The ADATA XPG SX950 480GB SSD Review: In Search of Premium

ADATA likes to produce a broad range of SSDs, sampling from all the controller and NAND manufacturers. To that end, they have wholeheartedly embraced the use of 3D MLC NAND even as most brands are using the 3D NAND transition to entirely remove MLC from their consumer product lines or relegate it to niche models instead of treating it as the mainstream default.

The ADATA XPG SX950 is their top of the line SATA SSD. Technologically, it is very similar to their Ultimate SU900: both use the same Micron 3D MLC NAND and Silicon Motion SM2258 controller. The SX950 is distinguished by reserving more spare area (yielding usable capacities like 480GB instead of 512GB) and a six-year warranty instead of five. The SU900 has a 2TB model listed but not yet available, while the SX950 line only goes up to 960GB, with limited availability of the largest model.

From a performance standpoint, the ADATA XPG SX950 tries to be a premium SATA SSD by using 3D MLC in a market dominated by TLC NAND. The SX950 offers the highest SATA performance ADATA could deliver, but it's still not fast enough to match Samsung's SATA SSDs, and ADATA made too many sacrifices for the sake of maximizing peak performance.