Lexar NQ710 500GB: Entry Capacity, Modest Write Speed (2026)
Quick answer
The Lexar NQ710 500GB makes sense for budget buyers who want the cheapest PCIe 4.0 entry point for a laptop, Mini PC, or PS5 boot drive, and don't regularly move large files.
Read: 4400 MB/s Write: 1700 MB/s Endurance: 170 TBW Warranty: 3 years Interface: M.2 4.0 x 4
The Lexar NQ710 500GB is a budget PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive whose smallest capacity trades meaningfully lower write speed for an aggressive entry-level price.
Controller & Memory
Inside the Lexar NQ710 500GB 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 500 GB model's 4,400 MB/s read and 1,700 MB/s write ratings both trail the 1 TB and 2 TB versions, which reach the line's full 5,000 MB/s read ceiling and up to 4,000 MB/s writes. That gap is larger than typical for a step between adjacent capacities in the same product line.
The NQ710 500GB fits laptops, Mini PCs, and the PlayStation 5's M.2 slot without a heatsink required, and its light 6-gram weight and low power draw suit compact or thermally constrained builds. 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 entry-level budget PCIe 4.0 tier.
Storage Comparisons:
NQ710 Performance & Benchmarks
The 500 GB Lexar NQ710 is rated for up to 4,400 MB/s sequential reads and just 1,700 MB/s sequential writes, the lowest figures in the three-capacity NQ710 range. The 1 TB model jumps to 3,300 MB/s writes and the 2 TB model to 4,000 MB/s, since larger capacities give the controller more NAND dies to write across in parallel. Lexar does not publish precise random IOPS for this capacity, but random-read performance scales with the read-speed ceiling, so expect noticeably lower IOPS than the 1 TB and 2 TB models as well.
Lexar NQ710 500 GB 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 500 GB (this drive): 4,400 MB/s read, 1,700 MB/s write
Being a QLC drive, the NQ710 leans on SLC caching to hit its rated sequential-write number, and at 500 GB that cache is the smallest in the range, so sustained transfers fall back to the NAND's native write speed sooner than on any other capacity. For everyday use, booting Windows, loading games, general file work, read speed matters more than sustained writes, and there this capacity performs adequately for a budget drive, though large file copies and big game installs will be noticeably slower than on the 1 TB or 2 TB versions.
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 500 GB NQ710 at 170 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, 170 TBW works out to roughly 15-23 years before the drive reaches its rated endurance limit, comfortably beyond the warranty period for typical use. 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 500 GB Specifications
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Capacity [?] | 500 GB |
| Interface [?] | M.2 4.0 x 4 |
| Controller [?] | Maxio MAP1602 |
| Memory type [?] | Micron 176L QLC |
| DRAM [?] | No |
| Read speed (MB/s) [?] | 4400 |
| Write speed (MB/s) [?] | 1700 |
| Read IOPS [?] | 680000 |
| Write IOPS [?] | 300000 |
| Endurance (TBW) [?] | 170 |
| MTBF (million hours) [?] | 1500000 |
| Warranty (years) [?] | 3 |
Verdict: Is the NQ710 Worth It in 2026?
The Lexar NQ710 500GB makes sense for budget buyers who want the cheapest PCIe 4.0 entry point for a laptop, Mini PC, or PS5 boot drive, and don't regularly move large files. Skip it if you frequently copy big game installs or video files, since its 1,700 MB/s write ceiling is the slowest in the NQ710 range and will bottleneck those transfers. Buyers who want meaningfully better write speed at a similar price should step up to the 1 TB NQ710, which more than doubles the write speed on the same controller, or consider Lexar's faster NQ790 line. Overall, this is a fine budget boot drive, but the 500 GB capacity specifically is the weak link in the lineup.
+ Pros
- Aggressive entry-level PCIe 4.0 pricing
- 170 TBW endurance is ample for light use
- 3-year manufacturer warranty
- Compact single-sided M.2 2280 fits laptops and PS5
- 4,400 MB/s reads beat SATA SSDs comfortably
- Cons
- 1,700 MB/s write is the slowest in the range
- QLC NAND slows further after SLC cache exhaustion
- No DRAM cache
- Shorter 3-year warranty than Lexar's NQ790 line
Buy this or similar SSD Storage:
Video Review
"Speed up your storage game with the LEXAR NQ710 NVMe 500GB Gen 4!
