Samsung today said that it has received a certification for its flash-based solid state disk drives (SSDs) from Microsoft's Windows Hardware Qualification Lab (WHQL). The company will offer the drives as a 32 GB 2.5" form factor version as well as slim-type devices with capacities of 16 and 32 GB.

Samsung claims that the drives will reach data read speeds of 57 MB/s and data write speed of 32 MB/s, which would be more than double the performance levels of a typical 1.8" hard disk drive. In a recent test conducted by Tom's Hardware Guide, a 32 GB Samsung SSD posted impressive performance numbers, but did not quite match the firm's claims: Read speed came in at about 50 MB/s and write speeds averaged 29 MB/s.

The test also found that the SSD consumed only 0.9 watts under full load, - less than half what a traditional notebook drive consumes. In idle mode, the drive asked for only 0.05 watts, which is 10 - 16% the power consumption of an idle hard drive. Samsung claims that the power characteristics can extend the battery running time of a SSD-based notebook by up to 30 minutes when compared to a system with a conventional hard drive.

Pricing of the devices has not been announced.