First, let’s see the reasons why hard drives disappeared from laptops. Although it is often said that it is linked to performance, it was the case at first. But in reality, they have been replaced by M.2 SSDs, since they are much smaller.
SATA SSDs and HDDs are standard 7mm thick, but M.2 SSDs are up to 4mm thick. A thickness of only 3 mm may not seem like much, but in the end, it helps reduce the size of laptops. It is therefore not only mechanical hard drives that have been “pushed out” from laptops, but also SSDs with a SATA interface.
Is there some sort of difference?
We have a huge offer of SSD drives on the market, with different characteristics. We can find in the market different connection interfaces, how can they be SATA and PCIe. In PCIe we have 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0. Each of these versions offers different read and write speeds.
The manufacturer of the laptop always will specify he type of the unit there there login interface. The most normal thing is that they use M.2 drives, since they are more compact and allow you to develop thinner laptops. In addition, they will also specify the connection interface.
Generally, manufacturers of laptop as LG, Lenovo, ASUS and any other prestigious brand they use commercial SSDs. These are mostly the same as those that can be found on the market.
may exist differences What they are not technicalotherwise what they are aesthetic. An example would be the color of the PCB, which could not be painted and therefore reduce the cost of the SSD and therefore the cost of sale. This allows the laptop manufacturer to save a little on the price of the final equipment. You should also keep in mind that they usually buy in large volumes, which further reduces the price of this product.
Rarely will an SSD manufacturer offer specific solutions for laptops. The reason for this is that the laptop manufacturer is not interested, as it may make the end product more expensive.
Any laptop manufacturer wants to offer a good product. The use of SSDs of dubious origin or of poor quality will bring discredit to the manufacturer and, consequently, a significant drop in sales.
And what about Mini PCs?
A product that has become very popular in recent years is the Mini PC. These also use solid-state drives, specifically the M.2 format. Typically, they do not specify the manufacturer of the drive. Minis Forum, one of the largest in this industry, does this and uses Crucial units in its systems.
But this is not usual, except with certain very specific manufacturers. Systems sold on AliExpress, for example, do not specify the manufacturer and many other data of these storage units. This does not mean that they are bad products, but it means that we lack information to make a correct choice.
