Not that long ago we took a look at the state of nano-sized NVMe SSDs (aka M.2 2230) and walked very, very impressed with how far things have come in such a short period of time. We walked away so impressed that we not only made mention of how they would make a good ‘D’ drive in a full-sized system, but how to convert/adapt them to fit/work in more typically sized M.2 ports found in said system(s). In fact, in the Crucial P310 2TB review, we mused (and strongly hinted) about how it would be rather easy for Crucial/Micron to do this for people at the factory and eliminate this extra step. Well, we were not the only ones as Crucial got the memo and have released a P310 “2280 edition”… including a decently sized 2TB variant we will be looking at today.
Even with just a quick glance at the specs, it is blatantly obvious that this is a P310 through and through. Everything from the warranty (5 years) and its TDW (“good enough” if not overly spectacular 440TB); to the controller (a DRAM-less Phison E27T); to the NAND (surprisingly peppy 232-Layer Micron Replacement Gate CuA ‘N58R’ QLC NAND); to even the number of components on the now extended PCB (2 NAND ICs + 1 controller IC) all are the same as its smaller form-factor P310 sibling. Yes, all that has changed is the form-factor. Or at least from a components point of view all that has changed is the PCB being extended to 80mm.
Honestly, if all that Crucial did was not crack off the last ~50mm of the P310 2230’s PCB we would be happy with that. Yes. It would make the P310 2280 edition rather niche, as it would mostly be satisfying the oddball buyer, such as ourselves, who like thinking outside the box. However. Crucial did not just do that. While “supersizing” the micro-PCB to a more reasonable length they also took the time to slash the retail asking price and offer it in both a heatsink and non-heatsink variant(s). To be precise one can now pickup a 2TB P310 2280 for $128 or for a mere 11 USD more a “low-profile” (aka under 10mm z-height) factory heatsink equipped version. Put another way, the P310 2TB capacity variants will both set you back under 7 cents a GB. As such these new’ish P310 variants may indeed finally be the perfect entry level NVMe drives for budget constrained builds.
With that said, and lowered asking price or not, can the P310 design handle the increased competition that goes along with stepping up in weight class to the mainstream 2280 marketplace? After all, we are talking about a design that was originally created to solve an entirely problem. That of ‘good enough’ performance for the ultra-small form-factor market. So let’s see if the P310 is finally the P5 Plus “killer” we had hoped for.
