The 32-GB NAND flash drive promises longer battery life and faster boot-up time. It marks the first time that NAND flash has moved into mobile computing applications, Samsung said.
The commercialization of Samsung’s 32GB Flash-SSD is a historic milestone for storage devices as it marks the initial entry of NAND flash memory in the mass mobile PC market, said the South Korea-based company in a statement.
However, because flash is significantly more expensive, the technology is unlikely to unseat notebook hard disks any time soon.
Samsung did not release pricing for the flash drive. But the company said it weighs about half that of a competing hard disk drive, can read data as much as three times faster and writes data 1.5 times faster.
What’s more, the flash drive is noiseless and consumes just 5% of the power consumed by a comparable hard disk, according to Samsung.
Currently, NAND is commonly used as storage in cell phones, digital cameras and other small consumer devices because it retains data after the power supply is turned off.