Plextor has updated its SSD lineup with something new: the M5S. It's based on the same Marvell 88SS9174 controller as Plextor's M3 and M3 Pro, which we've been quite pleased with. While the M3 and M3 Pro shared the exactly same hardware, the M5S introduces some changes. Instead of the Toshiba 24nm Toggle-Mode MLC NAND we found inside the M3/M3 Pro, the M5S uses Micron's 25nm synchronous MLC NAND. Warranty has also been dropped from 5 years to 3 years, and there is no additional clone/backup utility or 2.5" to 3.5" adapter included. 

Performance is mostly unchanged from the M3. Only the 64GB model has noticeable decreases in performance as the 64GB M3 provided 175MB/s sequentials and 40K random write IOPS. The difference is likely due to the slower NAND interface (166MB/s per Micron device vs. up to 400MB/s for the Toggle 2.0 devices). Bigger capacities have more NAND on the board, lessening the impact on overall performance. 

Availability should be immediate but at least NewEgg and Amazon are not listing the M5S yet. Hence we only have MSRPs to list, but expect the street prices to be slightly lower.

Our M5S review sample should be here any minute (it's scheduled for delivery today) and I'll start working on the review as soon as I get the drive. Stay tuned!

Source: Plextor