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Dell Touchscreen Laptop (64GB RAM, 2TB SSD) Drops by 74% Off, Making It the Cheapest 5-Star Computer
Product Reviews

Dell Touchscreen Laptop (64GB RAM, 2TB SSD) Drops by 74% Off, Making It the Cheapest 5-Star Computer

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A lot of us have jobs, studies, and hobbies that require a lot of oomph when it comes to computing power. It means that a low-level laptop just isn’t going to cut it, and that also means that we end up staring coldly at some seriously expensive bits of tech. It doesn’t have to be that way though, not if you know where to look for really good deals.

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We’ve found one such deal today. Thanks to a massive discount on Amazon, you can currently get your hands on the Dell Inspiron 15 3530 touchscreen laptop with a preposterous 74% off. That means it’s down to $1,006 right now, instead of the listed price of $3,800.

Do It On The Go

Let’s go through all of the specs for this mighty laptop. We’ll kick off with the internals: an Intel 10 i7-1355U processor, an immense 64 GB RAM, and a 2TB SSD. That’s enough to make sure you can run more or less anything you could want to, and it’ll run like butter. Well, it’ll be as smooth as butter, butter isn’t actually very good at running, nor do we suggest you put butter on this or any other laptop. Seriously though, 64GB of RAM is a truly absurd amount, and it’ll make sure this laptop can handle multitasking with no drawbacks whatsoever. The 2TB SSD is both massive and fast as well, so there’ll be no problems storing videos, projects, or anything else on it.

The screen is no slouch either. The 15.6-inch screen is fully HD, with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, beautiful colors, and anti-glare, which is basically essential if you’re going to be using this while commuting. It’s just got everything you need to be working or creating on the go, or to help you work around your home if you don’t have a PC there. It even comes with Windows 11 Professional and lifetime access to Microsoft Office Pro as well, which means you don’t have to worry about your professional software in the slightest.

All-in-all, this is a lot of tech squished into one incredibly portable laptop body, and it’s got stats that other laptops dream of. That’s a lot of power and value for just $1,006 (-74% off). Just remember that this deal isn’t going to stick around forever, so if you do want to get your hands on it, you’d better be quick to avoid the disappointment of narrowly missing out on this excellent opportunity.

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Acer Predator GM9000 2TB SSD
Product Reviews

Acer Predator GM9000 2TB SSD Review: The Bargain High-End PCIe 5.0 SSD

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Why you can trust Tom’s Hardware


Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

The Acer Predator GM9000 is another SSD from a company that has brought winners in the past, but also one that has never really stood out from the crowd. It comes as no surprise that the GM9000, a successor of sorts to the good-but-not-great Predator GM7000, is a bit of a niche drive in what is becoming a more crowded market segment. That sounds weird to say for high-end Gen 5 drives, but the launch of the Sandisk WD Black SN8100 and Samsung 9100 Pro – in addition to existing drives like the Crucial T705, promising hardware like the Micron 4600, and upcoming drives built on the Phison E28 SSD controller – means there may be more drives than demand. This counterintuitively gives the GM9000 a potential opening.

The Predator GM9000 doesn’t have to beat the new drives; it just has to match or beat the old ones at a lower price point. It also has the added advantage of being more power-efficient, which is a significant bonus for anyone who has held off on getting a Gen 5 drive due to thermal throttling concerns. It achieves this by using a new controller with tried-and-tested flash technology. If there is a “bargain” high-end PCIe 5.0 SSD, this is it. The design is likely to be copied by the usual suspects – Fikwot and Fanxiang are two that come to mind, but Acer has the advantage of brand awareness. Bigger rivals would be the Biwin Black Opal X570 Pro – Biwin is an OEM provider for Acer – and the Lexar NM1090 Pro.

Acer Predator GM9000 Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Product

1TB

2TB

4TB

Pricing

$170

$229

$445

Form Factor

M.2 2280 (SS)

M.2 2280 (SS)

M.2 2280 (SS)

Interface / Protocol

PCIe 5.0 x4NVMe 2.0

PCIe 5.0 x4NVMe 2.0

PCIe 5.0 x4NVMe 2.0

Controller

Silicon Motion SM2508

Silicon Motion SM2508

Silicon Motion SM2508

DRAM

LPDDR4

LPDDR4

LPDDR4

Flash Memory

Micron 232-Layer TLC

Micron 232-Layer TLC

Micron 232-Layer TLC

Sequential Read

14,000 MB/s

14,000 MB/s

14,000 MB/s

Sequential Write

10,500 MB/s

13,000 MB/s

13,000 MB/s

Random Read

1,600K

2,000K

2,000K

Random Write

1,600K

1,600K

1,600K

Security

N/A

N/A

N/A

Endurance (TBW)

