Crucial P2 500GB PCIe M.2 2280 SSD Review

Storage/SSD by stefan @ 2020-07-10

The P2 offers performance improvements over the entry-level P1 regarding both reads and writes. At 50% fill, we could see a bit of performance drop due to less SLC cache left but will remain at very acceptable values for a TLC 3D NAND drive. Given the fact that the drive is also paired with a 5-year warranty, it is a good replacement product for the older SATA M.2 or 2.5’’ SSD in your laptop or desktop and comes at a very affordable price point.

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Packaging, A Closer Look

After reviewing the P1 drive from Crucial in both 500GB and 1TB flavors, it is time to look at the newer, P2 model, which has been accompanied by the P5 as well. The P2 SSD is currently available in 250GB and 500GB versions and hopefully higher capacity models will be available soon. As the P1 before it, the P2 is considered a mainstream SSD, is a PCIe 3.0 x4 drive utilizing the NVMe 1.3 protocol and the NAND packages used are of TLC kind. In terms of warranty, the P5 is listed to have five years and a TBW rating of 150.

 

The product is shipped in a similar compact cardboard packaging as the P1, highlighting the utilized bus but also the total storage capacity on the front:

 

 

 

On the back, Crucial informs the user regarding the software used for transferring data from the old HDD/SSD to this one, the fact that inside we will find an installation guide but also of the upgradeable firmware; some links with web resources are listed as well:

 

 

 

Inside the box, we will get to see the drive sitting secure inside a transparent plastic mold, but also a multi-language leaflet:

 

 

 

The leaflet is pretty straight-forward and instructs the user to check out the online resources:

 

 

 

The P2 frontal side of the PCB is covered by a large Crucial sticker, which also offers additional info such as the power rating, the form factor, the total storage capacity, the internal code name, serial number and factory firmware and more:

 

 

 

On the back, there are no other extra components:

 

 

 

After the removal of the sticker, we will discover another DRAMless solution, with four NAND packages and the controller:

 

 

 

The Phison PS5013-E13 controller does have support for 3D TLC, PCI-Express 3.0 x4 and uses four flash channels. The item is produced on a 28nm process at TSMC:

 

 

 

The Micron NX959 packages coding result as TLC 96-layer, each having available 128GB; the total of 500GB as listed on the package does result after over-provisioning and firmware are considered:

 

 

 

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