Samsung has just announced the commercial release of first computers with NAND flash based solid state disk (SSD), that replaces traditional hard drive. And one of the first devices to get this NAND based flash is none other then Samsung Q1 UMPC.

NAND flash based SSD drives are the new generation of hard drives that can be used in a PC. They are very quiet and twice as light as the smallest 1.8″ HDD. NAND SSD’s are also much more reliable in portable applications - can withstand two times stronger impacts then traditional hard drives and are much easier to recover data from when dropped into the liquids or spilled upon.

NAND flash based SSD’s have significantly faster data transfer rates - 4x faster (53 MB/s) reading and 2.5 times faster writing speeds, therefore they are great for multitasking. According to Samsung, Windows XP on NAND SSD will start 25-50% faster then from traditional HDD.

As the it’s UMPC models before, Samsung Q1-SSD will be able to play media files and watch TV without booting Windows, so Samsung claims that this UMPC is at least 30% faster then stand alone personal multimedia players.

Quieter, lighter, more reliable and faster UMPC - is there anything not to like? Well, as for now Samsung Q1-SSD will be sold only in Korea. And very few will buy them anyway. Since the first NAND SSD’s are very expensive you will have to shell out $2430 for Samsung Q1-SSD with 32GB NAND drive.

Samsung press release