As smartphone makers continue to push more on-device AI features, there’s a crucial need to increase storage performance.
Samsung has announced its new UFS 5.0 storage solution, which it claims to be the industry’s fastest Universal Flash Storage (UFS) solution to date with sequential read speeds of up to 10.8GB/s.
According to Samsung, the new storage solution is designed to support next-generation on-device AI applications, including large language models (LLMs), by significantly reducing latency and improving response times when processing large amounts of data locally on smartphones and tablets.
UFS 5.0 delivers more than double the read speeds of UFS 4.0
Samsung says its UFS 5.0 solution integrates the latest embedded memory interface standard from JEDEC and offers bandwidth of up to 10.8GB/s. This delivers a sequential read speeds of up to 10.8GB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 9.5GB/s.
That’s more than double of the typical sequential read speeds of 4.2GB/s of UFS 4.0 solutions found on most flagship smartphones.
Besides higher performance, Samsung says the new storage is also more power efficient. It claims a 40% improvement in power efficiency compared to the previous generation while maintaining high performance levels needed for AI workloads.
The packaging for its UFS 5.0 solution has also been made smaller, measuring at 7.5mm x 13mm x 0.9mm, which is said to be 16.7% smaller than its predecessor. Samsung says the form factor boosts design flexibility to allow device makers to optimise internal space utilisation for various applications which include mobile, wearable and extended reality (XR) devices.
Samsung says the growing shift from cloud-based AI to on-device AI is driving demand for faster storage, as large amounts of data need to be processed locally. As a result, storage is evolving from just a medium to store data to becoming a core infrastructure that supports AI computing.
Mass production starts later this year
Samsung says mass production of its UFS 5.0 solution is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026. The storage will be available in various capacities of up to 1TB.
The company did not announce which devices will be the first to adopt the new UFS 5.0 storage. However, given Samsung’s history of introducing its latest memory technologies in flagship products first, UFS 5.0 might just make its debut on new flagship smartphones announced towards the end of 2026 or early 2027, which may include the upcoming Galaxy S27 series.