800TB

1,600TB

3,200TB

Part Number

BL.9BWWR.129

BL.9BWWR.130

BL.9BWWR.131

Warranty

5-Year

5-Year

5-Year

The Acer Predator GM9000 is available at 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB. Sorry, no larger or smaller SKUs here. A drive at this performance level really needs 1TB to make it worthwhile, and 8TB remains a challenging capacity to reach. While the drive is not currently available in the States, the translated prices from Asia are around $170, $229, and $445. Prices are lower when translated from the UK and should be lower in the States when the drive arrives. This drive, or ones like it, will likely be available on Amazon and other resellers in due time. The prices should end up below the equivalent E26-based drive like the Corsair MP700 Pro SE.


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The drive can reach up to 14,000 / 13,000 MB/s for sequential reads and writes and up to 2,000K / 1,600K random read and write IOPS. These numbers are lower than the competition, including the Micron 4600 which has somewhat similar hardware. This is due to the GM9000 using last-generation flash. That’s not a huge deal as that’s the same flash used on all Phison E26-based drives and the GM9000’s controller is superior to the E26. So it’s just a matter of pricing the drive correctly.

Acer backs the drive with a 5-year, 800TB of writes per TB capacity warranty. The write endurance is about 33% more than the usual 600TB. It’s unlikely that you would surpass the baseline 600TB, but if TBW is something you look at, then the GM9000 does have a significant edge there at all capacities.

Acer Predator GM9000 Software and Accessories

Acer does not offer an SSD toolbox of any sort but it does have an OEM version of Acronis True Image for imaging, cloning, and backup. If looking for an alternative that’s still free, we recommend Clonezilla or MultiDrive. For general drive information, including health via S.M.A.R.T., we recommend CrystalDiskInfo.

Acer Predator GM9000: A Closer Look

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The Acer Predator GM9000 is a single-sided drive at all capacities, reaching a height of 2.50mm with its heat spreading label. This makes it suitable for use in laptops which gives it an edge over other drives in its class like the Crucial T705.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Removing the label, we can see it uses copper to help spread heat between the main components. The pressure points indicate it did have contact with the SSD controller, the DRAM memory, and the NAND flash packages. Equalizing heat in this manner works better than expected because the controller tends to be the hottest component and the one that will trigger thermal throttling. Spreading its heat to the DRAM and especially the NAND flash packages is an easy way to gain more thermal headroom. This is especially useful for laptops, which tend to lack sufficient clearance for traditional heatsinks.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The GM9000 uses the SMI SM2508 SSD controller with LPDDR4 DRAM memory and 232-Layer TLC flash from Micron. For more information on the controller, see our preview. In brief, this controller is exceptionally power-efficient compared to previous high-end Gen 5 SSD options. As for the DRAM, using LPDDR4 could reduce power consumption to a small degree. The flash is an interesting choice as it’s older than what’s used on the Micron 4600, so it should be less performant. However, this drive is still very powerful, and if it can match or beat E26 and IG5666 drives in price, then it’s an excellent alternative. Being actually usable on a laptop is also a nice bonus over those two options, too.

MORE: Best SSDs

MORE: Best External SSDs

MORE: Best SSD for the Steam Deck



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Phison E28 2TB SSD
Product Reviews

Phison E28 2TB SSD Review: A return for vengeance

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Why you can trust Tom’s Hardware


Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

The Sandisk WD Black SN8100 recently sent shockwaves through the enthusiast SSD space with its exceptional performance and power efficiency, cementing SMI’s platform as a serious competitor for the coveted Best SSD crown. Phison is not one to rest on its prior laurels, though, and has worked diligently to one-up the competition with a class-defining storage solution of its own. Today we see the results with the E26’s proper successor, the E28 SSD reference design.

If there is one thing that’s held back adoption of high-end PCIe 5.0 SSDs, it has been lackluster power efficiency. The first wave of these SSDs required a heatsink for proper operation and had a power draw that made things tricky on any platform, considering idle power consumption was also high. The SMI SM2508 and Phison E31T brought the first signs last year that this would eventually be solved, but it was the Micron 4600 and, finally, the WD Black SN8100, that really took this message home. Now you could have your cake and eat it, too.

The E28 takes lessons learned from the E26 and improves on that controller in almost every way. Better performance and higher power efficiency combine to make a fantastic drive that will help lead the way for the next generation of SSDs. Faster and denser flash is needed for less-expensive, more-capacious drives, but the E28 delivers the best solution on the market for the technology available today. Even the flash – which is also found on the WD Black SN8100 – brings improvements for random 4K performance, making for an all-around stellar package. This is an exciting product that brings welcome competition to an evolving market segment.


