CONCLUSION

    Although the i5 Gen5 SSD sample I received was of the lowest available capacity (1TB models are typically slower compared to their higher capacity brothers) it performed better than expected. It even surpassed all Gen5 SSD models in my charts, at least in some of the tests and so I can’t complain about its read and write performance (besides, the SM2508 controller by Silicon Motion has proven its worth time and again). Durability is alright, 600TBW may not seem great but that’s the number of many other 1TB models in the market so nothing new here. My sole issue with the i5 line is the same as with most SSD lines out there, lack of high capacity models. Even if there’s an 4TB capacity scheduled for release it will still not be large enough for some consumers and professionals.

    The bigger issue than available capacities is current global availability and well, I was only able to find the i5 1TB Gen5 M.2 SSD by Anacomda inside Taiwan for around USD120/106Euros. I honestly don’t know what’s taking Anacomda so long to send the i5 Gen5 SSD line to their suppliers (perhaps it's due to everything revolving around datacenters lately) but whatever the reason what matters is that most people can’t get their hands on it. Thanks to its performance  across the board the i5 Gen5 SSD is certainly worth of the Golden Award, now all that’s left is for Anacomda to get it out there.

PROS

- Quality
- Top Performance (Over 14000MB/s)
- Endurance (1.5 Million Hours MTBF / 600TBW)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Current Available Capacities (Only 1/2TB)
- Current Availability