The Framework now offers Steam-Deck-sized SSDs simply because it can

Steam Deck and Microsoft Surface owners looking to get more SSD storage than usually offered (and for less money) have a new unexpected source: Framework, a repairable laptop company.

Seeing a need for reliable suppliers of smaller M.2 drives, the company decided to “add one more item”to its regular Western Digital drive order. As such, the company began offering the $300 2TB M.2 2230 drive at its stores in the United States and Canada. As of this writing, the discs are sold out, but you can sign up to be notified when they become available again.

describes this step to update Steam Deck Surface devices

As we noted in an article about the growing availability of miniature SSDs, these drives are not cheap, but they still provide significant savings compared to the prices of large OEMs.

Upgrading a Surface Laptop Go 2 from a 128GB SSD to 256GB costs between $50 and $100 if you buy from Microsoft or another retailer and higher capacity drives aren’t available. Microsoft will charge $300 to upgrade a Surface Pro 9 from 256GB SSD to 512GB and $600 to upgrade from 256GB to 1TB. Different Steam Deck price tiers have other non-storage benefits, but going from the base model’s 64GB of slow eMMC storage to a 256GB SSD still costs at least $130.

Buying from a name like Western Digital via Framework is also likely to be a better bet than buying from lesser known vendors on eBay or other marketplaces. While these drives do not carry the Framework label and therefore do not carry the company’s one-year warranty, there is still a 30-day return policy and a wider range of support options. The Framework Warranty language assumes that the actual failure or failure response will be handled by Western Digital.