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Phison E28 specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Product

1TB

2TB

4TB

8TB

Pricing

N/A

N/A

N/A

Row 0 – Cell 4

Form Factor

M.2 2280

M.2 2280

M.2 2280

N/A

Interface / Protocol

NVMe 2.0

NVMe 2.0

NVMe 2.0

M.2 2280

Controller

Phison E28

Phison E28

Phison E28

NVMe 2.0

DRAM

LPDDR4X

LPDDR4X

LPDDR4X

Phison E28

Flash Memory

Kioxia/Sandisk 218-Layer TLC (BiCS8)

Kioxia/Sandisk 218-Layer TLC (BiCS8)

Kioxia/Sandisk 218-Layer TLC (BiCS8)

LPDDR4X

Sequential Read

Up to 14.9 GB/s

Up to 14.9 GB/s

Up to 14.9 GB/s

Kioxia/Sandisk 218-Layer TLC (BiCS8)

Sequential Write

Up to 14.0 GB/s

Up to 14.0 GB/s

Up to 14.0 GB/s

Up to 14.9 GB/s

Random Read

Up to 2.6M

Up to 2.6M

Up to 2.6M

Up to 14.0 GB/s

Random Write

Up to 3.0M

Up to 3.0M

Up to 3.0M

Up to 2.6M

Security

TCG Opal 2.01 (opt)

TCG Opal 2.01 (opt)

TCG Opal 2.01 (opt)

Up to 3.0M

Endurance (TBW)

N/A

N/A

N/A

TCG Opal 2.01 (opt)

Part Number

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Warranty

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

The Phison E28 is destined to come to the market for all capacities between 1TB and 8TB. Smaller capacities – even 1TB – don’t make sense at this level of performance, given how dense NAND flash is getting. 2TB probably remains the sweet spot with some creep into 4TB. 8TB remains elusive and tough to hit, but for many enthusiasts, that is the bare minimum expected for a flagship SSD platform. We’ll have to wait and see on that one. The sample we tested has no pricing, but we would expect something comparable to the Sandisk WD Black SN8100 MSRPs.

The Phison E28 can hit up to 14.9 GB/s or more for sequential reads and up to 14.0 GB/s for sequential writes. For random reads and writes, up to 2,600K / 3,000K IOPS are attainable. Actual performance will depend on your platform. Out of the box, the controller supports TCG Pyrite, which is software encryption, but TCG Opal support with hardware encryption should be an available feature.

Phison E28: a closer look

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Aside from the presence of two debugging connectors, the first thing that should catch your attention is the fact that this is a single-sided drive. That’s nothing new for 2TB, but this configuration should hold for 4TB as well. 8TB will have to be double-sided due to the amount of 1Tb dies that are needed. Otherwise, this looks like a pretty normal drive with an SSD controller, a package of DRAM for metadata caching, and two NAND flash packages.

The controller is the most interesting part, as we’ve seen this flash before. The Phison E28 is the successor to the Phison E26 – which at the time of its release (in early 2024) was the first real PCIe 5.0 SSD platform available, and one that would be the first to really push the interface in terms of bandwidth. The E28 follows in the footsteps of Phison’s E31T, a more budget-oriented controller that brought very good power efficiency due to its 7nm design. However, Phison was soon upstaged by Silicon Motion with its SM2508, a 6nm design that has had great results first with the Micron 4600 and later with the WD Black SN8100. The latter is paired with the same flash as our E28 engineering sample today, and it achieved fantastic power efficiency – but perhaps Phison can do better with its own 6nm platform.

Usually, we go into some depth about the controller technology, but we might leave some of that for retail reviews. We will say that the Phison E28 is very similar to the E26, but has a lot more headroom thanks to the process node shrink from 12nm to 6nm. This allows for potentially more performance with significantly better power efficiency. This is aided by the use of BiCS8 flash, and there are differences between Micron’s 276-Layer TLC in the 4600 and BiCS8 in the SN8100. Generally, the SN8100 has lower latency and better power efficiency. We’ll see how that works out for Phison, noting that variations of this platform will also be used for enterprise and AI, which would require careful balancing.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The E28 is using LPDDR4X for metadata caching, a good choice to reduce power consumption a little bit. We noted that the WD Black SN8100 was using DDR4, instead, in its review. This isn’t a huge difference, but is still noteworthy. As for the flash, we’ve already mentioned this is using 218-Layer BiCS8 TLC. This flash is made by both Kioxia (once known as Toshiba) and Sandisk, which was recently spun off from its parent, Western Digital. We only mention this because this is an engineering sample and the E28’s performance characteristics should be improved by the time of retail launch, through firmware optimization for the flash if nothing else.

