In this review we examine the Samsung 970 PRO M2 SSD, an SSD series that offers faster performance and increased endurance write values compared to the 960 series. The new M.2 Pro units is certainly among the popular ones for the professional desktop enthusiast end-users and can be purchased in volume sizes up-to 1TB. NVMe Storage technology has been advancing and developing in very fast paces as we now have reached the 970 series from Samsung. Armed with 64-layer (2-bits written per cell) MLC NAND flash memory, DRAM caching the new 970 series are based on the Samsung Phoenix controller, which have been introduced in there OEM PM981 already. Phoenix really is the Samsung Polaris Gen 2 controller now delivering up-to 3,500 MB/s sequential read speeds on even the smaller 500 GB version, with up to 2,700 MB/s sequential writes for this PRO series. For a little more shock and awe, Random 4KB numbers run up to 500,000 IOPS read and write, which is pretty spectacular.

The 970 PRO has been fitted with 64-layer MLC NAND, we have received a 512GB model for testing. The product is only slightly faster compared to the EVO model (which can do 2300~2500 MB/s writes). Samsung is to release the new 970 Pro model in capacities of 250 GB, 500GB but also a 1 TB volume sizes. A 2TB version, however, has not been announced, there, however, is a 2TB 970 EVO model available.