Western Digital announces 2TB 2230-sized SSDs for gaming handhelds

Western Digital has announced three 2230 format M.2 SSDs in the WD Black series. The SSDs are now available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities. With the smaller form factor, the drives are intended for portable gaming handhelds such as the Steam Deck and ROG Ally.

The WD Black SN770M series has support for the PCIe 4.0 interface and uses TLC-NAND. The 500GB variant has sequential read and write speeds of 5000 and 4000MB per second respectively and a TBW lifespan of 300 written terabytes. This SSD has a suggested retail price of 83 euros. The variants with 1 and 2TB storage space have slightly higher read and write speeds and are available for 121 and 231 euros. Western Digital promises a TBW lifespan of 600 and 1200TB respectively for these versions.

So far, there are few 2TB SSDs with a 2230 form factor available to consumers. Western Digital already released comparable SSDs for OEMs in 2022. This SN740 series has virtually the same specifications as the SN770M, except for a lower TBW for the 1 and 2TB variants. Furthermore, several other manufacturers, including Micron, Kioxia, Corsair and Framework, have released SSDs with the M.2 2230 format in recent months. These are suitable for use in handhelds such as the Valve Steam Deck and the ASUS ROG Ally.