MORE: Best SSDs

MORE: Best External SSDs

MORE: Best SSD for the Steam Deck



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It's Not Free Yet, but This 15" HP Laptop (Core i3, 2TB SSD, 64GB RAM) Is $2,300 Off on Amazon
Product Reviews

It’s Not Free Yet, but This 15″ HP Laptop (Core i3, 2TB SSD, 64GB RAM) Is $2,300 Off on Amazon

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When it comes to laptops, there’s a model for every type of user – students, professionals and everyone in between. At the moment, Amazon is putting on an amazing sale on a model that meets all requirements: HP 15.6-inch touchscreen laptop (Intel Core i3, 2TB SSD, 64GB RAM) which is currently available at an all-time low price: This powerhouse of a machine (suited for any type of user) which normally costs $2,769, is now available for just $769 which is a 72% discount. This is one of our favorite laptop deals since the beginning of the year, and it matches previous deals seen during Black Friday.

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For less than $800, you get a machine running on Windows 11 Pro that would otherwise retail for several thousand and that is without considering the lifetime subscription for Microsoft Office Pro that is thrown in. You’ll also get a free 7-in-1 USB-A adapter, a mouse, a mobile phone magnetic holder and a 128GB USB stick. Basically, you get $299 of accessories for free.

Great Specs For a Laptop

The HP 15.6 touchscreen notebook runs on a Intel i3-1315U processor that can run at speeds of up to 4.5 GHz, and is complemented by a massive 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD. These are some of the most robust specs of any Windows notebooks on the market and it’s particularly suited for content creators, coders and anyone who requires multitasking.

The 15.6-inch FHD touchscreen provides accurate and multi-finger gestures and smooth navigation for intuitive control and interaction with your work or entertainment in a natural manner (you don’t have to use it if you’re not a huge fan of touchscreens). The screen has a high-brightness backlight and high-contrast technology to provide true-to-life colors and clear visuals in any environment. This renders the laptop an ideal tool for mobile office use, creative work, or merely viewing high-definition media.

You will also appreciate the audio part: The two speakers with specially tuned sound provide excellent stereo sound while Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 provide ultra-stable and speedy wireless connectivity with less delay. These are especially useful for streaming, video calling, and online collaboration. For extra peace of mind, the laptop has a physical camera shutter and microphone mute button as well as an LED light to give users security reassurance.

Make sure you grab yours before it runs out of stock.

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Kioxia BiCS FLASH
Gaming Gear

New Kioxia 332-layer NAND tops out at 2Tb, bigger SSDs planned without the need for PLC

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  • Kioxia’s 332-layer NAND delivers 2Tb without using PLC tech
  • Japanese flash giant is focusing on performance and capacity through dual-axis development approach
  • Hints are that it can deliver even larger capacity SSDs, as part of “Gen X”

Kioxia has revealed via updated roadmap materials that its upcoming 332-layer NAND chip – part of its 10th generation BiCS FLASH – will offer 2Tb of capacity per die.

While this may seem small compared to expectations, the Japanese flash memory specialist has hinted that it can deliver even larger capacity SSDs, as part of Gen X, without resorting to Penta-Level Cell (PLC) technology.

The roadmap slides, published by TechPowerUp, were shared as part of Kioxia’s long-term corporate strategy.


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Dual-axis strategy

The 332-layer chip, which is currently under development, is part of what Kioxia calls its “dual-axis strategy” for NAND. This strategy splits development into two paths: the first focusing on increasing layer count for higher capacity and the second improving performance via Charge-Based Architecture (CBA).

CBA connects the CMOS circuitry directly to the memory array, helping to increase bandwidth, reduce latency, and lower power consumption.

Kioxia says this approach allows it to boost density without sacrificing the endurance and reliability associated with having fewer bits per cell.

Kioxia’s roadmap doesn’t discuss the company’s plans for PLC, even though other competitors are beginning to explore that direction. Kioxia instead appears to be doubling down on process improvements and new controller designs to meet market demands.

The company’s recent focus has been on two SSD families: the CM9 series, which emphasizes high-performance for AI applications, and the LC9 series, which targets large capacity and currently offers up to 122TB capacity.

Both products are based on Kioxia’s 8th generation BiCS FLASH, which introduced CBA and supports energy-efficient, high-throughput workloads.

Kioxia also revealed a high-IOPS SSD that it has developed using its XL-Flash SLC technology. This SSD is expected to exceed 10 million IOPS and sample in the second half of 2026.

(Image credit: Kioxia)

(Image credit: Kioxia)

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