Samsung 850 Pro 2TB review

First to the 2TB barrier, but at what cost?

Samung 850 Pro

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We liked

The sheer 2TB of the new Samsung 850 Pro is obviously its key defining feature. It means you no longer have to choose between a big but relatively dumb magnetic drive and a small but slick SSD. You can now have speed and capacity in a single drive.

Other highlights include the stellar endurance ratings, that awesome 10 year warranty and excellent performance for a SATA SSD.

We disliked

Apart from the fairly obvious fact that the Samsung 850m Pro 2TB is hideously expensive, it's also very conspicuously limited by its SATA interface.

Where the latest PCI Express-powered M.2 drives are kicking out nearly 2GB/s of raw bandwidth, the peak performance of this mega money SSD is closer to one quarter of that figure. Oops.

Final verdict

Prepare yourself for the trotting out of cliches. For if ever there was a horses-for-course verdict, this is it.

Viewed in the broad context of all SSDs, the new Samsung 850 Pro 2TB is dead slow. The latest M.2 drives absolutely annihilate it for raw performance.

However, narrow the context down to SATA drives and it suddenly finds itself at the very top of the pack. So it really comes down to you buying needs and preferences. If you need the biggest and best SATA SSD for something like a laptop upgrade, this Sammy is a killer, albeit at a price.

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Contributor

Technology and cars. Increasingly the twain shall meet. Which is handy, because Jeremy (Twitter) is addicted to both. Long-time tech journalist, former editor of iCar magazine and incumbent car guru for T3 magazine, Jeremy reckons in-car technology is about to go thermonuclear. No, not exploding cars. That would be silly. And dangerous. But rather an explosive period of unprecedented innovation. Enjoy the ride.