Kingston NV1 is an entry-level M.2 NVMe SSD that comes at extremely tempting pricing of just $85 for the 1 TB version. Read all about it in our detailed performance review of the 1 TB variant. After our testing, when we peeled the label for component photography, we discovered that our drive combined a Silicon Motion SM2263XT DRAM-less controller, with 96-layer QLC NAND flash by Micron Technology. This went against every other review of the NV1 we read so far, which points to a combination of a Phison E13T series controller, with either TLC or QLC NAND flash, depending on the drive capacity. This makes our review probably the first instance of an SMI+QLC combination.
We did some digging, and are drawn to the origins of the NV1. Launched in March 2021, the drive adopts a strategy by Kingston to only advertise the performance and endurance numbers that are possible with any drive hardware combination. An AnandTech article from the time references how the drive, much like the A400 SATA SSD, comes in a number of controller+flash combinations. These include the SMI SM2263XT, or Phison E13T; and NAND that’s either TLC or QLC. This uncertainty in hardware specs means that when you to go shop for an NV1, you can only expect the worst (i.e. QLC flash).
Update Dec 30th: As one of our readers pointed out, you can identify the Phison and SMI versions of the NV1 without breaking the package. This is illustrated in the second picture below, just look for the shiny controller (SM2263XT) or the capacitor arrangement (Phison E13T). Pictures on shop websites will probably not reflect this as most will either use a stock image provided by Kingston, or shoot the photo once and never update it.
