By: Aaron Lai
May 2, 2025
When I was in elementary school, we often had fun lunch or snack days every month or so across the entire school. We would get forms a week or two before the day, and we would fill out what we wanted to eat. For me, it was filled with many firsts. For one, it was the first time I remember drinking chocolate milk, as my parents normally did not buy it. However, one of the most memorable firsts was eating a Texas-sized donut. In fact, it seemed like such a special item that my mom told me to order an extra one to bring home for her. There is a saying that everything is bigger in Texas, but I remember being shocked with its size when they were handing it out. This was an enlarged donut the size of my face. I think my head has grown since then, but it was still quite substantial. It was only recently that I found a local bakery that made these gigantic pastries, and I can still confirm the menacing size. It is more than any single person would eat in one sitting. In a similar vein, today we have the Lexar PLAY 2280. We have seen their smaller Lexar PLAY in its 2230 form factor, and today we have the notably larger 2280 variant with a chunky metal heatsink on top. While its physical size may not necessarily be that astonishing, the pleasant surprise is its Texas-like capacity of 4TB. How does the Lexar PLAY 2280 4TB perform? Will its large capacity come with excellent performance too? Let us read on to find out!
Today's review unit of the Lexar PLAY 2280 4TB arrived from Lexar's corporate offices in San Jose, California. Traveling with UPS and their Standard ground service, this brown paper envelope is scuffed up and has many bent corners. However, there are no notable holes or scratches to be worried about. Also, the Lexar PLAY 2280 is a pretty light and small item, so it is not too surprising we do not have very substantial packaging. Otherwise, it arrived at our APH Networks location here in Calgary, Alberta, in good condition.
The retail container of the Lexar PLAY 2280 4TB is standard. The white box has the logo at the top, along with the product name beside it. A descriptor of "PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 2280 NVMe SSD" is under the product name. In the background, you can see the large letters of PLAY, emphasizing the name without being too in-your-face. In the middle is a slightly larger image of the drive inside. At the bottom, Lexar states this drive can hit up to 7400MB/s read. It also shows the capacity of 4TB, although the Lexar PLAY 2280 also comes in 2TB or 8TB. It is nice to see a minimum capacity of 2TB, which is a good capacity on its own. Around the back, there are some more specifications and a small cutout window that reveals the drive inside.
Before we continue, I have grabbed the specifications from the manufacturer's website for your viewing pleasure:
Form Factor: M.2 2280
Interface: PCle Gen 4x4
Performance: Sequential read 7400MB/s, sequential write 6500MB/s
Operating Temperature: 0°C ~ 70°C (32°F to 158°F)
Storage Temperature: -40°C ~ 85°C (-40°F to 185°F)
Shock: 1500 G, duration 0.5ms, Half Sine Wave
Weight: 0.13lbs
Vibration: 10-2000Hz, 1.5mm, 20G, 1 Oct/min, 30min/axis(X, Y, Z)
Dimension (L x W x H): 80 x 24 x 10mm
TBW: 4TB: 3200TBW
MTBF: 1,500,000 Hours
Warranty: Five-year limited warranty
Out of the box, the Lexar PLAY 2280 4TB is in a plastic shell enclosure to protect the SSD from sliding about. Lexar has also included a mounting screw to install the drive. There is also a small pamphlet including quick start and warranty information in multiple languages.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 8.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 5.70
7. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 11
8. Benchmark: PCMark 10
9. Benchmark: 3DMark
10. Conclusion
