Greatest Exterior SSD For Mac 2025

The Pro5 appears nearly an identical to the previous-generation Rugged SSD Professional, which makes use of Thunderbolt 3. The one seen distinction between the 2 drives is the truth that the Pro5 is wrapped in a dark-blue rubber sleeve, slightly than the somber black of its predecessor.

That rubber sleeve is designed to offer additional safety for the drive, and the Pro5 is even sturdier than earlier than, with an IP68 score for water and dust-resistance. LaCie claims the Pro5 can survive immersion in 1.5 meters of water for half-hour, survive being dropped from a top of 3m (10ft), and survive being run over by autos weighing as much as two tonnes. There’s a five-year guarantee too.

It measures 17mm thick, 98mm large and 65mm deep and weighs 150g, which is a bit more than its 100g Rugged Professional predecessor. It is available in 2TB or 4TB capacities. It’s not low-cost, beginning at $399.99/£359.99 for 2TB or $599.99/£579.99 for 4TB.

The Pro5 does use an ordinary USB-C connector, so it’s nonetheless backward-compatible with older Macs, however if you wish to get the total efficiency of the Thunderbolt 5 interface you’ll want a MacBook Professional or Mac mini with M4 Professional or M4 Max processor as these are the one chips to assist the usual. The older Rugged Professional remains to be on sale, so be sure you search for the Pro5 mannequin if you’d like Thunderbolt 5 efficiency. We discovered that the usual USB-C cable we use for our Time Machine back-up drive didn’t present sufficient energy for the Pro5, so it may be value investing in a spare Thunderbolt 5 cable.

The Rugged SSD Pro5 is the quickest Thunderbolt drive we’ve examined to date, and together with its rugged, transportable design it’s a wonderful choice for artistic customers who need to exploit the total pace of their new Thunderbolt 5 Macs.

Since parting methods with Western Digital SanDisk has launched a set of latest merchandise. Amongst these had been SanDisk’s Excessive Transportable SSD, an reasonably priced entry-level drive included beneath, and the Excessive Professional With USB4.

The Excessive Professional With USB4 is on the market with 2TB or 4TB of storage. It resembles its predecessors, that includes rounded corners, orange trim, and a cut-out for attaching a lanyard. A USB-C cable is included. 

It’s just a little bigger than beforehand: 11.9mm thick, 58.7mm large, and 140mm lengthy. Making it nearly as giant because the iPhone 16e and heavier than it. The drive’s fundamental physique is product of solid aluminium, wrapped in a silicon sleeve for added safety. SanDisk claims it may well survive a 2m drop and is IP65 water and mud resistant. In addition they present a five-year guarantee.

The Excessive Professional With USB4 is bigger than different SanDisk drives, measuring 11.9mm thick, 58.7mm large, and 140mm lengthy. It’s nearly as giant because the iPhone 16e and heavier than it, however nonetheless sufficiently small to slot in a pocket or bag. Its sturdy design makes it appropriate for journey and out of doors work. 

The primary attraction is USB4 efficiency. SanDisk quotes a most write efficiency of as much as 3700MB/s and skim efficiency of as much as 3800MB/s. We examined the drive with a MacBook Professional with Thunderbolt 4, attaining sturdy efficiency of 3400MB/s for each learn and write. 

We additionally examined the drive with a brand new Mac mini with Thunderbolt 5 and had been shocked to see a major leap in write efficiency to 4400MB/s, which remained constant regardless of repeated assessments. Learn efficiency remained unchanged at 3400MB/s.

Skilled customers requiring high efficiency with giant video or graphics information could choose a solid-state drive with full Thunderbolt assist, however the Excessive Professional With USB4 presents spectacular efficiency at an reasonably priced worth, making it appropriate for many customers who want a quick, sturdy transportable drive for Time Machine backups.

You possibly can take full benefit of the Thunderbolt 5 ports in your M4 Professional Mac mini or M4 Professional/Max MacBook Professional and probably circumvent Apple’s avaricious storage improve pricing with OWC’s Envoy Extremely Thunderbolt 5 exterior SSD.

Thunderbolt 5 itself is backwards appropriate with older Thunderbolt specs, however it’s not practically as backwards appropriate as we’d like. For instance, to make the most of a Thunderbolt 5 drive your M-series Mac must be operating macOS Sonoma or later. Thunderbolt 3 Macs with Intel chips should run Sequoia or later. However solely the M4 Professional and M4 Max chips will provide you with the total Thunderbolt 5 expertise.

