Corsair's Neutron Series has already demonstrated that not every decently performing SSD must use a SandForce controller. Their new Force LS is based on a Phison PS3108 controller performing decently enough to compete with all but the latest high-end drives. Compared to a typical high-end SandForce drive, we see the Force LS about 5% behind, and older drives, like the Intel 510, OCZ Agility 3, and Crucial M4, are up to 6% slower than the Force LS. Only the latest and greatest (and much more expensive) drives, like the Samsung 840 Pro or Toshiba's recent additions, show a noteworthy real-life performance improvement of up to 14%. Overall, these differences are relatively small, especially when it comes to the subjective user experience. Two years ago, I reviewed a drive based on a Phison PS3105 controller, which had the drive register half the performance of competing SSDs at the time. Now, we see differences of just a few percent, which means Phison is catching up with gargantuan strides.
We haven't had any stability issues with our Force LS, and Corsair's 3-year warranty shows their trust in this product. With its thin 7 mm form factor, the drive could also serve to boost an older laptop's performance.
At this time, the Corsair Force LS is not available in the US (why?), but can easily be found in Europe, and other markets. With a price of $200 for the 240 GB version, it is certainly not the cheapest drive on the market; not when looking at performance per dollar or price per GB. Its strongest competitors are the Samsung 840 non-Pro, which, while cheaper and with more capacity due to no overprovisioning, tends to fall behind in write-heavy applications (not an issue for most consumers), and Crucial's also cheaper M500 offering both strong read and write performance. Another option is the Mushkin Chronos, the currently cheapest SandForce drive out there. It could be an option if you trust SandForce drives to now be trouble-free. Given this fierce competition, I'd suggest Corsair reduce their pricing to below $190 for the 240 GB version, which would definitely improve things.