External SSDs
Once the domain of external, bus-powered hard drives, these days the market for external storage has been almost completely consumed by portable SSDs. Rapid technological advancements in NAND flash technology (including the advent of 3D NAND) has allowed their capacity to eclipse 2.5-inch HDDs, all the while multiple improvements in host interface speeds (such as the move from USB 2.0 to 3.0, and onwards to 3.2 Gen 2 / Gen 2x2 / USB4) has made portable SSDs faster and more reliable than the hard drives they replace. All of which has helped to make portable SSDs the go-to solution for external storage, both big and small. For our latest storage buyer's guide, we've rounded up some of the best portable SSDs we've looked at in...
Micron at CES 2024: USB4 SSD Technology Demonstrations
Micron's consumer brand, Crucial Memory, has been putting extra focus on the SSD market over the last few quarters. The brand was marketing entry-level QLC drives in the 2018...
13 by Ganesh T S on 1/11/2024
Adata, OWC, and Stardom Roll Out USB4 SSDs and Enclosures for Faster External Storage
When the USB4 specification emerged several years ago, it was quickly positioned as a less expensive alternative to the Thunderbolt 3 technology which ruled the market of high-performance direct-attached...
22 by Anton Shilov on 12/13/2023
Samsung T5 EVO Portable SSD Review: QLC Sets Sane Expectations, Insane Pricing
The market for portable SSDs (PSSDs) has seen rapid growth over the past decade. Samsung is one of the active tier-one flash vendors in the space, with their popular...
13 by Ganesh T S on 11/14/2023
Samsung T9 Portable SSD Review: A 20 Gbps PSSD for Prosumer Workloads
Samsung's portable SSD lineup has enjoyed significant market success since the launch of the T1 back in 2015. Despite the release of the Thunderbolt-capable X5 PSSD in 2018, the...
15 by Ganesh T S on 10/3/2023
PNY Pro Elite V2 and Elite-X PRO Portable SSDs Review: Performance on a Budget
PNY Technologies is well known in the computing industry for its NVIDIA-based graphics cards, but the company also participates in the DRAM and flash-based storage products markets. In the...
5 by Ganesh T S on 6/30/2023
SK Hynix Launches Beetle X31 Portable SSD
UISK Hynix has introduced the Beetle X31, its first portable SSD. The drive promises to hit sequential transfer rates of up to 1,050 MB/sec when working with appropriate hosts...
3 by Anton Shilov on 6/26/2023
Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield 4TB Review: IP65 PSSD Gets a Capacity Upgrade
Samsung has been enjoying market success with their lineup of portable SSDs, starting with the T1 back in 2015. The company has been regularly updating their PSSD lineup with...
13 by Ganesh T S on 1/31/2023
Akasa AK-ENU3M2-07 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SSD Enclosure Review: 20Gbps with Excellent Thermals
Storage bridges have become an ubiquitous part of today's computing ecosystems. The bridges may be external or internal, with the former ones enabling a range of direct-attached storage (DAS...
15 by Ganesh T S on 8/1/2022
Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield Review: Flagship PSSD Gets IP65 Avatar
Samsung's lineup of portable SSDs has enjoyed tremendous success, starting with the T1 back in 2015. The company has been regularly updating their PSSD lineup with the evolution of...
11 by Ganesh T S on 7/20/2022
SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE Modular SSD Ecosystem Unveiled
Western Digital is announcing a host of products under the SanDisk and SanDisk Professional brands today at its What's Next Western Digital Event. The company also provided a second...
6 by Ganesh T S on 5/9/2022
Western Digital Announces WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe and P40 Game Drive SSDs
Western Digital is announcing a host of consumer-focused SSD solutions today at its What's Next Western Digital Event. The gaming-focused WD_BLACK is getting the SN850X NVMe SSD and the...
10 by Ganesh T S on 5/9/2022
Kingston XS2000 Portable SSDs Review: USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Goes Mainstream
Flash-based portable drives have become popular fast storage options for both content creators and backups-seeking consumers. The advent of high-speed interfaces such as USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps...
19 by Ganesh T S on 11/10/2021
OWC Envoy Pro Elektron Rugged IP67 Portable SSD Review
The market for portable SSDs has expanded significantly over the past few years. With USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) becoming the de-facto standard for USB ports even in...
2 by Ganesh T S on 10/29/2021
Kingston DataTraveler Max UFD Review: NVMe Performance in a USB Thumb Drive
Rapid advancements in flash technology and continued improvements in high-speed interfaces have driven the growth of small, bus-powered portable SSDs. Kingston introduced the DataTraveler Max in August 2021 as...
12 by Ganesh T S on 9/30/2021
Akasa M.2 SSD Enclosures Reviewed: Giving Spare Drives a New Lease of Life
The internal storage device market segment has seen rapid evolution over the last decade after the introduction of flash-based disk drives. Beginning with 2.5-inch SSDs in early 2010s, the...
15 by Ganesh T S on 9/22/2021
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Portable SSDs Go Native: The Silicon Motion SM2320 UFD Controller Preview
The external storage market has experienced rapid growth over the last few years, particularly in the retail consumer segment. It has been fueled in part by advancements in bus-powered...
18 by Ganesh T S on 9/16/2021
Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD Review: RGB-Infused USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Storage
The gaming market has experienced significant growth over the last decade. In addition to boosting PC sales, the peripherals market associated with the segment has also expanded. Installed sizes...
17 by Ganesh T S on 8/27/2021
Western Digital Introduces WD Black D30 Game Drive External SSDs
Western Digital is adding a new external SSD to their WD_BLACK product line: the WD Black D30 Game Drive SSD. The D30 is a bus-powered USB SSD offering up...
5 by Billy Tallis on 5/26/2021
Patriot Launches External PXD M.2 PCIe Type-C SSDs: Up to 2 TB
Back at CES 2020, we revealed that Patriot Memory was displaying one of its next generation of storage products, the PXD External SSD with USB Type-C. Now available to...
11 by Gavin Bonshor on 4/21/2020
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