CONCLUSION

   The Micron 1100 line of client SATA SSDs lands extremely close to the MX300 line of SSDs by Crucial not only because it makes use of the same Marvell 88SS1074 NAND flash controller but also because under the hood we find the same 3D NAND flash modules. Of course there are some differences with the 750GB model of the MX300 line (mainly the different capacity 3D NAND flash modules and the 1GB LPPDR3 RAM instead of the 512MB used in the 1100) but as you can clearly tell performance is roughly the same with both models sometimes in the lead. Overall although in terms of performance the 1100 could do a bit better you should keep in mind that since this is the 256GB model it may not perform just as good as its larger capacity brothers. As for features with a wide array such as partial power loss protection, static and dynamic wear leveling, active garbage collection, LDPC error correction code (ECC), adaptive thermal protection, data-path protection, multistep data integrity algorithm and full support for DevSleep (device power save), TRIM, SMART, AES 256-bit hardware encryption, TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (eDrive) the 1100 packs everything any modern SSD should have and then some.

   Although the 1100 line of SSDs by Micron is not as consumer oriented as the MX300 one by Crucial still you can currently get the 256GB for roughly USD99 inside the USA and for exactly 120Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price which is set quite higher than the equivalent 275GB model of the MX300 series (by roughly 25%). Now as you all know we don’t have a direct comparison between both models but judging from the 725GB model I’d say they should perform somewhat similarly. Of course there's always the endurance issue so although Micron rates the 1100 256GB for up to 120TB TBW Crucial rates the MX300 275GB model for up to 80TB TBW so we do expect this will matter to some people more than the price difference of these two lines (leaving out the 2TB variants of both lines that feature a TBW of 400TB large differences apply to the other capacity models). At the end of the day because of its performance, features, durability and 5 year warranty the 1100 does secure our Golden Award although the MX300 line could be more suited for casual consumer use due to its lower price (unless you care about having the longest warranty and highest durability rating that is).

PROS

- Build Quality / Durability (120TB TBW)
- Very Good Overall Performance
- Features (Dynamic Write Acceleration / DevSleep / eDrive Support)
- Micron Storage Executive Software
- 5 Year Warranty
- Available Up To 2TB In Capacity

CONS

- Not As Fast As Other 3D NAND Based SSDs
- Price (For Some)