Despite surrendering the lead in size and read speed, Micron's SSD maintains some advantages. For instance, it writes at 5GB/s versus Phison's 3.2GB/s. Filling the 6550 ION only takes around three and a half hours.

Micron's SSD is slightly more energy efficient, drawing just 20W while under load compared to Phison's 25W. The difference seems small but might add up when using racks full of drives. The two companies advertise their new SSDs as tools to conserve physical space and lower energy consumption. AI data centers are also an emerging target market.