mind rather than raw performance, the Samsung 860 QVO family is designed to provide mass storage for laptops and desktops. As a result, Samsung has opted to make the smallest available size a 1TB model, with 2TB and 4TB variants to launch in the near future. The company is targeting everyone from content creators and consumers to gamers who need high-capacity storage but at a performance greater than a spinning-platter mechanical hard drive.

'Today’s consumers are using, producing and storing more high-resolution files than ever, including 4K videos and graphics-intensive games, escalating demand for greater capacities and performance in storage devices,' claims Dr. Mike Mang, vice president at the memory division of Samsung Electronics. 'Samsung continues to lead the move toward multi-terabyte SSDs with the introduction of the Samsung 860 QVO, delivering fast performance, reliability and value to more consumers around the world.'

According to Samsung, the use of the company's in-house QLC V-NAND flash components coupled with its MJX controller hardware means it has been able to bring four-bit multi-level cell (MLC) performance to the same level as three-bit MLC. The result: Up to 550MB/s sequential read and 520MB/s sequential write, and 97,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) random read and 89,000 IOPS random write.

The company is also making much of the reliability and longevity: All drives come with a warranty good for three years or 360 terabytes written (TBW) for the 1TB model, whichever comes first, while the 2TB and 4TB variants age out after 720TBW and 1,440TBW respectively.

Samsung has confirmed that the 1TB 860 QVO will launch in the UK in December, priced at £136.99 (inc. VAT); the company has not yet provided pricing for the 2TB or 4TB variants.