Doing some reading on the source, it seems like Sony is expecting consumers to use this as a system drive. It seems better for them if they also sell a USB 3.1 external drive based on this SSD.
Not yet, but they are about to release a new lens lineup (G Master) that is clearly positioning them to take advantage of extremely high megapixel sensors in the very near future. They've already put the first 100 megapixel sensor into a camera (Phase) and they've shown signs of higher and higher bitrate video products coming to market sooner rather than later. All of this could be a way of positioning themselves in a market they are about to solely cater to. At least, I wouldn't be surprised if they made something with the ability to hot swap SSD's like we do memory cards right now.
Why? Do they have excess production lines sitting around and thought this would be a good experiment? Or are they going the ODM route and sending the Sony logo off to a random Chinese factory to churn out some prefab units? Could of at least jazzed up the packaging a little...
They're Phison drives, so it's almost certainly just a custom case around the same PCB that can be had from many other brands. Phison has made the barrier to entry almost too low; anybody with a solid brand can start selling Phison drives and be guaranteed at least a few sales from loyal customers, even if there's nothing to differentiate the product other than the logo and some intangible feelings about the probability of good customer support.
Even the chassis design is identical to other Phison-based drives. It's a design unique to Phison, so I'm pretty sure it's Phison who's printing the Sony logo on these drives.
My guess is that these will be targeted toward PS4 use, the premise being to reduce game loading times or similar. They will silkscreen on the PS logo below Sony and charge 2x the going rate.
The Sony (audio) CD Rootkit debacle of 2005 was the first mass market rootkit scandal; with a level of outrage that dwarfed the Lenovo Superfish scandal. (Partly because it was the first one, partly because putting it on audio CDs meant that the exposure risk was much wider, and partly because it was impossible to patch infected CDs.) Many people intend to carry their grudge to Sony's grave. Those people are known as the more forgiving consumers.
Yeah - seriously that was only 10 years ago, and was a huge issue for a lot of people. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.. or be compromised by it...
" Nowadays solid-state drives are not as cheap as HDDs..."
Not PATENTLY false. But practically? False. If you include refurbs, and ridiculously old and low capacity points, you can get both under $20. HDDs even under $10. But if we're talking about CURRENT generation gear, implied by the "nowadays", we have reached parity. You can get the entry level of either technology for around $40. Of this generation (1Q 2016), that is a 120GB SSD, or a 500GB HDD.
Some wise-guy may be quick to object, "But we're talking about GB/$!" And actually, we are not. We are talking about "$", and assuming the rest of the bullet points are "good enough". Here comes the obligatory car analogy:
The quote is akin to saying "Nowadays sports cars are not as cheap as trucks". That statement doesn't make sense without a specific context. Why is someone considering this comparison in the first place? Do they even need the storage that a truck provides? If not, making the argument that you get "more cubit feet of storage per dollar with a truck" is a moot point.
120GB has become "good enough" for the majority of computer users. 500GB HDD users rarely ever use even half their HDD capacity. Yet the price points for either of this products are around the same now. Thus, for practical purposes, the quote from the article is false.
that's true, where I live a decent and big enough SSD for a notebook (2.5", 250GB) costs about the same as a decent HDD (2.5", 1TB, 7200 RPM). A 2.5" 500 GB SSD can be had for about the same price as a decent 2.5" 2TB 5400 RPM drive .
actually it does make sense because it's implied that they are about the main function. for ssd and hdd that's storage so cheap is relative to storage. sports cars and trucks are to get somewhere and it's not price per mph because they effectively do the same basic functionality.
I'd guess Sony bought the components (flash, controllers) with plans to slap them in their devices (TVs, consoles, cameras etc) and it was only a few dollars more to package them up and sell them as standalone devices as well. Why not if you already have all the bits and the contracts?
TV's, home entertainment and cameras are devices that are becoming increasingly computer-like yet still don't have much in the way of built in storage. Those that do (consoles) use hard drives but direly need flash.
