Micron Intros 3610 Gen 5 PCIe SSD for Thin Laptops at CES 2026

At the ongoing CES 2026, Micron announced a new client SSD that aims to make PCIe Gen 5 storage practical for thin and mainstream PCs. Say hello to the Micron 3610, a PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD built using the company’s latest G9 QLC NAND. It sits neatly between Micron’s high-end Gen 5 4600 series and its more affordable Gen 4 drives, striking a balance between performance and accessibility.

Micron announces 3610 Gen 5 SSD with up to 11GB/s read speeds

Speaking of the numbers, Micron claims sequential read speeds of up to 11,000MB/s and write speeds of up to 9,300MB/s, along with random performance of 1.5 million IOPS for reads and 1.6 million IOPS for writes. For a DRAM-less QLC SSD, those figures are ambitious, especially in the context of laptops.

One of the more interesting aspects of the 3610 is its form factor. Micron says it is the first PCIe Gen 5 SSD to offer up to 4TB of storage in a single-sided M.2 2230 design. That makes it suitable for ultra-thin laptops and compact AI-focused devices where space and thermals are constant constraints. Keeping all components on one side of the PCB also simplifies cooling in tight chassis.

The 3610 relies on a DRAM-less architecture that uses the system’s host memory buffer instead of onboard DRAM. Micron claims this improves performance per watt by up to 43 percent compared to Gen 4 TLC SSDs, which should translate into better battery life and lower sustained temperatures. The drive also supports low-power states such as DEVSLP and includes host-controlled thermal management so OEMs can fine-tune performance in fanless designs.

Micron is clearly leaning into AI workloads as a selling point. According to internal testing, the 3610 can load large on-device AI models far quicker than older Gen 4 QLC drives, while also delivering better PCMark 10 scores and bandwidth in everyday workloads.

It’s worth noting, however, that consumers won’t be able to buy the Micron 3610 directly. This SSD is strictly for OEMs and is already sampling with select PC makers. Capacities will range from 1TB to 4TB, and it’s likely to appear in next-generation laptops from major brands later this year.