UPDATES: 3/22: A Samsung spokesperson got in touch to point out that the Magician software will display the word “Genuine” to the right of the SSD’s serial number if it’s genuine. The images shared on the Baidu Tieba forums clearly show there is no “Genuine” printed next to the serial number for this counterfeit 980 Pro. The Magician software will apparently also “decline to manage uncertified drives.”
Anyone opting to purchase a Samsung SSD should therefore look to use the Magician software to help verify the drive is legitimate.
Original Story:
Counterfeit versions of Samsung’s popular 980 Pro M.2 SSD have started appearing for sale, and it’s difficult to tell they aren’t the real thing.
As Tom’s Hardware reports(Opens in a new window)a Chinese user posted images(Opens in a new window) on the Baidu Tieba forums of a recently purchased 2TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD. It arrived in official Samsung packaging, had the correct Samsung label attached to the SSD, and the firmware also looked legitimate on first inspection. Even Samsung’s own Magician SSD management software detected the drive as the real thing.
The counterfeit drive with genuine Samsung sticker attached. (Credit: Baidu Tieba)
It wasn’t until the user started testing the drive that suspicions were raised. The real 980 Pro drives are capable of achieving 7,000MB/s read speeds and 5,100MB/s writes. This drive only managed 4,200MB/s and 3,900MB/s respectively.
That led the buyer to remove the Samsung sticker attached to the M.2 SSD to reveal the non-genuine parts. This fake 980 Pro uses a Maxio MAP1602A PCIe 4.0 SSD controller manufactured using TSMC’s 12nm process and 128-layer TLC 3D V-NAND chips from Chinese manufacturer YMTC. The real drives use Samsung’s own 128-layer V-NAND chips and an 8nm Samsung Elpis controller.
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These counterfeit Samsung SSDs are being sold on the second-hand market in China through Taobao’s Xianyu marketplace, and they typically carry a price around $40 less than the genuine 980 Pro drive listings. The use of official packaging and the fact they look genuine when opened means many buyers probably don’t realize they are now using a counterfeit drive in their PCs.
Even though Samsung is producing a 990 Pro series of drives now, the 980 Pro continues to be popular because it works as well as an SSD for the PS5. However, anyone installing one of these counterfeit drives in their PS5 is in for a shock—they simply aren’t fast enough for Sony’s games console.
SSDs vs. HDD: What’s the Difference?
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