Samsung announces world's first UFS 5.0 chip with 10.8 GB/s read and 9.5 GB/s write speeds

Samsung has announced the world's first UFS 5.0 storage chip, and the performance numbers are a significant step up from what is currently shipping in smartphones. Sequential read speeds reach up to 10.8 GB/s and sequential write speeds up to 9.5 GB/s, more than double the 4.3 GB/s read and 4.1 GB/s write ceiling of the current UFS 4.1 standard. Mass production is scheduled to begin in Q4 2026, with capacities up to 1TB available at launch.

Samsung claims UFS 5.0 is over 40% more power-efficient than UFS 4.1, achieved through clock gating and multi-voltage technologies that reduce the power required to move the same amount of data. The physical package has also shrunk, measuring 7.5mm x 13mm x 0.9mm, around 16.7% smaller than the previous generation, which matters for increasingly compact device designs across smartphones, XR headsets, and wearables.

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Samsung is pitching UFS 5.0 primarily as an AI storage solution. On-device AI workloads increasingly depend on fast local data retrieval rather than raw compute power alone, and faster storage directly reduces the latency between a model request and its response. The JEDEC UFS 5.0 specification was finalized in October 2025, and Samsung's first chip is meeting those performance targets.

The first device that could ship with UFS 5.0 is the Galaxy S27, though Samsung has not officially confirmed this. Samsung recently confirmed it is developing the Exynos 2700 chip, expected to power at least some Galaxy S27 variants, and leaker Ice Universe has posted that the Exynos 2700 will natively support UFS 5.0.

Beyond smartphones, the more interesting longer-term implication is what UFS 5.0 could mean for laptops and handheld gaming devices. At 10.8 GB/s read speeds, UFS 5.0 already exceeds the sustained throughput of PCIe 4.0 SSDs, opening a credible path for thinner, lighter devices that skip M.2 slots entirely without sacrificing storage performance. That is still a few years out from mainstream adoption, but the foundation is being set now.