Performance: 36 out of 40
On the one hand the Silicon Power US70 series is nothing special by PCIe 4.0 standards. It is a reference Phison E16 design through and through. On the other… so too are basically all E16 based models. That is to say the Silicon Power US70 offers very good performance and performance parity with drives that cost noticeably more than it. It is kind of hard to argue with that.
Technological Innovation: 19 out of 20
As with the performance, the components Silicon Power uses to make their US70 series is not innovative, let alone unique… but the fact remains it is a highly innovative drive. It is a good E16 based drive that cracks the 20 cents per Gigabyte barrier. Something that will force others to reduce their asking price for their versions lest they start losing market share to Silicon Power. That in a nutshell is what innovation is all about.
Build Quality & Warranty: 17 out of 20
As this is a reference Phison E16 drive the component selection and overall build quality is very good. It just is not anything special. The same is true of the warranty. Five years with 1800TB TBW rating is ‘industry standard’ for the E16 1TB capacity models. That however is rather good considering Silicon Power does all that and still costs less than the competition.
Value: 20 out of 20
While the US70 can not – quite – match the UD70 in overall value, it is a great value in its own right. The enthusiast market now has a killer drive at a killer price. One that is low enough to not only justify purchasing it over other Phison E16 reference designs… but also one that will make opting for the more expensive Samsung option more diffuclt. Yes, the Sammy will be ‘faster’ but the E16s are not ‘slow’… and the Sammy will set buyers back about bout 17.4 percent more at $230 vs $190. That is a rather good argument for the Silicon Power US70 being more than just ‘good enough’. In fact it makes a great argument for the US70 being the enthusiast class leader in overall value.
Final Score: 92 out of 100
No one will ever argue that the Silicon Power US70 is the fastest NVMe M.2 series going. No one will ever even argue it is the cheapest NVMe drive going. Instead it is a drive that blends excellent performance that is on par with all the other E16 drives out there with a noticeably lower asking price. That is a winning combination to say the least.
