Lexar NQ710 2TB: Peak Speed in the Budget Tier (2026)
Quick answer
The Lexar NQ710 2TB makes sense for budget-conscious buyers who want a sizable PCIe 4.0 drive for a laptop, Mini PC, or PS5 game library, without paying for Lexar's faster NQ790 or TLC-based NM790 lines.
Read: 5000 MB/s Write: 4000 MB/s Endurance: 680 TBW Warranty: 3 years Interface: M.2 4.0 x 4
The Lexar NQ710 2TB tops this budget PCIe 4.0 line with its fastest write speed and highest endurance, at a genuinely accessible price point.
Controller & Memory
Inside the Lexar NQ710 2TB is a Maxio MAP1602 controller paired with Micron 176-layer QLC NAND and no dedicated DRAM chip, a DRAM-less design that keeps costs down. It runs over a PCIe 4.0 x4 link in the standard M.2 2280 form factor, weighing just 6 grams, and Lexar rates it for operation between 0°C and 70°C.
The NQ710 sits below Lexar's own NQ790 in the budget QLC stack, with a lower speed ceiling (5,000 MB/s peak versus the NQ790's 7,000 MB/s) and a shorter 3-year warranty rather than 5 years. It ships in 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities; this 2 TB model tops the range with 4,000 MB/s writes, ahead of the 1 TB model's 3,300 MB/s and well ahead of the 500 GB model's 1,700 MB/s, since more NAND dies let the controller write in greater parallel.
The NQ710 2TB fits laptops, Mini PCs, and the PlayStation 5's M.2 slot without a heatsink required, and its capacity suits a sizable game or media library on a budget. Lexar's own NQ790 and NM790 are the natural in-house step-ups for more speed and endurance; outside the family, the Crucial P3 and Kingston NV2 compete in a similar budget PCIe 4.0 tier.
Storage Comparisons:
NQ710 Performance & Benchmarks
The 2 TB Lexar NQ710 is rated for up to 5,000 MB/s sequential reads and 4,000 MB/s sequential writes, with random reads around 780,000 IOPS at queue depth 32, the peak figures for this line. The 1 TB model shares the same read rating but trails on write speed at 3,300 MB/s.
Lexar NQ710 2 TB vs M.2 4.0 x 4 peers
Switch between sequential throughput and random IOPS to see how this drive stacks up against other M.2 4.0 x 4 SSDs in our database. The highlighted bar is the drive on this page — click any other bar to open that drive.
- Patriot Viper PV593 1 TB: 14,500 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
- Patriot Viper PV593 2 TB: 14,500 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
- Patriot Viper PV593 4 TB: 14,500 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
- Patriot Viper PV573 2 TB: 14,000 MB/s read, 12,000 MB/s write
- Lexar NQ710 2 TB (this drive): 5,000 MB/s read, 4,000 MB/s write
Being a QLC drive, the NQ710 leans on SLC caching to hit its rated sequential-write number; sustained transfers that exceed the cache fall back toward the NAND's native write speed. At 2 TB the cache is the largest in the range, so this capacity can absorb sizable game installs and file copies before any slowdown becomes noticeable. For everyday tasks, booting Windows, loading games, general file work, read speed and random IOPS matter more than sustained sequential writes, and there this capacity performs well for a budget drive. Independent testing of this exact 2 TB capacity has generally matched or exceeded Lexar's rated sequential figures in sustained transfers up to a few hundred gigabytes.
Lexar NQ710 vs Competitors
See how the NQ710 stacks up against other M.2 4.0 x 4 drives in our database:
Compare with rival drives:
Endurance, TBW & Warranty
Lexar rates the 2 TB NQ710 at 680 TBW and backs it with a 3-year limited warranty, shorter than the 5-year coverage on the pricier NQ790 line. At a realistic 20-30 GB per day write workload, 680 TBW works out to roughly 62-93 years before the drive reaches its rated endurance limit, far beyond the warranty period and the practical lifespan of the rest of the PC around it. QLC NAND has inherently lower per-cell endurance than TLC, which shows up in this line's more modest TBW figures relative to Lexar's TLC-based NM-series. Warranty service runs through Lexar's regional RMA process, so keep your purchase receipt on hand.
Lexar NQ710 2 TB Specifications
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Capacity [?] | 2 TB |
| Interface [?] | M.2 4.0 x 4 |
| Controller [?] | Maxio MAP1602 |
| Memory type [?] | Micron 176L QLC |
| DRAM [?] | No |
| Read speed (MB/s) [?] | 5000 |
| Write speed (MB/s) [?] | 4000 |
| Read IOPS [?] | 780000 |
| Write IOPS [?] | 620000 |
| Endurance (TBW) [?] | 680 |
| MTBF (million hours) [?] | 1500000 |
| Warranty (years) [?] | 3 |
Verdict: Is the NQ710 Worth It in 2026?
The Lexar NQ710 2TB makes sense for budget-conscious buyers who want a sizable PCIe 4.0 drive for a laptop, Mini PC, or PS5 game library, without paying for Lexar's faster NQ790 or TLC-based NM790 lines. Buyers running constant heavy sustained writes, like video editing, should still consider the NQ790 or a TLC drive instead, since the NQ710's write speed and warranty both trail those options. If a longer warranty matters more than price, the Crucial P3 is worth comparing at a similar tier. Overall, 2 TB is the practical ceiling of the NQ710 range: its fastest writes, its best endurance, at a genuinely budget price.
+ Pros
- 4,000 MB/s writes, the fastest in the NQ710 range
- 680 TBW endurance, the best in the lineup
- 5,000 MB/s sequential reads on PCIe 4.0
- 2TB fits a sizable game or media library
- Compact single-sided M.2 2280 fits laptops and PS5
- Cons
- QLC NAND slows after SLC cache exhaustion
- No DRAM cache, relies on host RAM
- Shorter warranty than Lexar's pricier NQ790 line
- Write speed trails Lexar's TLC-based NM790
Buy this or similar SSD Storage:
Video Review
Lexar NM710 SSD 1TB Review | Blazing Fast Storage!
