Lexar NS100 256GB SATA SSD Cut to £35 for Older Laptop Upgrades

TechRadar said replacing a hard drive with the SATA drive is one of the cheapest ways to make an aging machine feel quick again when it takes minutes to boot. The publication cited owner reports of noticeably faster boot times on machines that had been struggling, and said the NS100 fits the same 2.5in bay as the hard drive it replaces.

The drive is a 2.5in SATA III 6Gb/s solid-state drive with read speeds of up to 520MB/s. It has no moving parts, is described as shock and vibration resistant, and comes with Lexar SSD Dash monitoring software and a three-year limited warranty. Lexar has made memory cards and storage products for decades, according to TechRadar. The publication said the NS100 is designed for older machines that do not have an M.2 NVMe interface.

TechRadar said the £35 price is not a record low for the 256GB model. It noted that the drive reached £14 in November 2023 and £23 in May of the same year, and that SSD prices have climbed considerably since those lows. It described the current price as fair for a branded drive today and a solid buy rather than a once-a-year bargain.

TechRadar said buyers should choose the NS100 if they want to replace a slow hard drive in an older laptop or desktop and need a simple 2.5in SATA drive for an operating system and core apps from a known storage brand. It said buyers should skip it if their machine has an M.2 NVMe slot that would deliver much faster speeds, or if sub-TB storage capacity will not hold their games or media library.