Handheld gaming consoles based on portable platforms (like the Valve SteamDeck, ASUS ROG Ally, and MSI Claw) are one of the fastest growing segments in the PC gaming market. The form factor of these systems has created a demand for M.2 2230 NVMe SSDs. Almost every vendor is in this market, and even Micron offers OEM SSDs (like the Micron 2400, 2550, and 2500 series) in this form factor. Interestingly, Crucial hasn’t had a branded offering to target this segment, but that’s changing today with the launch of the Crucial P310 NVMe SSD.
The Crucial P310 is a family of M.2 2230 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSDs that offer peak read/write speeds of 7.1 Gbps and 6 Gbps. The family currently comes in two capacity slots: 1 TB and 2 TB. Micron claims that the use of its 3D 232L NAND and Phison’s latest E27T DRAMless controller (manufactured on TSMC’s 12nm process) helps reduce active power consumption compared to the competition, which directly translates to better battery life for the primary use case involving portable gaming consoles.
From the specs, it looks like the drives use the QLC 3D 232L. Compared to the recently released Micron 2550 series of SSDs in the same form factor, a controller change has improved power efficiency and performance. The rest of the specs are summarized in the table below.
| Crucial P310 SSD Specifications | ||
| Ability | 2 TB | 1 TB |
| Controller | Phison E27T (without DRAM) | |
| NAND Flash Memory | Micron 232L QLC 3D NAND Memory | |
| Form factor, interface | M.2-2230 single sided PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe | |
| Sequential reading | 7100 MB/s | |
| Sequential writing | 6000 MB/s | |
| Random Read IOPS | 1 M | |
| Random Write IOPS | 1.2 M | |
| SLC Caching | Yes | |
| TCG Pyrite Encryption | Yes | |
| guarantee | 5 years | |
| Write Endurance | 440 TBW 0.12 DWPD | 220 TBW 0.12 DWPD |
| MSRP | $215 | $115 |
Power efficiency, cost, and capacity are positives for the Crucial P310 family. However, the endurance ratings are quite low. Gaming workloads are inherently very read-intensive, and this may not be an issue for the average consumer. However, a DWPD rating of 0.12 may prove to be a negative when compared to the 0.33 DWPD offerings from competitors in the same segment.