The 850 Pro is Samsung's new flagship consumer SSD, and the follow-up to the wildly popular 840 Pro, which was one of the best performing SSDs money could buy when it launched in September 2012. We're reviewing the 512GB model here which is priced at £232 (US$399, around AUD$420).Apart from a small change from an orange logo to red, the 850 Pro's product packaging and the metallic shell of the drive look just like the older model. It has identical dimensions, including a height of 6.8mm, which ensures it will fit into the smallest of laptops, and a similar diamond-cut chamfered edge.Likewise, the drive is still based on 2-bit MLC NAND flash memory. But under the hood, Samsung has introduced a few performance-boosting enhancements. The MEX controller has received a 100MHz speed bump, to 400MHz, but the headline new feature is 3D V-NAND flash memory, Samsung's proprietary 3D technology, where the memory chips are layered vertically, as well as horizontally.