Samsung just unveiled the 850 EVO M.2 and 850 EVO mSATA solid state drive (SSD) lineups, which will launch today worldwide. The 850 EVO M.2 and mSATA SSDs are new form factors of the 850 EVO SSD that launched in December 2014 and features Samsung's 3D V-NAND technology. Just one-tenth the weight of a traditional 2.5-inch SSD, the M.2 and mSATA SSDs have been designed for users looking to upgrade their desktop or ultrathin PCs with high-performance storage.

In December, Samsung unveiled the 850 EVO featuring 3-bit 3D V-NAND technology, which overcomes the density limitations of conventional planar NAND architecture. 3D V-NAND stacks 32 cell layers vertically over one another, rather than decreasing cell dimensions to fit onto a fixed horizontal space, resulting in higher density and better performance with a smaller footprint.

The new Samsung 850 EVO mSATA comes in 1 terabyte (TB), 500 gigabyte (GB), 250GB and 120GB capacities and boasts the same read/write speeds as the 2.5-inch 850 EVO, with read speeds of up to 540 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write speeds of up to 520 MB/s. The 850 EVO M.2 will be available in 500GB, 250GB and 120GB capacities, offer read speeds of up to 540 MB/s and write speeds of up to 500MB/s.

Each drive manages large data transfers and complex multi-tasking operations using the Samsung TurboWrite technology. Featuring the TurboWrite technology, the 500GB and 1TB models offer random write speeds up to of 88K Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS), and random read speeds of up to 97K IOPS.

Similar to the 2.5-inch 850 EVO, the M.2 and mSATA drives offer reliability with improved sustained performance, as well as AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption.

Architecturally the mSATA and M.2 models are not any different from their 2.5" sibling. The drives are still using Samsung's own MGX controller (excluding the 1TB model, which is powered by the older MEX controller) and the NAND is 32-layer 128Gbit TLC (3-bit per cell) V-NAND that is manufactured using 40nm lithography. DevSleep and TCG Opal 2.0 (eDrive) are both supported too and endurance comes in at a respectable 75TB for 120GB/250GB and 150TB for 500GB/1TB models.

The Samsung M.2 and mSATA 850 EVO SSDs have a five-year limited warranty and an endurance rating of 150 total bytes written (TBW) for the 500GB and above capacities.