Teamgroup MP44S: A Compact Solution for Portable Gaming
The Teamgroup MP44S is a solid option for those looking to upgrade the storage on their portable gaming devices, be it a Steam Deck, ROG Ally, or other ultra-compact PC. It’s a bit of a tight fit, however, with its 2230 form factor and single-sided design, but the Phison E21T controller and Micron QLC NAND flash are up to the task.
At first glance, the Teamgroup MP44S might look like a solid performer for gaming desktops, but its compact size actually restricts its capacities. Nevertheless, the storage solution is a good compromise for the Steam Deck, offering a more affordable alternative to TLC drives.
It’s also worth noting that other QLC drives at 1TB offer more capacity than the MP44S, but they tend to have more dies. Regardless, the SSD still performs well thanks to the fast Phison E21T controller and Micron’s 176-Layer QLC flash.
In fact, it’s almost as fast as its larger capacity siblings, the EM6930 and EM6940, which use SLC cache to boost their speeds. The MP44S also comes with good random read and write speeds, which are rated at up to 480K IOPS and 500K IOPS respectively.
These endurance ratings are also important to consider, given that the drive comes with a five-year warranty. A 1TB drive with 250TB of endurance is good for up to 2040TB of writes, while the 2TB variant with 450TB is good for up to 3900TB.
As for the speeds, the MP44S offers sequential read and write speeds of up to 5,000 MB/s and 3,500 MB/s respectively. These are good numbers for a 1TB drive, but the EM6930 and EM6940 are rated at 5,500 MB/s and 5,000 MB/s respectively for the same capacity.
Nevertheless, the MP44S is still faster than most portable SSDs on the market, including the Addlink S91.
