Some laptops now have eUFS storage. Unlike the more common NVMe PCIe SSD that we see in most laptops these days, eUFS storage is soldered to the motherboard and isn’t upgradable. Not ideal.
There are other potential concerns as well. In theory, eUFS storage is slower than NVMe SSD storage connected to a PCIe socket. But eUFS has some benefits, too, like promising lower power usage.
I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge last year, which was one of the first big laptops with eUFS storage, and I was pleasantly surprised by its performance. Is eUFS storage, with all its shortcomings, a deal-breaker on a laptop then? Here’s what you need to know.
What is eUFS storage? Explained
eUFS stands for “embedded Universal Flash Storage.” This type of storage is generally used on phones and tablets, but it’s been popping up on some laptops — like the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge.
eUFS is a type of flash storage that’s soldered directly to the motherboard. That’s in direct contrast to more commonly used NVMe PCIe SSD, which is a separate component that gets inserted into the PCIe slot of a motherboard.
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
In some ways, eUFS is the more upscale cousin of the old eMMC storage found on inexpensive laptops like budget Chromebooks. Both eMMC and eUFS are soldered to the motherboard, but eUFS is much faster.
On paper, eUFS storage can’t match the speeds of today’s PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 SSDs. But that’s based on top-end theoretical speeds. In the real world? Things are different. You may not even notice much of a difference in performance when you compare similar laptops.
There are other concerns around upgradability and repairability, but eUFS may boost battery life over PCIe SSDs. (Not a whole lot, though.)
How does eUFS storage actually perform?
No one wants a laptop with dramatically slower storage. I know I raised an eyebrow at eUFS for that very reason, having been burned by slow eMMC-based laptops in the past.
Spoiler: eUFS actually holds its own against the kinds of PCIe SSDs you’d find in similarly specced lightweight laptops. But you wouldn’t want eUFS storage in a gaming laptop any time soon. The performance is there for everyday tasks, but it isn’t that good yet.
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
I ran some quick informal benchmarks on the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge when I reviewed it last summer, comparing it to other Copilot+ PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon hardware. (Unfortunately, since PCMark doesn’t run on Arm PCs yet, we can’t compare the Book4 Edge’s storage benchmark scores with our usual benchmark suite.)
My conclusion? The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge’s storage was, overall, right in the ballpark of similar laptops I was reviewing — a tad slower than the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, but a bit faster than the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, with both of those laptops having PCIe 4.0 SSDs. The results depend on what exactly you’re benchmarking (sequential read versus sequential write performance, for example).
Notebookcheck’s extremely detailed storage benchmarks for the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge found the same thing:
How can that be? Isn’t eUFS storage supposed to be slower than PCIe SSD storage? In theory, yes. The specification for SSDs tops out at a higher speed. But in the real world, laptops don’t always pack high-end storage drives that reach those theoretical limits of speed.
So, here’s the takeaway: laptop eUFS storage offers performance that’s good enough for most people, at least with typical productivity laptops meant for browsing the web, writing emails, and other daily driver stuff. Unless the laptop’s manufacturer made a huge mistake, it’ll deliver similar performance to other laptops in the same price range.
Just don’t expect it to deliver top-end speeds. For a gaming laptop or productivity workstation where you need fast storage speeds, you should still avoid eUFS for now. (Luckily, you won’t even encounter eUFS on laptops like this. It’s only on lightweight portability-focused machines.)
The upgradability/repairability problem
Everyone talks about the right to repair, but let’s talk about the ability to repair: eUFS does NOT give you the ability to upgrade or repair your laptop because it’s soldered onto the motherboard.
In other words, you can’t swap out an eUFS drive and replace it with a larger or faster one, nor can you remove a broken eUFS drive and replace it with a new one. Even worse, if your laptop dies, you can’t crack it open and remove the eUFS drive for purposes of data recovery.
Maybe this isn’t an issue for you. Most people will never open their laptops or even think about upgradability/repairability. Plus, most thin-and-light laptops that would have eUFS storage aren’t even designed to be opened and upgraded.
And here’s another thing many people don’t realize: eUFS isn’t the only type of soldered storage. Some modern thin-and-light laptops have PCIe SSDs soldered to their motherboards — and if the SSD isn’t soldered, it may still be difficult (or impossible) to open up the laptop and put it back together again. If your laptop is full of glue, it doesn’t matter whether the storage is soldered or not. Upgrading/repairing will be a pain.
If avoiding soldered laptop storage is important to you, you need to watch out for more than just eUFS. In that case, check out our recommendations for the most repairable laptops.
Power efficiency is a potential advantage
Why are laptop manufacturers even bothering with eUFS? Well, one potential reason is power efficiency. For an ultraportable laptop, any improvement in battery life is a big deal… and eUFS storage theoretically uses less power than PCIe SSDs.
It’s tough to measure, but imagine a laptop going from 22 hours of battery life to 22.5 hours of battery life. Not a huge improvement, but every little bit counts when you want long battery life.
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
That tracks with the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, which had incredible battery life in our benchmarks, topping other Copilot+ PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon hardware. Don’t care about upgradability or repairability but do care about battery life? Then eUFS isn’t bad.
Should you avoid eUFS in a laptop?
If you’re shopping for a laptop and it has eUFS storage, should that be a deal-breaker? For the average person who wants a portability-focused thin-and-light laptop, no. eUFS will serve you well enough.
But you should avoid eUFS storage if you need a powerful machine with top-end performance. That said, PC manufacturers aren’t even shipping gaming laptops with eUFS storage, and only a few productivity laptops have eUFS storage, so it’s not something to fret over.
Ultimately, it comes down to this: if performance is top priority, avoid eUFS; if upgradability and repairability are top priorities, avoid eUFS; if battery life is top priority, then eUFS is good; otherwise, get whatever laptop fits your budget and desired specs.
For more laptop buying advice, be sure to check out PCWorld’s guide to the best laptops.
Author: Chris Hoffman, Contributor, PCWorld
Chris Hoffman is the author of Windows Intelligence, a free email newsletter that brings the latest Windows PC news, trips, and tricks to inboxes each week. He's also the former editor-in-chief of How-To Geek and a veteran tech journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, PCMag, Reader's Digest, and other publications.