Plextor's M9Pe is likely the company's worst-guarded secret by this point; the company has always hinted at a performance-part release that would supersede their M8Pe's offering performance and take the battle back to Samsung's reigning 960 Evo and 960 pro NVME SSDs, albeit at an expected lower price-point and a better $/GB ratio. The company is apparently so proud of what it sees as the future for its M9Pe SSDs, however, that they couldn't help themselves to contain their excitement, and shared a small teaser image for the M9Pe's performance.

The performance figures come courtesy of Plextor's USA Facebook page, and are represented in a CrystalDiskMark run. Performance numbers for this NVME drive are impressive, to say the least, with the results of this 1 TB drive besting Samsung's 960 EVO, and coming very close to Samsung's 960 PRO NVME SSD. Of course, pricing should still be one of the determinant factors in consumers' choice, but it seems that the NVME high-performance storage space is seeing some companies fighting to overturn Samsung's dominance - and fiercer competition is usually better for consumers. Of course, users should be aware that for most use cases, a good SATA III SSD will still deliver performance in spades and the best $/performance ratio on the high-speed SSD market, but for those that want uncompromising performance, having another player in the Samsung space is definitely good news.