Review 2TB Inland QN446 (2230) SSD Review: For When 1TB Just Isn’t Enough

[Admin]

The Inland QN446 is another great 2TB upgrade SSD for your Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, or other M.2 2230 portable system. It has the drawbacks of QLC, which are more evident in PCIe 4.0 mode, but it’s otherwise efficient and cool-running.

2TB Inland QN446 (2230) SSD Review: For When 1TB Just Isn’t Enough : Read more

 

[Loadedaxe]

Too much! I agree with your conclusion.
While this is a niche ssd, there are cheaper alternatives, $159-165 and the Seagate Firecuda is only $10 more. As stated in your review they are all about the same in performance. Me myself, if I needed a 2230 I would use the Micron, as it is cheaper. I do like the warranty length on Inlands, that is if you can actually get it replaced. Inland has a bad rep for warranties and MC only wants to refund purchase price, so if it goes up in price your out more for a replacement at MC.

inlands version needs to be below $159 to make this worth it.

 

[cyrusfox]

The SN740 has been available for months now through Aliexpress for $120-135. Would hope you here at Tom's could acquire as you are missing the king of the hill for value and performance.

For the steamdeck and those caliber of portable devices, any NVME drive in this form factor is good enough, cheapest 2230 at the capacity you need would be my recommendation.
But for platforms with legs, the sn740 runs cool and is the best 2230 gen 4 ssd on the market, for gen 3 I preferred sn530 was my favorite, and the sn520 drives could be trimmed (I cut up a 2280 to work with an angle grinder stand).The 2230 market is getting lots more competition this day but unfortunately they all are from 3rd party sellers(Not from NAND manufacturers), outside of the solidigm entry WD has cornered this market

For Inland, I have a QN 2tb I picked up for $70 last black friday(2280), its what you expect from a commodity nand 3rd party player, commodity performance. Now this entry is too expensive at launch, but I am sure it will be discounted and become a worthwhile proposition. Until then, it will serve well as an impulse purchase at microcenter or other retail locations when a 2230 drive is required.