CONCLUSION

   Releasing an SSD model without a DRAM module is not a first time for Toshiba and although because of that their SSDs do take a performance hit thanks to the Adaptive SLC write cache technology it’s almost impossible to spot. On the other hand however although their SLC write cache technology works as advertised the MLC portion used with it is obviously not “large” enough and that’s very easy to spot in some of our tests. That being said both read and write performance levels are very good and in most of our tests surpass those of similar models like the 535 Series by Intel (in IOMeter however the 535 takes the lead). Thanks to the Storage Utilities software by Toshiba things get even more interesting but without checking out its price we can’t really make up our minds.

   Price seems to be the quite balanced too (especially since you’re also getting NTI's Echo 3 software for drive cloning) since the Toshiba Q300 Pro 256GB currently retails for USD99.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 108Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). True you can find other 240/250/256GB models like the 850 EVO by Samsung for slightly less but you will need to spend slightly more (roughly 5-10% for let’s say the Extreme Pro by SanDisk) to get one of the faster models in the market. At the end of the day we do feel that Toshiba has the resources and knowledge to release something faster and better than the Q300 Pro but still thanks to its performance, features, bundle and 5 warranty this is a solid solution for consumers and gamers and that’s why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Toshiba 15nm Toggle-Mode NAND Flash/Toshiba Controller)
- Very Good Performance
- Retail Bundle (7mm To 9.5mm Bracket / NTI Echo 3 Cloning Software
- 5 Years Warranty / 1.5 Million Hours MTTF
- Toshiba Storage Utilities
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- IOmeter SNIA Performance