Addlink S90 Lite NVMe SSD - Affordable Storage with Mid-Range Performance

Addlink S90 Lite NVMe SSD - Affordable Storage with Mid-Range Performance

The Addlink S90 Lite is a mid-range PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD that offers a satisfactory experience without anything new to offer. It's efficient and cool for laptops and a good way to add storage to desktops. However, there are better-performing TLC-based drives such as the WD Black SN770, which may cost more, or potentially cheaper options. The S90 Lite sits somewhere in-between but is not close to the performance or value of the best SSDs on the market.

One downside of the S90 Lite is that it has an overabundance of NAND flash dies, negatively impacting its performance and giving an edge to the Black SN770. Additionally, the S90 Lite has a different pSLC cache response than the Corsair MP600 GS, making it less useful for sustained workloads. However, this design also prevents the drive from overheating. A configuration like this would be more comparable to the Solidigm P41 Plus or Crucial P3 Plus.

The Addlink S90 Lite comes in 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities, which is competitive with similar drives such as the Silicon Power UD90, Team Group MP44L, and WD Black SN770. However, some drives in this class use QLC at 2TB, while the S90 Lite uses TLC, making this drive more attractive at that capacity.

The S90 Lite is capable of up to 5,000/4,200 MBps for sequential reads and writes, and 780K/800K IOPS for random reads and writes. The warranty is good for five years, and Addlink indicates that it's based on "percentage used" by SMART. The Addlink SSD toolbox can perform a secure erase and display various information, including drive specifications, SMART status, and firmware revision.

The Addlink S90 Lite uses a simple, single-sided design, with the Phison E21T controller in the middle and two NAND packages on each side. This configuration can provide advantages with heat spreading. The controller has proven to be a winner in the budget drive class, offering good performance for a DRAM-less design. Phison E21T's primary competitors are the Solidigm P41 Plus's SM2269XT, which is an alternative with QLC, or WD's proprietary controller in the Black SN770. Phison E21T works well with either TLC or QLC, and many models come with both depending on capacity. The use of four packages for flash implies that each package is 512GB, and each package has eight dies in an 8DP configuration. Single-sided drives are ideal as they can fit in a wide range of devices and may be easier for cooling.

Phison is one of the leading manufacturers of SSD controllers, and its NVMe SSDs are known for their high performance and reliability. However, even the best SSDs can fail, and in the event of a failure, data recovery may be required. Phison NVMe SSD data recovery can be a complex and challenging process due to the way that SSDs handle data. Unlike traditional hard drives, SSDs use a process called wear leveling, which spreads data evenly across the drive to prevent any one area from wearing out faster than others. This makes it difficult to recover data using traditional data recovery methods. However, there are specialized SSD data recovery tools and techniques that can be used to recover data from Phison NVMe SSDs, such as using advanced algorithms to locate and reconstruct lost or corrupted data. If you're experiencing data loss on a Phison NVMe SSD, it's recommended to consult with a professional data recovery service that specializes in SSD recovery to ensure the best chance of success.

The Addlink S90 Lite SSD is a mid-range PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD that offers a satisfactory experience for users who are looking to add storage to their laptops or desktops. Although it doesn't provide anything new, it's efficient and cool, and its single-sided design makes it easy to fit into a wide range of devices. While it may not be as performant as some of the best SSDs on the market, it's still competitive with similar drives, such as the Silicon Power UD90, Team Group MP44L, and WD Black SN770. Overall, the Addlink S90 Lite is a decent option for users who want to add capacity on the cheap without sacrificing too much in terms of performance or reliability.