Review: Fujifilm HQ-Pro SSD

Introduction and design

The Fujifilm HQ-Pro is a standard 2.5-inch SSD, built with a controller and 19nm 2-bit MLC Flash memory from Toshiba.

Yes, you read that correctly. The HQ-Pro is a solid-state drive from Fujifilm, a brand associated by just about everyone with cameras rather than storage. Not that this is a particularly surprising move – other companies such as Panasonic have recently jumped into the market too, yet they're not a company with a rich history of storage products either.

Actually, Fujifilm already sells a wide range of SD cards, which perfectly complements its camera business. While SSDs are a quite different technology, Fujifilm already has plenty of expertise in bringing storage products to market, so it's less of a leap than you might think.

That said, while SD cards are a great accessory for camera sales, it's not obvious which markets Fujifilm has a foothold in where an SSD makes a perfect companion purchase. The company has slotted the HQ-Pro into its recording media category, which is a slight stretch.

Four models

There are four capacities available: 60GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. We were sent a 128GB and 256GB version, but thankfully, not the 60GB variant, since this capacity is so small it's now barely worth using when larger drives are more affordable than they were.

Cased in aluminium, the 2.5-inch SATA 3 drive is 7mm high, which is rapidly becoming a standard physical size for SSDs. Early generations were 9.5mm, which prevented them from fitting in certain laptops and games consoles.

Power consumption is rated at 2.8W for the 128GB model, 3.1W for the 256GB and 3.4W for the 512GB drive.

As with other SSDs, the HQ-Pro has not been entirely built by Fujifilm. As we already mentioned, the parts have been sourced from third parties, namely Toshiba for both the 19nm NAND flash memory and controller. In fact, this is really a Toshiba SSD with Fujifilm's branding.

Other markets work in exactly the same way. Many companies will assemble devices such as displays, tablets and televisions entirely from parts manufactured by others. The PC industry grew to its present size based on this very principle.

Pricing and performance

SSD prices are falling faster than any other technology right now. You can pick up a 512GB SSD, specifically Crucial's MX100, for £150 (around US$250, AU$270). That's a staggering drop, given that a few years ago, a drive this size was closer to £500 (around US$830, AU$890), and if you go further back, it approached four figures.

So why hasn't Fujifilm noticed this trend? On its own product store, the Fujifilm HQ-PC Series 512GB SSD is listed for £349 (around US$580, AU$620). The 256GB version is £171 (around US$285, AU$305). Even the 128GB version is £99 (around US$165, AU$175).

Almost every other brand is cheaper. That includes Intel, PNY, OCZ, Corsair and even market leader Samsung, which makes the 850 Pro SSD that's slightly pricier than the rest. You can pick up an SSD with close to 1TB capacity for less than the cost of the 512GB Fujifilm HQ-PC Series. While prices are lower from various online retailers, they're still relatively extortionate.

The drive's warranty and possible longevity is no better than most SSDs on the market. Fujifilm doesn't quote the maximum number of writes, but instead suggests 1.5 million hours MTTF (mean time to failure).

That's a generally useless figure, calculated using algorithms rather than tests, since it works out to be 171 years, a whole lot longer than the HQ-Pro's three-year warranty.

Along with lower prices, longer warranties are a trend going through the SSD industry now, and Fujifilm's three years is not long compared with the 10 years firms such as SanDisk now offer on high-end drives.

Performance

It's not entirely clear why the prices are so high. The HQ-Pro, as the name may suggest, is sold as a high-end SSD aimed at professional users. And while it's good, it's not the best SSD on the market.

With the 256GB version, sequential transfer rates were excellent, with 537MB/s read speeds and 504MB/s write speeds. These write speeds dropped to 400MB/s on the 128GB version.

Compared to other brands, these are respectable results, a trend that continued in other tests in CrystalDiskMark. Its random 512kb read speeds of 453MB/s and 492MB/s write were right up there with top-end SSDs.

But it measured lower in other tests. The crucial 4K QD32 transfer rates, which reveals the drive's IOPS (input/output operations per second) were far lower than other drives. The 128GB version only managed 142MB/s while writing, which works out as 37,000 IOPS. The 256GB version fared better, with 55,000 IOPS, higher than the rate quoted by Fujifilm, but this is less than many other drives, and significantly less than the Samsung 850 Pro, which managed 83,000 IOPS in the same test.

Access times as measured by AS SSD were reasonable, but nothing special, particularly while reading. The 256GB HQ-Pro managed 0.092ms, almost the same score as the OCZ RevoDrive 350, which by no coincidence also uses Toshiba NAND, and is far from the shortest access time around. The write access time on the 256GB model looks better though, with 0.037ms, roughly matching Samsung's 845 Evo SSDs.

In PCMark 08, the Fujifilm HQ-Pro managed a score of 4,032 with the 256GB model, and 4,028 for the 128GB. These are excellent results, significantly higher than other SSDs – but the HQ-Pro scored lower in the PCMark 08 storage test, with an overall score of 4,993, roughly equal to Samsung's 845 Pro.

Verdict

We liked

The HQ-Pro SSD is a good performer. Sequential read and write performance of the 256GB drive we tested was up there with the best competing drives.

Access times, especially when writing, are also fairly good, enough to compete at the top-end of the SSD market.

We disliked

The high retail pricing is obviously a big turn-off, since the HQ-Pro is outperformed by less expensive drives. But even if Fujifilm reduced those prices, there's still the issue of relatively low IOPS.

Final verdict

There's nothing terrible about the Fujifilm HQ-Pro, but given its exceptionally high price, there's nothing special about it either, which makes that price somewhat puzzling. If it cost around a third less than the amount Fujifilm is asking, this might be an SSD to recommend, but as it stands, you can get a better drive for less money.

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