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We always like to review Kioxia drives because they usually provide the perfect marriage of performance and reliability. We certainly wish they were more readily available in retail in the U.S., but we can still appreciate a good design when we see it. The Exceria Pro G2 continues in that lineage with all-new levels of performance you can only get with the newest hardware and a PCIe 5.0 interface. It’s like a Kingston Fury Renegade G5 made for OEMs, providing most of the performance you expect from this class of drive with reliability-minded firmware built in.
The important bit is that this drive still delivers what you’d expect. That means high performance, including sustained write performance, good power efficiency, and very low random read latency. These are the hallmarks of a drive that offers an excellent user experience. This is a very fast drive, just not the very fastest, but we make the argument that this is a deliberate trade-off for a drive with roots in an area where reliability is a bigger priority. For some, that might otherwise tip things in its favor. Regardless of your stance, though, its price in areas where it is available is competitive, and we can judge it by that.
Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 Specifications
Swipe to scroll horizontally Product 1TB (1024GB) 2TB (2048GB) 4TB (4096GB) Pricing ~$190 (excl. VAT) ~$340 (excl. VAT) ~$650 (excl. VAT) Form Factor M.2 2280-S3-M M.2 2280-S3-M M.2 2280-S4-M Interface / Protocol PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0d PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0d PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0d Controller Silicon Motion SM2508 Silicon Motion SM2508 Silicon Motion SM2508 DRAM Nanya LPDDR4 Nanya LPDDR4 Nanya LPDDR4 Memory Kioxia BiCS8 218-Layer TLC Kioxia BiCS8 218-Layer TLC Kioxia BiCS8 218-Layer TLC Sequential Read 14,400 MB/s 14,900 MB/s 14,900 MB/s Sequential Write 12,700 MB/s 13,400 MB/s 13,700 MB/s Random Read 2,000,000 IOPS 2,250,000 IOPS 2,300,000 IOPS Random Write 1,900,000 IOPS 1,950,000 IOPS 1,950,000 IOPS Endurance (TBW) 600TB 1,200TB 2,400TB Dimensions (LxWxH) 80.15 x 22.15 x 2.38 mm 80.15 x 22.15 x 2.38 mm 80.15 x 22.15 x 2.63 mm Power (Active) 9.6W 8.4W 8.5W Part Number LVE10Z1T02G8 LVE10Z2T04G8 LVE10Z4T09G8 Warranty 5-Year 5-Year 5-Year
The Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. These are the most popular capacities, with 8TB yet again out of reach due to rising prices. The drive can reach up to 14,900 / 13,700 MB/s and 2,300K / 1,950K random read and write IOPS at the highest capacity. Most of this performance is achievable at 2TB, which is likely the sweet spot.
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The drive has the usual five-year warranty with up to 600TB written per terabyte. Encryption support is not explicitly mentioned, and for a model in this line, we would expect TCG Pyrite and software encryption support only.
For pricing, we are making estimates based on pre-tax listings in the EU. Kioxia does not officially distribute the drive at U.S. retail, and the Amazon.com listings you find may be imports. These come in at ~$190, ~$340, and ~$650. These estimates make it look downright affordable, with the 1TB and 2TB models well under the WD Black SN8100 , and the 4TB is roughly at parity at the time of review. It would be more expensive to import the drive, of course. One reason Kioxia can keep the price of the drive down is that it manufactures the flash it’s using, and its competition there – Crucial dropped out of the market, for one – is reduced.
Kioxia Exceria Pro G2 Software and Accessories
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