Samsung recently introduced their 850 Pro SSDs, which are the first consumer-oriented SSDs based on 3D V-NAND, or stacked flash memory. And for those of you who don't really care about this innovation in the domain of flash memory, we also have good news, seeing as how both the performance and the endurance of these SSDs has increased significantly. Do they allow Samsung to reclaim the performance crown?

Due to a combination of competitive pricing and good performance, Samsung has over the course of the last few years managed to claim over half of the market for individually sold SSDs in the Benelux. The 840 series was and still is a success: the 840 Pro was without a doubt the fastest SSD when it was released, whereas the 840 Evo was priced extremely competitively due to the use of TLC memory. Because of this, Samsung had the ideal product both for consumers who desire the best performance, and consumers who feel that an SSD's price tag is its most important attribute.

While the 840 Pro did lose its performance crown over the course of the last few months, these SSDs still offer top tier performance despite having been introduced in December 2012, which is more than one and a half years ago. At the same time, SSDs such as the OCZ Vector 150 manage to outperform the 840 Pro in many benchmarks, although they admittedly don't sell quite as well.