970 Evo 500 Go M 2

TechRadar Verdict

Under assault from cheaper, faster NVMe solid-state drives, the Samsung 970 Evo Plus proves why information technology's the male monarch of the SSDs again, with fastest transfer speeds thank you to its newly introduced 96-layer V-NAND tech.

Pros

+
Class-leading functioning
+
96-layer V-NAND and not just software drives faster speeds
+
Lower prices across the lath

Cons

-
Sequential write speeds slow under load

We never expected to come across a new NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) from Samsung this soon – particularly with the 970 Evo and 970 Pro launching just terminal April – but hither we are looking at the new Samsung 970 Evo Plus.

While it might seem like a minor upgrade unworthy of a fully numbered sequel, the Samsung 970 Evo Plus is a worthy successor, with the fastest speeds and some of the lowest prices seen on its NVMe SSD products.

Pricing and availability

The unabridged NVMe SSD world is engaged in something of a race to the lesser to offering the cheapest and fastest storage, and information technology seems Samsung has had to bend to market dynamics. The 970 Evo Plus line of SSDs is available now, starting at $89 (£83, AU$139) for 250GB followed $129 (£121, AU$199) for 500GB and $249 (£233, AU$385) for a 1TB drive. At that place will also be 2TB capacity units coming sometime in mid-Apr, which we've seen posted at £462 or AU$769 (about US$600) on Browse and PLE, respectively.

Samsung has brought is prices downwards across the board compared to the original 970 Evo, which launched in Apr 2018 with 250GB ($109 / £86 / AU$155), 500GB ($199 / £159 / AU$299), 1TB ($399 / £319 / AU$569) and 2TB ($599 / £529 / AU$659) capacity units.

Undoubtedly, these new price cuts are a effect of WD entering the market with the affordable WD Blackness SN750, which currently runs between $79 or £86 (most AU$110) for 250GB and $249 or £269 (virtually AU$350) for 1TB of chapters.

Samsung 970 Evo Plus review — Samsung 970 Evo Plus specs breakdown

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Features

Although it might seem like the 970 Evo Plus wasn't revolutionary enough to earn the name 980 Evo, it's the first drive from Samsung to introduce its new 96-layer V-NAND. The new form of memory is basically designed to stack higher, and reach higher speeds.

Specifically, the 970 Evo Plus is designed to write at 3300MB/s sequential writing speed – far outpacing the 970 Evo, which maxed out at two,500MB/southward, and fifty-fifty the 970 Pro's top iii,300Mb/due south – on sequential writes. Sequential writes remain at 3,500MB/s, but this is basically the gilded standard amidst the fastest SSDs on the market.

This new 96-layer V-NAND is especially pregnant as information technology makes Samsung one of the only companies to speed upwards its SSDs with new silicon, rather than just updated software.

On paper, the 970 Evo Plus exceeds the specs of the WD Black SN750, which runs at upwardly to sequential read and write speeds up to iii,470MB/s and 3,000 MB/due south, respectively.

If you were hoping for some contest when it comes to the warranty, unfortunately (or fortunately) WD and Samsung offer the aforementioned five years of coverage nearly the identical total terabytes written endurance as seen above. The only difference is the 250GB 970 Evo Plus is rated for 150TBW, whereas the 250GB WD Blackness SN750 rated for 200TBW.

These two drives actually are going at it neck-and-neck for the championship of the best-performing SSD in the world.

Higher is better

Functioning

The Samsung 970 Evo Plus' 96-layer V-NAND isn't just for show, this drive propels past both its predecessor and Samsung'south previous star performer, the 970 Pro. Information technology also beats its principal rival, the WD Black SN750, in a few areas.

Looking at how well the drive performed in both sequential and random data transfer tasks, the 970 Evo Plus comes out on top in every test except our 10GB file transfer.

Because that the Samsung 970 Evo Plus is meant to be a value-oriented, consumer SSD, we're really pleased by how well information technology performed – even outperforming the enterprise-leaning 970 Pro.

The merely mildly disappointing thing almost the drive is that it couldn't maintain its rated iii,300MB/southward sequential write speed under load.

Terminal verdict

As NVMe SSDs only proceed getting faster and cheaper, it was time for Samsung to respond in kind – and it has done, with its best drive even so. The Samsung 970 Evo Plus has reclaimed the throne as the best SSD, coming in at reasonable prices and delivering the best overall performance.

We accept a sneaking suspicion that we've only seen the beginnings of what Samsung can squeeze out of its new 96-layer Five-NAND technology. It's entirely possible that the visitor will produce a dramatically faster 970 Pro Plus drive that may fifty-fifty feature the new PCIe 4.0 standard Ryzen 3rd Generation processors will back up.

Of course, we're just speculating here. The most important thing you need to know is that the Samsung 970 Evo Plus is the best SSD money can purchase right at present.

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech ownership guides while also dipping his mitt in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of piece of work, Kevin is major movie vitrify of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.