Last Updated on December 1, 2023 by Daniel Osakwe
Just got my hands on the Samsung 860 Pro. This is a new SSD from Samsung. It has an MLC NAND flash memory. It has a SATA III interface and is rated at 550 MB/s. It’s available in capacities up to 512 GB. The drive is fast. Samsung claims it will be twice as fast as the SATA II drives that were used in most high-end laptops.
The drive is rated at 550 MB/s. However, I’ve seen speeds of up to 540 MB/s using the Samsung 860 Pro SSD, with only one application running. I’m not sure what the maximum speed is, but I know that I’ve seen higher speeds.
Samsung claims that the 860 Pro is twice as fast as SATA II SSDs. However, I didn’t notice a huge difference when I ran some benchmarks. I’m not sure if this is due to the drive being new, or if the SATA III interface is just a bit slower than the SATA II interface.
Table of Contents
Samsung 860 Pro: Features
With Samsung’s latest 64-layer V-NAND technology, the 860 Pro series now offers sequential read and write speeds of 560 MB/s and 530 MB/s, respectively. As a result, the Samsung 850 Pro can now read and write at an additional 10 MB/s, but we are really approaching the theoretical 600 MB/s limits of SATA III at this point.
The new memory structure has also allowed Samsung to introduce a version of the 860 Pro with a 4TB capacity, though it comes at an absurdly high price of $1,899 (about £1,360, AU$2,380).
Fortunately, there are sensible-sized and priced drives starting at $139 for 256GB, $249 for 512GB, $479 for 1TB and $949 for 2TB (about £680, AU$1,190).
Samsung has also integrated a new MJX control on top of the new 2bit MLC V-NAND architecture to increase speed and reliability. The Self-Encrypting Drive technology and AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption ensure your data remains secure.
Finally, Samsung promises that the 860 Pro will endure writing 4,800 terabytes of data without breaking – eight times more than the Samsung 850 Pro’s “Total Bytes Written” (TBW) guarantee.
BENCHMARKS
- Crystaldisk Mark (Sequential) Read: 562.9 MB/s; Write: 532.7 MB/s
- Crystaldisk Mark (Random) Read: 353.5 MB/s; Write: 345.2 MB/s
- ATTO Benchmark (Sequential) Read: 564.5 MB/s; Write: 535.5 MB/s
Performance
In comparison to the 850 Pro, the 860 Pro isn’t exponentially faster. We found only a negligible increase in speed of 1 to 2 MB/s after all our testing.
In the end, this is not a shortcoming of Samsung’s 64-layer V-NAND, but the 6 Gbps limit imposed by SATA III. Basically, there is no more bandwidth available and this is the death knell for SATA-based solid-state drives.
As a result, the Samsung 860 Pro offers the fastest data transfer speeds we’ve seen with SATA SSDs. Additionally, the new MJX controller and all the underlying improvements allow it to stand out from its competitors.
Samsung 860 Pro: Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Improved security and reliability | SATA III limits maximum write and reads speeds |
| New 4TB capacity model | |
| Slightly faster speeds |
Final verdict
Samsung 850 Pro and 850 EVO SSD owners won’t miss out on much here. Enterprise users will find the Samsung 860 Pro’s improved security and reliability, and its availability of a new 4TB model most useful.
As a result of SATA III’s limitations, there isn’t much of an improvement in performance to warrant upgrading or purchasing this drive over Samsung’s last generation SSDs – which will likely be more affordable in the near future.
