Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD Review - The New Performance King

Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD

The 850 Pro packages are a bit more menacing than the previous models.

The back of the proposed retail package shows the performance specifications, something we really like for retail shoppers. A list of features and the warranty information is also on the back. We call this the proposed package because sometime after SanDisk launched the Extreme Pro and my writing this review, the warranty moved from 5 years to 10.

The 850 Pro we received is a bare drive model with the SSD, two paper booklets and two stickers.

Here we get our first look at the drive. The square at the bottom now has a reddish tint to it while the older models were orange.

The model number, serial number and capacity size information is on the back of the drive.

The 850 Pro is a 7mm z-height SSD so it fits in the growing number of Ultrabooks on the market.

Inside we found a very small PCB inside the 2.5" drive case. Samsung is able to reduce the total manufacturing cost by shrinking the design. The 128GB model uses an even smaller PCB.

The overall design is actually very simple and cost effective.

Samsung used the 3-core MEX controller on 850 Pro, the same used in the EVO products.

The 1TB model we're looking at here has a 1GB LPDDR2 DRAM buffer.

Since the 850 Pro uses the same controller as the 840 EVO, the NAND flash is the main difference, along with the controller programming. This is our first real up close look at Samsung's new 3D V-NAND. On the surface it really doesn't look much different than 2D planar NAND that we've used since the first consumer SSDs hit the market.

Samsung used eight flash packages to get to the 1TB capacity size on the 850 Pro 2.5" drive.