Overview
- The drives are available now from approved resellers at $30 for 128GB and $55 for 256GB, with some outlets noting limited initial stock.
- The USB Type‑A device uses a USB 3.0 Gen1 interface and an all‑aluminum enclosure, and it supports SMART health reporting and TRIM.
- Raspberry Pi specifies sustained write speeds of 75 MB/s for 128GB and 150 MB/s for 256GB, with 4K random performance up to 18,000 read and 22,000 write IOPS.
- The architecture pairs QLC NAND with a pseudo‑SLC cache, and the published figures reflect steady‑state performance after the cache is saturated.
- Raspberry Pi reports the drive survived tens of thousands of power‑cycle tests and confirms production will continue through 2030, with coverage noting a price premium over generic USB sticks and better boot performance than microSD cards.