Samsung's hotly anticipated 980 PRO M.2 NVMe flagship client-segment SSD is the company's first "PRO" branded SSD to feature TLC NAND flash memory, breaking from a unique tradition of using MLC (2 bits per cell) NAND flash. Product pages of the drive went live, and its specifications clearly state the use of "Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC," which is another way of saying TLC. "MLC" generally referred to as NAND flash memory that stores 2 bits per cell, even through the term "Multi-level" is amorphous.

The product page lists other juicy specs of Samsung's first M.2 NVMe client SSD that takes advantage of PCI-Express gen 4. The drive uses Samsung's in-house design "Elpis" controller, which uses NVMe 1.3 protocol over PCI-Express 4.0 x4, and an LPDDR4 DRAM cache. The 980 PRO comes in capacities of up to 1 TB, with up to 1 GB of DRAM cache. Samsung rates the 1 TB version as capable of up to 7000 MB/s sequential reads, up to 5000 MB/s sequential writes, and up to 1 million IOPS 4K random reads/writes at QD32. The use of TLC impacts endurance adversely in comparison to that of the drive's immediate predecessor, the 970 PRO, with the 1 TB 980 PRO warranty covering only up to 600 TBW, in comparison to 1200 TBW of the 970 PRO 1 TB, and the 500 GB 980 PRO offering just 300 TBW warranty coverage in comparison to 600 TBW of the 970 PRO 512 GB.

Update: April 29, 2019: A representative on behalf of Samsung contacted us to let us know that the company has not released a 2 TB version of the 970 Pro, and has no current plans to do so either. It appears that the retail leaks were not accurate after all. The original story is below for records.

A year after it has introduced the first versions of its 970 Pro NVMe SSD, Samsung is finally updating its lineup with a 2 TB SKU. Previous generation models always saw a 2 TB solution being made available, so the absence of such a model in the 970 Pro series was a bit amiss.

Two webshops (one German, one Chinese) have already listed the part with its own SKU number, so it really is incoming to the worldwide market. If you're looking for a solid storage option that replaces a hard-drive in terms of storage density, this could be the one for you. A price around the €940 mark is likely to be close to the actual number.

Samsung continues to outpace all competition in the SSD market - which it has basically cornered, at least in enthusisasts' minds, when it comes to performance and reliability. In a bid to strengthen their grip, Samsung have decided to introduce their 970 EVO and 970 PRO SSDs with lower pricing than previously announced. This reduced pricing across the entire capacity catalog is sure to bring the heat to other, competing solutions in the market, and make Samsung's options - which now count with a 5 year warranty - all the more appealing.

The new pricing will see Samsung's 970 EVO, for example, going for $109.99 in its 250 GB form; $199 for 500 GB; $399 for its 1 TB capacity; and $799 in its ultimate, 2 TB form. These prices place it in an extremely competitive light with Intel's 760p, for example ($116.25, $215.45, $399.99 and $1730.01, respectively) and WD's in-house WD Black ($119.99, $234.24 and $449.99 for the 1 TB version). The 970 PRO, the best-performing SSD, will apparently be available from $249.99 (500 GB) and $499.99 (1 TB). Samsung essentially lowered pricing against its previous generation 960 EVO and 960 PRO, while delivering (virtually) across-the-board improvements.

Samsung Electronics, today introduced the Samsung 970 PRO and EVO, the third generation of its industry-leading consumer solid state drive (SSD) lineup. Having led the market with the first consumer-focused NVMe SSD in 2015, Samsung continues to push the performance barriers with this latest generation of SSDs that are built for tech enthusiasts and professionals so that they can enjoy higher bandwidth for intensive workloads on PCs and workstations.

"Samsung has led the NVMe SSD industry since its inception, and the company continues to define the latest standards of consumer storage with unprecedented performance of the 970 PRO and EVO SSDs," said Un-Soo Kim, senior vice president of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. "The 970 series sets a new bar in all aspects for the NVMe SSD market with groundbreaking performance, superior reliability and best-in-class capacity."