Samsung SSD 850 Pro (128GB, 256GB & 1TB) Review: Enter the 3D Era
by Kristian Vättö on July 1, 2014 10:00 AM ESTFinal Words
Samsung does not cease to amaze me with their SSDs as the 850 Pro just kills it in every aspect. The performance is there. The endurance is the best of the class. Heck, even Samsung's feature and software suites beat the competition by a mile. To be honest, there is not a single thing missing in the 850 Pro because regardless of the angle you look at the drive from, it it will still top the charts.
Samsung's heavy investment on NAND R&D and specifically 3D NAND is really paying off in the 850 Pro. Thanks to the more efficient structure of 3D NAND, Samsung has been able to improve all three main aspects of NAND i.e. performance, endurance and power consumption. It will be very hard for anyone to compete with the 850 Pro as the characteristics of V-NAND are superior compared to 2D NAND. The density is also very competitive against the smallest 2D NAND nodes, meaning that V-NAND should not carry a hefty premium over MLC.
| NewEgg Price Comparison (6/28/2014) | ||||
| 120/128GB | 240/256GB | 480/512GB | 960GB/1TB | |
| Samsung SSD 850 Pro (MSRP) | $130 | $200 | $400 | $700 |
| Samsung SSD 840 Pro | $120 | $190 | $401 | - |
| Samsung SSD 840 EVO | $80 | $140 | $240 | $420 |
| SanDisk Extreme Pro | - | $200 | $370 | $600 |
| SanDisk Extreme II | $80 | $150 | $260 | - |
| Crucial MX100 | $75 | $110 | $210 | - |
| Crucial M550 | $104 | $157 | $280 | $491 |
| Plextor M6S | $100 | $145 | $400 | - |
| Intel SSD 730 | - | $270 | $500 | - |
| Intel SSD 530 | $94 | $165 | $330 | - |
| OCZ Vector 150 | $115 | $190 | $370 | - |
Update: Samsung just provided us the updated MSRPs, which I have added to the table. The old MSRPs were $230 for 256GB, $430 for 512GB and $730 for the 1TB capacity. This certainly makes the 850 Pro more price competitive with the Extreme Pro, although the 1TB drive is still $100 more.
The MSRPs, on the other hand, are a bit of a letdown. I was hoping that Samsung would have priced the 850 Pro more aggressively because now they are asking anywhere between $30 and $130 more than what SanDisk is charging for the Extreme Pro. The 850 Pro is certainly a better drive in all areas but forking over up to $130 more for one can be difficult to justify. Of course, as with all MSRPs, they should be taken with a grain of salt and I certainly hope that the actual street prices end up being closer to the Extreme Pro ones the 850 Pro becomes available in the next few weeks.
If you are looking for a SATA 6Gbps drive and want the absolute best, the 850 Pro is your pick. It is without a doubt the best drive in the market as long as you are able to justify the price premium over other options.
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Cerb - Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - link
The SSD just quitting could brick the drive, and could hose up the FS. Like ECC RAM, if you need power loss protection, you need it regardless of file system. IMO, they should all at least be equipped with enough to gracefully finish in-progress writes and shut down (not necessarily empty buffers, but set up a state that they can be guaranteed to be able to roll back from).sonicology - Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - link
Typo?"Scaling below 20nm was seemed as a major obstacle but the industry was able to cross that..."
seemed a major obstacle or seen as a major obstacle, but not seemed as a major obstacle
Bladen - Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - link
Is it just me, or does the "Performance Consistency" page have interactive charts, all of which are entitled "(SSD name and capacity) - 4KB Random Write (QD32) Performance", but with different results in each of the graphs for the same SSDs and capacities? Also, descriptive text is missing below the last two.I'm presuming they are supposed to be a read and another read or write one, presumably at a lower queue depth.
MrSpadge - Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - link
They're the same data in different scales.paesan - Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - link
I purchased a 512GB MX100 when they first came out for $199. No way the extra speed from the 850 pro is worth over twice the price as the MX100. Nobody is going to keep that drive for 10 years anyway. In 10 years the drive will be obsolete. Most users won't even notice the difference in speed in their every day usage.MrSpadge - Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - link
BTW: that image is surely not an X-Ray but "just" an ordinary SEM image (scanning electron microscope).Spatty - Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - link
This is correct. SEM image after a FIB.drwho9437 - Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - link
As I mentioned elsewhere, it is probably a STEM bright field image after a FIB liftout of the gate stack. Certainly not an X-ray; he should be correct the article...Cerb - Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - link
"The wear out causes the insulators to lose their insulating characters" - shouldn't that be characteristic(s)?jann5s - Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - link
I'm wondering If this technology will also end up in SD (XD) memory cards?