Samsung 980 SSD Review – An Introduction

In September 2020, Samsung finally released its long-awaited 980 PRO SSDs. Early in January of that year, the company showed off the high-speed drive with a PCIe Gen4 interface at CES, but we had to wait a long time. As we’re used to from Samsung, it not only releases a pro version, but also a more popular version, usually with an EVO suffix. However, for the predominant variant of the 980, this EVO suffix is ​​not the only thing that has expired.

The “regular” Samsung 980 series, which will be available from early March, does not feature PCIe Gen4, but reverts to PCIe Gen3. This means solid state drives are considerably slower, with four lanes containing exactly half the bandwidth that professionals can use. In the past, you could choose between the more expensive PRO versions and the more impressive EVO versions almost for speed and at least price, but this time the difference on paper is pretty big.

The 980 series will also be available in limited capacities: from 250GB over 500GB to 1TB maximum. Its predecessors, the 970 EVO and EVO Plus, were available in capacities up to 2 TB, and so was the 980 PRO. The smallest variant, 250 GB, has a suggested retail price of 60 euros, 500 GB should cost 80 euros, and a 1 TB version with a suggested retail price of 150 euros. As we’ve seen with the 980 PRO series, prices tend to drop quickly.