(Image credit: Future)
With storage in the best laptops, you’ve got two options: either it’s memory chips soldered directly onto the board (not upgradeable), or you have an SSD slot (upgradeable).The latter is better for repairability and boosting the storage after buying it, but to house that larger slot, it can compromise the size of the notebook and its internals (like a smaller battery).Lexar believes it has the answer, and it’s a Micro SSD named Play X: a world-first that shows what happens when you take all that storage tech, simplify the brains controlling it, and cram it all into something under half the size.And even better? Not only can you buy one yourself that's compatible with both M.2 2230 and 2280 slots, laptop makers are sampling it right now and you could see them appear in notebooks this fall/early 2027. Let me show you how it’s made, and everything else you need to know about it!How it’s made
(Image credit: Lexar)I got to visit LongForce in Suzhou, China, to see the fascinatingly complex process of building these micro SSDs, and to help, I need to start with telling you how your traditional SSD works.You’ve got the memory itself (the NAND chips), a DRAM cache that acts like a faster brain for key files you use a lot, and the memory controller that…well…controls things — what goes where, how fast, and making sure the thing doesn’t overheat.Now imagine all those components, but squished into something over half the size…pretty cool, right? And yes, smaller SSDs already exist, but there are two ways this is different:Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.The NAND chips, the controller and the power management brain (PMIC) are unified into one single module for a stable, streamlined chip.There's a theoretical 4TB of capacity in this mini drive (Play X will be sold at up to 2TB).
