Flash storage's enduring trade-offs: density gains vs. wear limits

Flash memory, particularly NAND, dominates portable storage due to its compact size, low latency, and shock resistance compared to hard drives. However, it costs more per gigabyte, degrades with repeated write-erase cycles, and remains slower than system RAM. Modern techniques like 3D stacking and multi-bit cells improve density but often reduce endurance, especially in QLC designs.