Samsung launches budget 990 SSD with QLC memory and PCIe 4.0

Samsung announced the 990 SSD, a value‑oriented M.2 2280 drive that uses 280‑layer 3D QLC NAND and a home‑grown Piccolo‑Q controller without DRAM. It supports PCIe 4.0 ×4 and NVMe 2.0, and is offered in 1 TB and 2 TB capacities. Sequential read speeds reach up to 7,250 MB/s and write speeds up to 6,450 MB/s, with random performance of 700 k–850 k IOPS reads and 1.1‑1.2 M IOPS writes. Endurance is rated at 400 TBW for the 1 TB model and 800 TBW for the 2 TB model, both backed by a three‑year warranty.

Pricing is set at about $270 for 1 TB and $530 for 2 TB, with Indian market prices listed at ₹25,649 (≈ $266) and ₹50,349 (≈ $523). Samsung highlights up to 38 % better power efficiency compared with the 990 Pro, and includes AES‑256 full‑disk encryption, TCG/Opal V2.0 and IEEE 1667 support. The drives are expected to reach stores in the last week of July 2026.