Toshiba THNSNJ512GCSU review

Toshiba used to be a leader in SSDs, but the company has fallen behinds rivals Crucial and Samsung with SSDs that aren’t as cheap, as fast or as widely available as the competition. The awkwardly named THNSNJ512GCSU is Toshiba’s latest 512GB SSD, but it failed to impress us.

Like the Vertex 460, made by Toshiba’s subsidiary company OCZ, the THNSNJ512GCSU uses 19nm Toshiba NAND flash. Unlike the Vertex 460 but like Crucial’s SSDs, Toshiba has fitted this SSD with a Marvell controller loaded with its own custom firmware.

Although the THNSNJ512GCSU performed well when reading files, it was surprisingly slow when writing them. Large files were read at a fast 447.3MB/s, but read at just 140MB/s which is almost a quarter of the speed of rival Samsung and Crucial SSDs. Small files were read at a speedy 97.6MB/s, but written at only 123MB/s which is 30-40MB/s slower than the competition. The THNSNJ512GCSU  is faster than any 2.5in mechanical hard disk, but the slow write speeds make the THNSNJ512GCSU a slow SSD overall. Even the cheaper Vertex 460 trounces it.

This flawed performance might be acceptable at a low price, but the THNSNJ512GCSU costs £272, which works out to be a high 53p per gigabyte. There are no accessories, such as a PC mounting bracket or backup software, included either. The 512GB version of the Crucial MX100 is far better value. The 512GB MX100 costs just £160 or 31p per gigabyte, yet it leaves the THNSNJ512GCSU in the dust and even comes with useful data transfer software. Unless Toshiba’s latest SSD drops dramatically in price, there’s no reason to buy it.