Lexar (a subsidiary of Micron – better known by its consumer brand Crucial) has announced a more compact version of its parent company's 2.5-inch RealSSD C300 solid-state drive. Using the 1.8-inch form factor, the new offering is roughly 40% smaller than the original, making it particularly useful for ultra-thin notebooks, netbooks and tablets.
The new 1.8-inch iteration uses the same MLC NAND flash memory, controller technology, and "optimized NAND management." Despite its reduced footprint, the 1.8-inch C300 is just as quick as its sibling, packing read and write rates of 355MB/s and 215MB/s. Given that speed, it's expected that SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) is supported, as SATA 2.0 peaks at 3Gb/s transfers.
The smaller version is also available in all the same capacities, including 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. It ships with a three-year warranty and pricing is set at $150/£96, $300/£192, and $600/£384 depending on the capacity. The drives are currently available through Crucial's online store as well as "leading channel partners worldwide."