Faked Samsung 980 EVO SSD leaked online

The PC hardware market has perennially been plagued by counterfeit products. Case in point, earlier this year, some gamers purchased counterfeit versions of Samsung’s 980 Pro SSD. These imitation drives bore the 2TB variant’s label sticker and firmware and even managed to deceive Samsung’s Magician software with their meticulously crafted serial number format and firmware version, a testament to the extent fraudsters are willing to go. The actual performance of these counterfeit 980 Pros, however, falls significantly short.

Being a brand of high repute and substantial demand in the SSD market, Samsung’s premium pricing renders it a prime target for these unscrupulous entities. If you’ve recently meandered through the second-hand markets, you may have stumbled upon a so-called “980 EVO” Samsung SSD. Those familiar with Samsung’s offerings would quickly realize that such a model simply doesn’t exist.

Renowned German overclocking enthusiast, Der8auer, recently got his hands on one of these SSDs and decided to delve into this spurious product. In Europe, the “980 EVO” 4TB variant is priced at approximately 40 euros. Even with the current affordability of SSDs, this pricing is exceptionally low.

At first glance, the “980 EVO” packaging appears unprofessional and doesn’t adopt Samsung’s typical font. Efforts have been made to excise as much of Samsung’s branding as possible, potentially a preemptive move to evade potential litigation. The manufacturer has gone to the lengths of using a laser to remove markings on the main control chip while opting to utilize Micron’s products for the NAND flash chips.

When put to the performance test, this SSD performed disastrously. Its sequential read/write speeds were merely 36.25 MB/s and 0.84 MB/s, respectively, even worse than a flash drive, a catastrophe to say the least.