First NGFF SSDs Show Up in Lenovo ThinkPad E431 Notebook
The first commercially available NGFF SSD has been spotted inside a Lenovo laptop.

It appears that the upcoming NGFF (Next Generation Form Factor) SSDs have appeared as an option in one of Lenovo's laptops -- the ThinkPad Edge R431. While buyers can only choose from one size SSD, it's still nice to see new form factors arrive.
Users can choose from either a 24 GB NGFF SSD or No NGFF SSD. The added cost for the 24 GB NGFF SSD is $50. The intent is clearly for the unit to be used as a caching SSD.
NGFF SSDs are SSDs that might appear similar to mSATA SSDs, but they are actually even a tad smaller, measuring just 42 x 22 mm. In contrast, mSATA SSDs measure 51 mm x 30 mm. They are also 1 mm thinner for double sided units, and 2.1 mm thinner for single sided units, at just 2.75 mm thick.

To be honest, I doubt we needed this. mSATA/mPCIe is already pretty damn small. And it's not going to stop apple et al going DIY.
- we already have mSATA/mPCIe
- and the speed is there as well, the new SSD drive format doesn't give you more speed, just a tad smaller form factor
When manufacturers must make thinner laptops its critical to get as many components as small as possible, so this is just one of many components that must shrink
its clearly different than a mSATA connector.
Fair enough... They didn't HAVE to use a new connector then
mPCIe has at least one lane (I can't find a definitive source), and that's plenty for most things. If you need anything faster, give it PCIe 3.0, for a GB/s each way.
Besides, who's going to put a GPU or similar on one of these? It won't fit and you can't deal with the heat.
So use a half-length one.
When manufacturers must make thinner laptops its critical to get as many components as small as possible, so this is just one of many components that must shrink
When manufacturers must make thinner laptops its critical to get as many components as small as possible, so this is just one of many components that must shrink