The Differences Between mSATA and M.2 SSD

M.2 SATA and mSATA are both widely used in POS machines, laptops and other small, thin devices. M.2 is a follow-up to mSATA, although actually both of these interfaces are doing the same tasks, they are not interchangeable. So you can’t simply exchange one for another.

Below is the difference between M.2 SATA and mSATA.

1. Interface
Both of them are designed for small devices like POS machines and laptops. But the clearest difference is that an M.2 SSD supports SATA or PCle interface, and the mSATA SSD only supports the SATA interface.

2. Performance
The performance was decided by the interface. An M.2 SSD with the SATA interface can extend the data transfer rate over the 6 Gbps limitation of an mSATA or SATA SSD. and the read speed of mSATA can reach up to 551Mb/sec and write speed can be up to 304Mb/sec. The maximum bandwidth is 6Gbps.

3. Capacity & Price
Most mSATA drives are around 500GB, but M.2 SSDs have more capacity options available and some can be up to 2TB and the price of most mSATA SSDs is higher than mSATA.

4. Platform Support
The CPU suits for M.2 SSD must be higher than the 6th, and the chipset must support it. Sunany Windows POS machines based on Intel 8th generation processors or above support M.2 SSD.