Can no one else picture a home TV with 64/128/256GB built in storage (a metric that is now synonymous with a sharp increase in value thanks to smartphones).
i have a old led sony tv from 2013, that thing looks great but sounds bad and has lots of issues, i almost returned it but was more a problem to return it tha to buy another, i have a ps3 and it works perfectly, is a love and hate relationship with sony, they make some really good devices and then, you buy something else from them and is crap, personaly i wont buy another tv from them but other things are tempting, like that 240 ssd from sony, to put it on the ps3 an play gta v to get faster load times online but surely it will be very expensive so better buy a corsair that will be cheaper and surely good quality too
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
35 Comments
Back to Article
edzieba - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Do any of Sony's professional/prosumer cameras use 2.5" SATA drives as storage? If so, a branded SSD makes a lot more sense as a product.zodiacfml - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Doing some reading on the source, it seems like Sony is expecting consumers to use this as a system drive. It seems better for them if they also sell a USB 3.1 external drive based on this SSD.extide - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Those type of products actually typically use PCIe based flash. Stuff like CFast, or XQD, or a Sony proprietary format that encapsulates it.vFunct - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Fast doesn't use PCIe - its still SATA based. XQD does, tho.damianrobertjones - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
tho?Oh slang! My bad, dog.
lazarpandar - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
..Are you trying to shame him for using slang on the internet lolwussupi83 - Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - link
Made me LOL - so true.ddriver - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
It always makes sense when you can do nothing more than slap your logo on something and make some money for it.Kyle Andrew Photography - Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - link
Not yet, but they are about to release a new lens lineup (G Master) that is clearly positioning them to take advantage of extremely high megapixel sensors in the very near future. They've already put the first 100 megapixel sensor into a camera (Phase) and they've shown signs of higher and higher bitrate video products coming to market sooner rather than later. All of this could be a way of positioning themselves in a market they are about to solely cater to. At least, I wouldn't be surprised if they made something with the ability to hot swap SSD's like we do memory cards right now.megadirk - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
The source link just takes you back to this page.Ian Cutress - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Should be fixed now!Gunbuster - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Why? Do they have excess production lines sitting around and thought this would be a good experiment? Or are they going the ODM route and sending the Sony logo off to a random Chinese factory to churn out some prefab units? Could of at least jazzed up the packaging a little...nathanddrews - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Sony branding is still worth something to some people. I don't dislike their products.Billy Tallis - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
They're Phison drives, so it's almost certainly just a custom case around the same PCB that can be had from many other brands. Phison has made the barrier to entry almost too low; anybody with a solid brand can start selling Phison drives and be guaranteed at least a few sales from loyal customers, even if there's nothing to differentiate the product other than the logo and some intangible feelings about the probability of good customer support.Kristian Vättö - Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - link
Even the chassis design is identical to other Phison-based drives. It's a design unique to Phison, so I'm pretty sure it's Phison who's printing the Sony logo on these drives.AlexFeren - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
Perhaps some cross-licensing deal - likely, Phison wanted something from Sony.Denithor - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
My guess is that these will be targeted toward PS4 use, the premise being to reduce game loading times or similar. They will silkscreen on the PS logo below Sony and charge 2x the going rate.bill.rookard - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Rootkit pre-installed? Lol.Wolfpup - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Eh? That's Lenovo that's got the (multiple as it turns out, evne Firmware based) rootkits.Samus - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
He is right, Sony was behind the first mainstream distributed rootkit in the form of DRM.DanNeely - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Kids these days...The Sony (audio) CD Rootkit debacle of 2005 was the first mass market rootkit scandal; with a level of outrage that dwarfed the Lenovo Superfish scandal. (Partly because it was the first one, partly because putting it on audio CDs meant that the exposure risk was much wider, and partly because it was impossible to patch infected CDs.) Many people intend to carry their grudge to Sony's grave. Those people are known as the more forgiving consumers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protec...
bill.rookard - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Yeah - seriously that was only 10 years ago, and was a huge issue for a lot of people. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.. or be compromised by it...Lezmaka - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
The only reason I clicked on this article was to make sure this joke was made at least once :)MacGyver85 - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
Am I the only one that reads "SLW-M Series" as the "SLOW-M Series"?Judging by its hardware it just might bear the correct name.
