It was a week ago that KitGuru published its review of the WD Blue 500GB SSD with 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND technology. At the time, we expected pricing for the review unit to be a penny under £168, but it seems that the stock that landed at UK retailers this week, has done so at an even more competitive price. As a result, we are following up, taking a deeper look at UK pricing and availability.
With the 3rd fastest CrystalDiskMark test score we've ever seen for a 2.5″ drive, the WD Blue 3D is no slouch and ATTO reported 564/534MB/s for reads and writes. Although power saving on your data sub system might not be high on the spec-list for most of our reader's desktop systems, knowing that 3D NAND does use less power (52mW Vs 70mW) might be a consideration when looking at laptops (gaming or otherwise).
If our review peaked your interest in 3D NAND products, it looks like shopping around is in order. Just checking Scan and eBuyer, we can see price disparity. The cheapest option for the WD Blue 500GB model seems to be £158.48 with the 250GB model around £89.99.
That price for the larger drive means it's around £9 cheaper than when we reviewed it. Prices going down at launch? Now that's a pleasant surprise.
KitGuru Says: Outside of switching to an M.2 configuration, the latest 3D NAND SSD drives promise the best performance possible with a SATA controller.