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Conclusion
Phison finally has the performance of its PS3110-S10 up to a level where it competes with the fastest SATA SSDs available. It only took a year after the launch of Corsair's Neutron XT. And we're told to expect at least one more major performance optimization in the coming months. As Phison works on optimizing for servers, we could see the S10 make a run at SanDisk's Extreme Pro.
In many respects, Klevv's Urbane already competes against Samsung 850 Pro. At the same time, though, it still falls short in some areas.
The Urbane only gives you a three-year warranty, which is way less than Samsung's 10-year guarantee on the 850 Pro and five-year 850 EVO coverage. We have yet to receive pricing on the Klevv, though a couple of reports from Europe suggest the drives will sell for somewhere around 30 and 35 cents per gigabyte of capacity. Searching for a parallel, we dug into the Urbane system memory prices on Newegg and found the company's RAM costs quite a bit more than Corsair's comparable Dominator Platinum family. Both fall into the premium category and have little to do with SSDs. Still, the comparison gives us a look at Klevv's approach in other markets.
In this review, we mentioned Zotac's Premium Edition SSD several times. That drive and the Urbane have different flash inside, dissimilar bundles and enclosures that look nothing alike. For the most part, though, their performance is fairly comparable. The Urbane does do its job with a bit more pizzazz (plus a copy of data migration software). Klevv also states in its specifications that the Urbane has an 1860 TBW rating; Zotac doesn't list an endurance rating.
With so many SSDs to choose from and PCIe-based devices topping most enthusiasts' wish lists, the SATA-based market really comes down to pricing. If Klevv can keep the Urbane selling for less than Samsung's 850 EVO, it'll become a serious contender in our recommendations. You get 850 Pro-like workstation performance, which is great for applications where large-block sequential transfers make up most of the workload. Heavy random workloads aren't as impressive, but the Urbane is still fast enough to make your computer feel nice and snappy.
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Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
