850 Evo or a 250 GB Samsung solid-state drive

It all started when I decided to make a major move from my old computer to a new one, and I decided to start with the drive. Since this is going to be a major overhaul, there won't actually be a direct replacement; the old drives will most likely be moved somewhere else entirely.
So this will just be an inspection, some tests, and, as always, a teardown.

I chose the 250 GB model for this review for a reason. In my opinion, it offers the best capacity-to-price ratio, so it could be a better deal if it passes the tests :)

A little digression. About 18 years ago, I bought a laptop. It was my first IBM-compatible computer. It had a Toshiba hard drive with a whopping 240 MB of capacity, but I didn't use it for very long. I fried it while trying to connect it to a desktop computer because I used an extension cable instead of connecting it directly (the 2.5-inch IDE cable also carries power). I had to buy a new drive: a used Seagate 810 MB drive that cost about $60. These days, you can easily buy a drive with 1,000 times the capacity for that kind of money.
So my introduction to hard drives was with 2.5-inch drives, not 3.5-inch ones, as was often the case.

Enough digressing; time to get down to business.
I'll try to keep the review short, since there's not much to say about a drive. I'll take it apart and test it.

This solid-state drive is made by Samsung, a fairly large company. I have mixed feelings about the company's products. I usually say: their electronics are good, but anything with mechanical parts is best avoided. That was also true of the manufacturer's first hard drives, which had their share of problems. Though, what company hasn't had problems?
In any case, Samsung is one of the largest electronics manufacturers, including computer components.

The drive arrived in a fairly large branded box with a strange sticker in the corner.
Unfortunately, because of its size, the packaging is pretty flimsy, and the postal service crumpled it quite badly :(
On the other hand, the contents were undamaged, and I don't really need the box anyway.
Inside the cardboard box is a plastic tray holding the drive, along with a manual.



Inside the cardboard box is a plastic tray holding the drive, along with a manual.
The manual is basic and, in my opinion, not particularly useful, since replacing a drive involves different steps in each individual case.
A CD was also included. I didn't need it, but just in case, here's its contents — download.



On the outside, it's a standard-looking drive in the usual 2.5-inch form factor. These are used in laptops and mini PCs.


There's an arrow on top of the case indicating which side the connectors are on.


The label on the bottom lists all the necessary information. Interestingly, Samsung is a Korean company, but the drive was made in China.
It says the drive was manufactured in March of this year; the warranty period is usually counted from that date.


The drive is about 7 mm thick, which is close to the minimum for 2.5-inch drives.



The first thing that feels unusual when you pick up this drive is its weight. It really feels like it's empty inside.
I even decided to weigh it: a little over 40 grams.


Out of curiosity, I weighed an old 30 GB solid-state drive and a 250 GB hard drive.


A little more technical information.
The drives are built around Samsung chips made using a 40 nm process and use TLC V-NAND. Each cell stores three bits of information instead of two.
The rated write endurance is 75 TB. On the one hand, that's not much, but in normal use the drive will probably become obsolete before it wears out.
This isn't the PRO series, of course, which uses the MEX controller. The manufacturer “cut costs” by installing the less powerful MGX, although the MEX controller is used in the 1 TB models. This change affects drive performance, for example when working with large numbers of small files.

I don't think listing all the specifications and fully describing the technologies used to make this drive would be interesting, so I'll just post a table here.
But if you're curious, you can find more information here.


In the previous review, we didn't open up the drive, which was a shame, because taking it apart revealed one very significant difference from earlier models. Though this difference might not have been noticeable in the 120 GB model.


Now let's move on to the tests.
First, the usable capacity. Since I tested the drive in its intended device, it was already partitioned. Even so, you can see that the formatted capacity is about 232.77 GB. The calculated capacity should be 250,000,000,000 /1024/1024/1024=232.83 GB


SMART status. The drive has about 3 hours of power-on time; I spent that installing the OS, testing the drive, and just experimenting.


To rule out any test inaccuracies caused by caching, I ran the test twice, using 1 GB and 32 GB files.
As you can see, there's practically no difference in the results. Only the write speed dropped, and it nearly reached the SATA 3 interface limit of 600 MB/s.


HD Tune also read the drive's SMART data without any problems.


And, as expected, it showed a lower speed than the CrystalDiskMark test.
The peak speed was 383 MB/s, with an average of 353 MB/s


I also ran two more tests, with block sizes of 1 and 8 MB, respectively.



The performance test showed about 22,000 IOPS for random reads of 4 KB blocks. The table above listed 88,000–97,000 IOPS, though. I can't explain why: I have no reason to distrust either the article or the test. Perhaps different testing software was used, and I simply couldn't get the drive to show its full potential.



I ran this test mostly just for the sake of it, but it might be useful.


And finally, the average copy speed when copying a large number of small/medium files and a single large file from one partition to another—in other words, from the drive to itself.


And now, the verdict.
Pros
High performance
Excellent build quality
Large, well-known manufacturer
The 7 mm-thick case fits the vast majority of laptops and netbooks.
Software for working with the drive is included (I didn't need it)

Cons
The packaging was dented.
The price is questionable; whether there's a discount is still being confirmed.

My opinion: This really is an excellent drive (I'm probably going to get some downvotes for saying that). During inspection, disassembly, and testing, I couldn't find any flaws. I was very surprised to find a single memory chip instead of two, but on the other hand, it's probably just an updated model. I don't think that's a bad thing.
Perhaps this is why a 2 TB capacity version appeared, which wasn't listed in the comparison table.

It performed very well in use. The OS boots quickly, and applications launch just as fast. I didn't time the OS boot, since that depends on more than just drive speed, but it really is fast.
As far as I know, this drive comes with an international manufacturer's warranty, but unfortunately I can't say how a faulty drive is replaced.
I didn't test power consumption, but it barely gets warm in use. The chips don't touch the case (the case doesn't act as a heatsink), so you can use the drive without the case (though without a warranty, of course).


The product was provided by the store for review.