Review: Sandisk Ultra Plus SSD 256GB
The Sandisk Ultra Plus SSD is a midrange SSD aimed at the consumer market and offers double the storage space for a similar cost to the 'performance' SSDs.
Sandisk are reasonably new to the consumer market, but are very established in the OEM market. Having started out with a budget SSD myself, the main issue is the poor write speeds compared to read speeds, but Sandisk advertise speeds of 530 MB/s write, 445 MB/s read, not far off the big brother Sandisk Extreme II (reviewed here), with advertised speeds of 550MB/s read, 510MB/s write.
The Sandisk Ultra Plus does get near the advertised speeds and is a fast steady performer. If you're not a power user, you wouldn't notice the difference between the Ultra Plus and the Extreme. If you are a power user, the upgrade to the Extreme II is worth it for intensive applications.
I am still amazed with SSDs, how quickly the applications open. I see friends who are still struggling away on their laptops with 5200 rpm drives. They might as well be getting a coffee when opening an application!
Why do some SSDs not come with a cloning kit? Laptop owners would love the speed boost this gives, but it's awkward to clone the drives as there's not usually a second drive space. Does that make changing to an SSD then fall into the too hard pile?
Pros:
- Rejoice! 1$ per GB for fast SSDs is here
- Real world speeds do reach near advertised
- Is as fast/er as 128Gb performance SSDs
Cons:
- No cloning or migration software
- No AES or encryption (not a showstopper)
Summary:
The Sandisk Ultra Plus is not as fast as the performance SSDs, but offers great performance at a really reasonable price. If you're looking to upgrade your computer and you've maxed the RAM, consider this, it'll be the next best upgrade you make.
RRP: $299
Score: 4/5
