Samsung's low-power 128GB SSDs go mass production on the cheap

Good news on the SSD front. Announced back in January, Samsung is now mass producing its 1.8- and 2.5-inch SSDs in both 64GB and 128GB capacities. And since these SATA II SSDs are based on MLC -- 64 MLC NAND flash chips of 16 gigabits each in the 9.5-mm thick 128GB SSD -- you can expect them to be cheap by comparison to SLC-based SSDs and faster by comparison to traditional laptop hard disk drives while lasting about 20 times longer than the expected 4-5 year life span of that mechanical spinner. We're talking 70MB/s writes and 90MB/s reads and power consumption rated at just 0.2-watts idle or 0.5-watts when active -- far less than any of the models (including the SSDs tested by LAPTOP) tested by Tom's which should help put any battery consumption concerns to rest. Heaping happy on top of good, Samsung tells us to expect the 256GB SSD to go mass production by the end of the year. Clap clap clap.