Throughout testing, the 1TB Samsung 850 EVO has proven to be quite the performer. Utilizing the same controller as the 850 Pro and 840 EVO, we were able to see great speeds in our synthetic tests. Reads and writes both pushing past 500MB/s.

TRIM Performance: While SSDs offer many benefits, there are some downsides to using flash memory. One of the biggest issues people run into is performance degradation. Over time, an SSD will run out of fresh blocks and will have to write over data the file system has marked as deleted.

Equipped with 3-bit 3D V-NAND; Available in 120GB; 250GB; 500GB and 1TB capacities; Features RAPID mode and TurboWrite technology; Excellent sequential read and write speeds under most conditions; Good random read performance; Performs equally well with compressible and incompressible data; Good...

Mediocre random write performance; RAPID mode is Windows only

Faster, significantly increased longevity and at the same time lower production costs. These three seemingly contradicting aspects are what Samsung are said to have succeeded with 3D V-NAND.

TurboWrite cache accelerates esp; smaller models, Supports Microsoft eDrive (encryption, Very good everyday performance, Five-year warranty

Loss of performance under extreme load

After getting this, i'd never go back to a HDD. It's just so much faster.

Great, fast SSD and apart from one issue easy to install. Beware that this does not come with a USB/SATA cable and that putting it in some enclosures for the cloning step will not work.

Sometimes, even if you're only spending a small amount of money, it's worth shelling out that little bit more and getting yourself a superior piece of technology. That edict is very much true when it comes to getting a new solid state drive for your PC, actually.

Excellent performance; Great warranty conditions; Great bundled Magician software

More expensive than competitors; Competition also from cheaper high-end drives; Magician only on Windows

The M.2 socket first appeared a couple of years ago and the market has been slow to take it up in force. Whether, like Thunderbolt, this is because there is already a huge market for regular devices, or whether storage manufacturers are waiting to see which of the two variants will be the winner -...

SSDs continue to drop in price, to the point that there's little excuse not to have one in your PC or laptop, but storage capacity remains a concern. Most SATA SSDs top out at 1TB, so you'll almost definitely need to add a second traditional hard disk if you want to guarantee you won't run out of...

Excellent price at puxma is and delivered promptly. Easy to fit into my MacBook pro. Not much data stored yet so difficult to tell if it makes the expected difference in performance though some benefit already

Size and capacity

Cost

The 2.5" SATA versions of the 850 EVO will be available 'later this month (December)', with M.2 and mSATA versions coming 'next year'. The 840 EVO was a great launch and sold very well, but Samsung did not rest on their laurels.