This is the first Samsung flash SSD device that is available in retail channels - which becomes obvious after a look at the product. Not only does it have a useful product sticker, which includes information on the firmware version and power requirements, but it also comes in a highly attractive aluminum enclosure, which fits into a standard 2.5" 9.5 mm drive bay. As you an see on the photos, the Samsung flash SSD is a solid state drive that has a sleek design. Let's hope that the test results live up to the device's looks.

The I/O performance isn't stellar, as it is typically behind the results of the Ridata and especially the performance-levels the Mtron drives offer. However, it is still faster than the first-generation UltraATA Flash SSDs from Samsung, and faster than the SanDisk SSD5000. The read transfer rate of 54.5 MB/s is a quick as the results the Ridata drive offers, but it's far away from the 68 MB/s of the Sandisk and the 94 MB/s of the Ridata drives. Sequential write performance of the 64 GB Samsung SSD stays between 23.9 and 30.4 MB/s, which is comparable to Ridata, but worlds away from Sandisk and Mtron, in particular.

Samsung's 64 GB Flash SSD provides data for Windows XP startup at twice the speed as the WD Raptor WD1500. But it is still slower than SanDisk and Mtron. However, it did very well in our test for the launch time of Adobe Photoshop CS3, which at 5.8 seconds was almost as quick as the Mtron Flash SSD. Ridata takes 7.5 seconds for this task, while the WD Raptor requires 9.3 seconds.

Samsung did well in our power-consumption tests. Its idle power of 0.9 W equals the power requirement of an average 5,400 RPM 2.5" drive, but the maximum power requirement of 1.5 W is only half of what mechanical hard drives require. Mtron requires twice the power of an 64 GB Samsung drive, but Sandisk is a whopping 50% more efficient while it offers more performance in most benchmarks.