Lexar PLAY 2280, M.2

This drive is of course specially designed for the PlayStation 5 and if you are using it for that you are going to be quite happy with its performance. First with sequential read and write speeds of 7000 MB/s read and 6000 MB/s write you are going to be very happy with your game load times, especially considering the PlayStation 5 is capped at 6300 MB/s anyways. On top of that you are going to get the integrated heatsink, which does keep the temperatures of the InnoGrit IG5236 controller in check.

The Play 2280 line of Gen4 SSDs is basically identical to the NM790 line again by Lexar so if you thought their performance is very similar, you’re correct. The main difference these lines have is the addition of the 10mm thick heatspreader which also helps reduce thermal throttling almost entirely so that’s very good news for demanding users. That being said just like the NM790 line the Play 2280 line is not the fastest around and well, even though that would be fine, and all both lines are fast enough already. Now since I am not particularly fond of consoles (if we exclude some early Atari models back in the late 80’s I never was) I don’t own an PS5 so I was unable to see if the Play 2280 does fit in there but that too is a good feature for this drive (I have seen colleagues install it in PS5s). The latest DiskMaster software by Lexar is a step up from their previous one so no complaints from me here. Finally having the option of 8TB is something I hope more manufacturers will follow through as well. With a current retail price tag set at USD279.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 395.96Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Play 2280 4TB Gen4 SSD by Lexar is priced well, on the other side of the Atlantic that is. Leaving out price there’s not much I can say about the Play 2280 4TB, it’s very fast (for a DRAM-less drive), durability is set at high levels, it’s also available at 8TB and is covered by a 5-year limited warranty so the Golden Award is in order.