Sony SSD 240GB & 480GB (SLW-M) Announced

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I have to say I didn’t see this coming. Sony has just announced a pair of SSD drives – the SLW-M series, which offer 240GB (SLW-MG2) or 480GB (SLW-MG4) capacities.

The drives use SATA-6 Gbps interface and hence Sony can address the vast majority of desktop and laptop PCs with its first-gen SSDs. According to Sony, the SLW-M solid-state drives feature up to 560 MB/s sequential write speed and up to 530 MB/s sequential write speed. Each drives comes equipped with the Acronis True image 2015 and Sony SSD ToolBox software for managing and saving your data.

More details on the Sony SSD after the jump.

The Sony SLW-M SSDs are based on the Phison PS3110-S10 controller as well as Toshiba’s TLC flash memory, according to images published by DIYPC.hk web-site. The SLW-MG2 solid-state drive from Sony features 128 MB DDR3 buffer made by Nanya. Usage of TLC NAND indicates that Sony’s SLW-M are entry-level client solid-state solutions that do not cost a lot to make and are not supposed to be expensive, and based on the specifications listed it’s a reasonable guess that performance will be near the similarly-built low-end OCZ Trion 100 series.

This is an interesting move by Sony and perhaps not all that surprising. Samsung has long made a majority of its money from components. In the past 5 years, Sony has also been expanding its components business by making image sensors and batteries for a slew of products, including the iPhone line ever since the 4s models shipped. The SSD business, however, is a bit different in that there are a lot of big players already in that market, including Samsung.

Sony is being cautious with their SSD offerings as sales are currently limited to Asia with Europe not even on the horizon yet. This means we’ll probably never see this iteration of the drives in the US. If successful, Sony will likely slowly expand their SSD offerings to Europe but that could be some time away. Over all, I like the move by Sony. It’s small but calculated. Instead of going head in and investing a lot of money, they are testing an entry level unit that hasn’t been priced yet and depending on how it goes, they’ll likely evaluate the business and maker further strategic decisions.

Discuss:

What do you think about Sony getting into the SSD business?

[Via Anandtech]