Samsung declares different TBW for same SSD model on different markets

66 points by the4anoni 1 year ago | 22 comments

(All credits for this finding go to mat_swat user from IThardware.pl forum)

UK: https://web.archive.org/web/20240714070057/https://www.samsu...

US: https://web.archive.org/web/20240714065915/https://www.samsu...

PL: https://web.archive.org/web/20240714065739/https://www.samsu...

On Polish Samsung site same SSD (990 Pro 4TB) is advertised with TBW of 1200TB, while on US and UK sites 2400TB.

As can be found on this screenshot (use google translate) https://forum.ithardware.pl/uploads/monthly_2024_07/Samsung-...

Samsung claims this is not an error on their site, and devices for different markets may have different specs.

Source: https://forum.ithardware.pl/topic/7919-samsung-990-pro-podw%...

jdietrich 1 year ago |

Par for the course in the consumer SSD market. Manufacturers often change the controller or flash chips without changing the model number.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/adata-and-other-ssd-makers...

Samsung have a long history of releasing the same phone with a different SoC in different regions - Snapdragon in the highest-value markets, but slower and less efficient Exynos everywhere else.

https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-exynos-versus-snapd...

throwaway3306a 1 year ago | |

One marketing name (Galaxy S9) has multiple different model numbers - I installed a custom ROM on many Qualcomm as well as Exynos Samsung phones, is not as bad as you make it sound.

Personally I consider the Exynos phones to be better - more customizable, less weird code running in hypervisor mode. Performance is good.

jeroenhd 1 year ago |

Looking into this further, I came across this website: https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/internal-... If you expand ("view more") the spec page, you get this list of guarantees:

    MZ-V9P1T0BW (1TB)
    5-year or 600 TBW limited warranty

    MZ-V9P2T0BW (2TB)
    5-year or 1200 TBW limited warranty

    MZ-V9P4T0BW (4TB)
    5-year or 2400 TBW limited warranty

This could just be a localisation issue. Different SKUs have different TBW guarantees, and whoever copy/pasted the number may just have copied over the wrong localisation file. If they started translating the 2TB version and then copied that translation over to the 1TB and 4TB versions, it'd explain why the numbers are different.

It would also explain why the Dutch website lists the 2400TBW number in English.

TeMPOraL 1 year ago |

I imagine it's because Poland, and EU in general, is serious about consumer protection. When they set the TBW to 2400TB, there's X% of drives that will fail under that, requiring warranty service. That X% might be OK in the US, but too expensive for them in Poland, so they slice the TBW in half, reducing failure-within-warranty % to a small fraction of X (it's non-linear), and call it a day.

(For products aimed at general consumer market, approximately no one will look at this parameter at the time of purchase - but they might when the drive fails and they wonder whether they're entitled to a replacement.)

the4anoni 1 year ago | |

On Samsung's Netherlands website they also declare 2400 TBW.

http://web.archive.org/web/20240714091323/https://www.samsun...

jeroenhd 1 year ago | | |

The Dutch website also lists a significantly higher price. The German version is similarly priced to the Polish one, but doesn't seem to list a TBW guarantee at all. The French website lists neither a price nor a TBW number.

The Belgian website (be_NL + be_FR) lists the same high price as the Dutch website as well as the 2400TBW number. I find this interesting, as I would've expected the Belgian websites to be mostly copy/pastes of the Dutch+French websites (as so many sites do to save cost), but it seems like the be_FR variant seems to be based on a different source/translation than the French variant.

What I find interesting is that the performance quotes for most variants stating 2400TBW aren't translated, whereas the websites where the TBW is lower or the price isn't listed seem to have the entire spec page translated.

The Italian website lists and even higher price but also lists 2400TBW in the extended warranty, actually translated for once.

Makes me feel like there are two SKUs around in Europe, a cheaper 1200TBW variant for certain markets, and a 2400TBW variant for others, that's just the American one with its specs copy/pasted.

mkl 1 year ago |

TBW = Terabytes Written (how much data writing the drive can withstand over its lifetime).

Rinzler89 1 year ago |

>Samsung claims this is not an error on their site

That doesn't necessarily make it true. There's no guarantee that the clueless underpaid rep whoever claimed that from Samsung's side actually knew what they were talking about or have the contacts of Samsung Semi engineers to ask for correct technical specs or would bother with it even if he could #notmyjob.

It could very well be a typo or copy/paste error that the rep can't verify so they double down on it being correct (our company doesn't make mistakes policy) with the excuse of different markets since product segmentation is a real thing even if it might not apply here.

HayBale 1 year ago |

Its normal double standards. The same happens with non west Europe food items and detergents that are sold in the central or eastern Europe. The sold on non western market have more diluted product or contain more sugar or artificial ingredients.

jeroenhd 1 year ago | |

With general consumer goods this is often done because prices in central and eastern Europe are often lower (to match the lower income in those countries). It makes to do sense as long as the price is lower, though it boils my blood that these companies will give no indication of the difference on the packaging or, in this case, in their SKU numbers.

The difference between UK pricing and Polish pricing (the lowest difference I could find that has a TBW stated) seems to be about 300zł, but other EU locations stating the 2400TBW number are more expensive than both of those.

They should've made v9p4t0bw-1200 and v9p4t0bw-2400 product lines. This is just disingenuous. Without a different model number, people buying in/importing from countries with the 2400TBW variants listed on Samsung's website now need to look out for scammers selling cheaper foreign products with exactly the same model number for the higher price.

HayBale 1 year ago | | |

The prices of a lot of consuemr products are actually the same than the western Europe and usually produced in Central or Eastern Europe so this should not be an issue.

I would say it's just because they are allowed to do so and EU open market kinda enforce that.

dist-epoch 1 year ago |

Engineering and marketing are two separate things.

You can deduce the TBW from SMART data. That would be an interesting comparison between the products sold in the two countries.

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 1 year ago |

What about the prices? Is Polish one cheaper?

the4anoni 1 year ago | |

Their pricing is similar between Poland and UK, especially when you consider taxes. Poland X-Kom: 1 649,00 zł scan.co.uk: £323.99 (1 636,33 PLN)

jeroenhd 1 year ago | |

Samsung's Dutch website lists the SSD as available for €480 (2 044,03 zł) while their Polish site lists the drive for 1 649,00 zł (€387).

This may not reflect actual price in third party stores, but at nearly 25%, the price difference could explain the difference in rated TBW.

rasz 1 year ago | | |

official Samsung Amazon.nl store 300 euro https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Samsung-writing-internal-editing-...

rasz 1 year ago | |

More expensive "official" samsung.com/uk/ price, but Samsung UK official Amazon listing is already cheaper than cheapest Polish distributed drive while samsung.com/us/official Samsung US Amazon/bestbuy is 40% cheaper than that.

the4anoni 1 year ago | | |

US site pricing doesn't include taxes, keep that in mind.

Hydrocarb0n 1 year ago | | |

I always wondered why shipping from US to UK is so outlandisly expensive. Even with taxes buying tech from US would be much cheaper if it wasn't for the crazy shipping prices.

saddist0 1 year ago |

It is same for mobile specifications as well lately, where some countries have different chipset (at same prices!).