CONCLUSION

    Before i continue I’d like to point out that there's a firmware out there which according to BIWIN improves some performance numbers of the EX950 all the way up to 10%. However, after trying to install it (there's no click and forget installer currently) the process got stuck at 25% returning an ID mismatch message so i didn't end up using that firmware for this review. Now 10% may not be a huge deal (especially since it's not applicable for all tests) but it's still good to have so i do hope an easier to use (not to mention bug-free) installer finds its way to the HP support pages soon. Even without that firmware however the EX950 is still a very fast M.2 NVMe SSD and as you can clearly see from the charts it exchanges blows with the KC2500 model by Kingston which is clearly among the two fastest overall SSDs to arrive in the lab, at least to date. Performance aside not much to say about the EX950, durability is also good and the 5-year limited warranty is certainly not something we see a lot in this industry (aside Kingston that is).

    At the moment of this review the EX950 1TB NVMe SSD by HP retails for USD147.96 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 160.87Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price which is really not bad for this specific "package". Overall the EX950 1TB represents a very good deal for both consumers and professionals alike, it's got impressive read and write performance (even more so with the upcoming firmware), it does very well in terms of durability (650TBW) and as for warranty well 5 years means you will probably have moved to another model by then (and if not it's always good to have a long warranty period). Because of all of the above there's simply no doubt that the EX950 1TB NVMe SSD by HP deserves our Golden Award.

PROS

- Near Excellent Performance (Up To 3500MB/s Read & 2900MB/s Write)
- Sustained Performance Levels (SNIA Tests)
- Endurance (650TBW)
- 5 Years Warranty

CONS

- Thermal Throttling (During Our SNIA Tests)
- Current Firmware Update Procedure (Complicated)