It's been 21 months since the first PCIe five drives arrived with us. 21 long months, since the Crucial T700, the Gigabyte Aorus, and similarly specced SSDs landed on our shores, delivering outstanding sequential performance, tiny fans, and eye-watering price tags to match. Since then we've seen iteration on iteration, price drop on price drop, and a continual stream of devices with improved efficiency pushing the limits of what can be achieved with the standard.
And yet, 21 months, without an answer from Samsung. For what reason, it's hard to really say. The brand was, without a doubt, incredibly dominant during the heyday of the PCIe 3.0 era, all those years ago. With the 960 Pro and Evoline, it delivered some seriously potent performance, all backed up by solid endurance and a hefty warranty too. Since then we've had a smattering of PCIe 4.0 solutions, some odd hybridized twin channel 5.0 drives, in the likes of the 990 Evo and Evo Plus, and that's about it. Nothing to write home about, at least until now.
