Specifications, Pricing and Availability

Samsung released the 840 Pro in three capacity sizes - 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. We've already looked at the 128GB model around a month ago and plan to scale to the 512GB over time. Today we're putting the 256GB drive through the ringer.

Samsung does a good job providing performance data to end users on their webpage. The 256GB rates at 540MB/s sequential read, 520MB/s sequential write. IOPS performance is very impressive, up to 100K IOPS random read and 90K IOPS random write speed. Samsung does not go into any detail at all about their NAND. We would really like to know the program erase cycles, but at this time Samsung doesn't provide any details at all other than it's MLC on the 840 Pro and TLC on the 840.

Samsung's 840 and 840 Pro ships in 7mm z-height, a nice feature since many ultrabooks on the market use either mSATA or 7mm 2.5" form factors.

Samsung backs the 840 Pro with a five year warranty. After looking at Newegg we found only a handful of single and two star ratings for the 840 Pro 256GB, a good indication that the product is reliable, most of the star ratings were five or four with excellent feedback. Newegg shows the 256GB drive at $249.99 at the time of writing. That price also includes free two day shipping.

The 840 Pro product line uses the same Samsung Magician Software as the 840. The same software package also rolls over to the Pro line with data migration software included in the bundle. We covered the software in the 840 500GB review last month.