Gothmoth - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
sony has no chance making a profit in the SSD market.Coup27 - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
As much as I love Sony I really can't see the logic behind this move.Gothmoth - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
they abandonded LCD screens, laptops and now they enter the SSD market?WTF....
good i have sold all my sony shares years ago...
Gothmoth - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
wtf... sony dropped out of LCD, laptop production.... now they start making SSD´s?good i sold all my sony shares years ago.
a snowball in hell has a bigger chance making a profit in the SSD market.
nwarawa - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
" Nowadays solid-state drives are not as cheap as HDDs..."Not PATENTLY false. But practically? False. If you include refurbs, and ridiculously old and low capacity points, you can get both under $20. HDDs even under $10. But if we're talking about CURRENT generation gear, implied by the "nowadays", we have reached parity. You can get the entry level of either technology for around $40. Of this generation (1Q 2016), that is a 120GB SSD, or a 500GB HDD.
Some wise-guy may be quick to object, "But we're talking about GB/$!" And actually, we are not. We are talking about "$", and assuming the rest of the bullet points are "good enough". Here comes the obligatory car analogy:
The quote is akin to saying "Nowadays sports cars are not as cheap as trucks". That statement doesn't make sense without a specific context. Why is someone considering this comparison in the first place? Do they even need the storage that a truck provides? If not, making the argument that you get "more cubit feet of storage per dollar with a truck" is a moot point.
120GB has become "good enough" for the majority of computer users. 500GB HDD users rarely ever use even half their HDD capacity. Yet the price points for either of this products are around the same now. Thus, for practical purposes, the quote from the article is false.
rxzlmn - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
that's true, where I live a decent and big enough SSD for a notebook (2.5", 250GB) costs about the same as a decent HDD (2.5", 1TB, 7200 RPM). A 2.5" 500 GB SSD can be had for about the same price as a decent 2.5" 2TB 5400 RPM drive .bobhays - Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - link
actually it does make sense because it's implied that they are about the main function. for ssd and hdd that's storage so cheap is relative to storage. sports cars and trucks are to get somewhere and it's not price per mph because they effectively do the same basic functionality.Danvelopment - Monday, February 8, 2016 - link
I'd guess Sony bought the components (flash, controllers) with plans to slap them in their devices (TVs, consoles, cameras etc) and it was only a few dollars more to package them up and sell them as standalone devices as well. Why not if you already have all the bits and the contracts?TV's, home entertainment and cameras are devices that are becoming increasingly computer-like yet still don't have much in the way of built in storage. Those that do (consoles) use hard drives but direly need flash.
Can no one else picture a home TV with 64/128/256GB built in storage (a metric that is now synonymous with a sharp increase in value thanks to smartphones).
bronan - Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - link
Nothing what is called sony comes in my house ever.fert6 - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
i have a old led sony tv from 2013, that thing looks great but sounds bad and has lots of issues, i almost returned it but was more a problem to return it tha to buy another, i have a ps3 and it works perfectly, is a love and hate relationship with sony, they make some really good devices and then, you buy something else from them and is crap, personaly i wont buy another tv from them but other things are tempting, like that 240 ssd from sony, to put it on the ps3 an play gta v to get faster load times online but surely it will be very expensive so better buy a corsair that will be cheaper and surely good quality tooLarsBars - Monday, February 22, 2016 - link
Sony should not have chosen a name that so closely resembles the word "SLOW"