Types of Laptop Storage: SSD vs HDD vs eMMC

Gadgets

By Editor February 16, 2021

It is important to understand the types of storage media built into a laptop as it ultimately affects its overall performance, storage capacity and pricing. Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid-State Drive (SDD) and embedded MultiMedia Card (eMMC) are the 3 main types of storage media used in laptops today.

In this article, we’ll be walking you through the key differences between these storage media. By the end of this article, you’ll know how to pick a storage media that best fits your needs.

3 Most Common Storage Drives

1. Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

A HDD, which is short for hard disk drive, is now considered a legacy internal storage device for laptops. As seen in the diagram above, a HDD is made up of many mechanical parts which is used to read and write data. With many mechanical parts involved, a HDD is considerately more fragile and less effective.

HDDs were the most popular storage device for laptops prior to the introduction of SDDs. Though HDDs are slowly phasing out, they are still fairly commonly found in low and mid-tier laptops. It is also common to find both HDDs and SSDs present in a laptop.

2. Solid-State Drive (SDD)

As the name suggests, a Solid-State Drive (SSD) stores information in microchips instead of having it written by a mechanical arm as seen in a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). To put it simply, an SSD is like a larger and slightly more sophisticated USB stick.

Thanks to not having any mechanical parts involved, an SSD outperforms a HDD in speed, size and durability. Although SSDs have been around for several decades, it has only become more readily available in the market in recent years. With economies of scale in play, SSDs have become a lot more affordable and continue to dominate the market as the preferred storage device for laptops.

There are 2 main types of SSDs: SATA SSD and NVMe SSD. The key difference between the two is the interface protocol it uses. NVMe SSD works with PCI Express (PCI-e) which allows for even quicker transfer of data.

3. Embedded Multimedia Card (eMMC)

An Embedded Multimedia Card (eMMC) is embedded directly onto the motherboard thus its name. An eMMC is most commonly found in phones and tablets but occasionally also found in low-tier laptops such as chromebooks.

While eMMCs outperforms HDDs in terms of read and write speed, an eMMC is still inferior to an SSD. Aside from that, an eMMC only provides a minimal storage support of 64GB or 128GB. Nevertheless, eMMCs are the smallest in size amongst the 3 types of storage, making it great for producing cheap and lightweight laptops.

Which is better?

With a better understanding of the different types of storage, we can easily conclude that a laptop with an SSD would be the best option for speed and reliability. Nevertheless, if you find yourself under a budget constraint, you may consider the following:

1. Opt for a laptop with hybrid storage / dual storage option.

Laptops such as the Acer Extensa 15 and Asus Vivobook offers dual-storage option. With this, users can opt for a low storage capacity SSD and complement it with a high storage capacity HDD. The SSD will mainly be used for booting the operating system and frequently used applications while the HDD will be used to store all long-term media files like videos, photos and other documents.

2. Leveraging on external storage devices.

With USB 3.0 being available on most laptops today, there is always the option to opt for a lower built-in SSD and purchase an external SSD or HDD at a later time. USB 3.0 supports read and write speed of up to 600 MB/s which is close to the max speed of a typical SATA SSD. As such, users will not have any issues running most games directly from an external SSD. A great budget external SSD to consider would be Samsung 860 Evo

To conclude this article on the different types of laptop storage, we’ve included a comparison table between SSDs and HDDs that you may refer to.

Attribute	SSD (Solid State Drive)	HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
Battery Life/Power Draw	Utilizes an average of 2-3 watts	Utilizes an average of 6-7 watts
Cost	~ MYR 0.52/GB for a 1TB drive	~ MYR 0.18/GB for a 1TB drive
Capacity	Capped at 1TB for notebooks	Capped 2 TB for notebooks
Operating System Boot-Time	Average boot time of 10-13 seconds	Average boot time of 30-40 seconds
Noise	No sound produced because of the lack of moving parts	Spinning and clicks are audible and can be heard
Vibration	No vibration produced as there are no moving parts	Vibrations are produced because of the platters’ spinning
Heat Produced	Lack of moving parts and low power draw equals less heat	High power draw and the presence of moving parts mean more heat production than SSD
Write Speed/File Copy	SSD Sata: ~ 500MB/s SSD NVMe: ~ 3000MB/s	50 MB/s to up to 120 MB/s
Effect of Magnetism	Safe from magnetism effects	Data can be erased by magnets

LAVA myZ: World’s first customizable phone

Gadgets

By Editor February 15, 2021

PriceShop - Lava myZ - World's first customizable phone

Quick Summary:

Lava Mobile has launched a new line up smartphone series – myZ. The world’s first customisable phone.
The core specs of the phone include a MediaTek Helio G35 octa-core processor, a 6.5-inch HD+ display and a large 5000 mAh battery.

LAVA Mobiles recently launched the world’s first customisable smartphone. The newly launched myZ series allows customers to customize the phone specifications based on personal requirements.

The price of the phone ranges between ₹6,999 (MYR 388.95) to ₹10,699 (MYR 594.56). While this isn’t a modular phone where the processors or camera set can easily be detached and replaced, the myZ series does allow for further upgrades to customisable features.

For example, if a customer selected a 2GB ram, they can later upgrade to a 6GB ram for a minimal fee. Although there are over 60 customisations available, the processor, phone display and battery cannot be customized.

Let’s take a quick look at the customisable and core features of the myZ phone

Customizable Features:

Rear Camera	13MP+2MP / 13MP+5MP+2MP
Front Camera	8MP / 16MP
Ram	2GB / 3GB / 4GB / 6GB
Rom	32GB / 64GB / 128GB
Colour	Blue / Red

Source: https://myz.lavamobiles.com/

Core Features

Processor	2.3 GHz Octa core processor, Mediatek Helio G35
OS	Stock Android Go – 2GB Stock Android – 3GB, 4GB & 6GB
Display	6.517″, 20:9 Notch, HD+ IPS Display with 2.5D Curved Screen, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Battery	5000 mAh
Dimensions	164.5 mm75.8 mm9.0mm, 190g (with battery)
Other(s)	USB Type C, 3.5mm audio jack, Dual Sim (4G + 4G)

Final Thoughts

With this unique offering, customers will be able to save more by customizing to their specific needs. Furthermore, LAVA also hopes that this eliminates the device upgrade cycle. Rather than purchasing a new device, customers can simply upgrade the existing specs when needed.

While the Mediatek Helio G35 processor isn’t one that packs the most power, it is still a great option for low-end phones that are priced below RM500. It’ll still allow customers to run all day-to-day tasks and even run most of your favourite mobile games.

Unfortunately, LAVA devices are currently only available in India. Nevertheless, it has plans to expand its service(s) in the near future to other countries in the near future. Would you like a customisable phone like the LAVA myZ?