The Samsung SSD 850 120GB Review: A Little TLC for SATA

Conclusion: It's a Good Option at 120GB

There are few options for a decent 120GB class SSD in today's market. For the most part, modern NAND flash chips have simply outgrown this market segment. Entry-level drives are almost always based on TLC NAND, and that means relatively few high-capacity dies. The drives are also strongly dependent on SLC write caching for offering the best peak performance, but a 120GB drive doesn't have room for much cache. Every 120GB-class drive carries a steep price/GB premium over the next size up, such as $50 for 120GB and $70 for 240GB.

The Samsung SSD 850 120GB can't overcome all of those handicaps, but it comes close. Overall performance is on par with or better than the discontinued Samsung 850 EVO 120GB, though the two have slightly different strengths and weaknesses. Samsung's dominance is clear from the number of tests where all of the Samsung drives outperform all of the competing TLC-based 120GB-class SSDs. But these are still all low-end drives. A 250GB class drive will be significantly faster and offer far more storage for the money. The Samsung SSD 850 120GB is one of the better choices out of a mediocre pool, but most users should opt for a 240GB or larger drive instead.

If Samsung wanted to brand the 850 120GB as a full member of the 850 EVO family, it would be worthy. We can't really expect any better performance from a drive this size, and Samsung can probably afford to extend the warranty to match the 5 years offered with other 850 EVOs. So far, the 850 120GB has seen limited release in Asia, but it's suitable for a global release, provided the price is right. Measured against today's steep discounts for Cyber Monday, the SSD 850 120GB could fit in to the US market somewhere around $60.