Solid state is the opposite of vacuum tube technology, which depended on the continuous and free flow of electron charges with a vacuum. It is also used in contrast to any device with a moving part, such as a hard disk drive (HDD). Solid state technology is primarily used to build devices with a semiconductor able to manage the flow of positive and negative electric charges.

Electronic and computing devices built on solid state technology include transistors, insulators, integrated circuits (IC), memory and storage equipment, with the exception of electromechanical devices.

A great example of the usage of solid state is in flash memory for mobile devices, such as tablets or USB keys. It is not possible to put a hard drive in a mobile device because moving parts are required. As such, there is a general trend towards the economical pricing of solid state storage.