Micron isn't done with consumer SSDs after all, unveiling a PCIe 5.0 QLC drive that should be both affordable *and* fast

The Micron 3610 SSD rests on a reflective surface on a black background.

I'm not going to lie to you, SSD pricing is pretty dire right now due to the memory apocalypse. As such, the end of 2025 was all doom and gloom about how we may not see sensibly priced storage for who knows how long—even Micron killed off its own Crucial brand, which had provided some of the best SSDs for gaming previously. And yet, a Micron-made SSD survives in 2026.

The company has just announced the Micron 3610 NVMe SSD, which it bills as "the industry’s first PCIe Gen5 QLC client SSD, powered by Micron G9 NAND." This release suggests that not only is Micron keeping at least a toe in the consumer market despite what was implied mere weeks ago, but that the company may even help pave the way back to reasonable storage pricing.