We have Samsung's new high-performance NVMe SSD under the microscope. We found Samsung's PM981 SSD in Asia. This new OEM model is the early foundation for Samsung's next-gen enthusiast SSD that will likely be called the 980. This drive features Samsung's new 64-layer V-NAND and a high-performance controller that delivers up to 3,500 MB/s of sequential read throughput and 250,000 random read IOPS.

Samsung, like other major flash foundries, has business units that supply products to OEM customers like Lenovo, Dell, and HP. Many of the drives they supply to the OEMs go through a slight refinement and then come to the retail channel for the DIY upgrade market. In the past, we've reviewed Samsung OEM models that were better than the existing models in the retail market. That's simply because they are early versions of the next generation drives.