EMMC storage

What does it do?

The very cheapest laptops sometimes come with EMMC storage (pictured) rather than the more typical SSD. EMMC stands for ‘embedded multimedia card’. This is like running your laptop from a flash storage memory card, albeit one that’s soldered to the motherboard and can’t be removed. One example is Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Go (pictured icctured right), which we reviewed viiewed in Issue 596. Thee The cheapest model (£549) comes with

64GB of EMMC storage.

How does it work?

Memory cards and EMMC drives typically run on a single chip and otherwise contain very little hardware. This makes them small and cheap to produce. SSDS, on the other hand, use multiple memory chips and contain more hardware, which lets them perform complex tasks, such as saving a lot of data to multiple memory chips at the same time. And because the chips used in SSDS are larger and more reliable, they help your computer perform significantly faster

What are the specs?

When you’re buying a laptop, check whether the built-in storage is an SSD (also sometimes referred to as M.2 or NVME) or an EMMC. You don’t have to avoid EMMC drives completely, but just be aware that they are a compromise, and won’t provide the same performance as an SSD drive. The upside is that they can make a laptop considerably cheaper.

Can I change it later?

You can’t remove an EMMC drive and replace it with an SSD, but you might be able to bypass the EMMC by using an external drive instead, especially if the laptop has a USB-C port.