You will have seen 120GBps quoted in some articles as Thunderbolt 5’s high pace, however that’s solely unidirectional for shows. Bi-directional, as with storage, is proscribed to 80Gbps. Benchmarks confirmed wherever from 5.2GBps (Blackmagicdesign’s Disk Pace Take a look at), to six.5GBps studying (AmorphousDiskMark), to close 7GBps studying and 5.57GBps writing (ATTO). It’s quick.

The OWC Envoy Extremely is a bigger chunk of black metallic, measuring about 0.75 inches thick, 2.8 inches large, and 5 inches lengthy. The Envoy Extremely weighs in at 10.5 ounces or so. It has a captive cable, which is for weatherproofing (it’s not IP-rated). This does make it a bit tougher to place away. Alas, writing was significantly slower, solely round 1.5GBps.

The Envoy Extremely prices $400/£356 in its 2TB kind and $600/£598.49 at 4TB. It carries a three-year guarantee.

In order for you, and might afford absolutely the quickest storage on your new Thunderbolt 5 Mac, then it is a heck of rather a lot cheaper than Apple’s rapaciously priced inside storage and practically as quick.

This SanDisk mannequin presents a sturdy design and as much as 8TB of storage. The exterior design hasn’t modified over time, it nonetheless is available in a perforated black case made out of silicon that gives loads of safety, and there’s the identical hook for a lanyard.

The 8TB model is barely bigger than the earlier mannequin, however it’s nonetheless slim and light-weight. There aren’t many rival drives that present that a lot storage in such a compact and transportable design.

This mannequin makes use of the identical USB-C connector as its predecessor, with assist for USB 3.2 (Gen 2). There’s a USB-C cable included within the field, and even a USB-A adaptor! Speeds are 1000MB/s and 1050MB/s for write and skim efficiency respectively, as beforehand. And our assessments discovered that the 2 drives produce very related outcomes when operating the Black Magic Disk pace take a look at, with the Excessive Transportable reaching 946MB/s for write efficiency and 910MB/s for learn efficiency.

The primary distinction is that this replace for 2025 is even harder than earlier than, boasting an IP65 score for resistance to water and mud. This mannequin supplies extra storage capability too, beginning at 1GB and going as much as 8TB.

SanDisk has a number of transportable solid-state drives that look related and have related names. The Excessive Professional Transportable appears an identical and has a sooner USB4 interface, however solely presents as much as 4TB storage. The cheaper Transportable SSD, isn’t notably quick. Verify the identify before you purchase.

It’s an excellent choice for anybody that should retailer giant, high-res picture or video information on their MacBook once they’re working outdo.

We appreciated the sturdy little XS2000 drive that Kingston launched again in 2022, however it was fairly costly and used a model of USB referred to as USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which isn’t absolutely supported on the Mac for the time being. Drives that use ‘Gen 2×2’ will nonetheless work with a Mac, however the Mac gained’t get the total pace that the drive is able to.

Nevertheless, the XS1000 is a extra standard USB-C drive, utilizing customary USB 3.2 Gen 2, so it’s an excellent, reasonably priced choice for Mac customers who simply need a compact, light-weight backup drive.

The XS1000 is among the smallest and lightest SSDs that we’ve seen to date – in reality, it appears extra like just a little USB thumb drive, slightly than a high-capacity backup drive. It measures simply 13.5mm thick, 32.5mm large and 69.5mm lengthy, and weighs solely 28.7g, so you’ll be able to simply slip it into your shirt or trouser pocket while you’re touring. It’s not fairly as rugged because the dearer XS2000 – which had an IP55 score for water and mud resistance – however the plastic and metallic casing feels sturdy sufficient to deal with just a few knocks while you’re touring, and Kingston supplies a five-year guarantee as properly.

It’s very competitively priced too, costing $84.99/£74.99 with 1TB of storage, or $109.99/£99.99 with 2TB. The drive’s USB interface supplies a quoted write pace of 1000MBs, whereas the learn pace is barely greater at 1050MB/s. It didn’t fairly match these speeds in our assessments, however its write pace of 875MB/s and skim pace of 950MB/s will nonetheless be superb for routine back-ups with Time Machine. Our solely criticism is that Kingston solely features a USB-A-to-USB-C cable with the XS1000, so that you’ll want to purchase an adaptor or a brand new cable in case your Mac solely has USB-C. Skilled customers would possibly choose a sooner drive, or a extra rugged design, however when you simply need an reasonably priced backup drive that may go touring with you then the XS1000 is nice worth for cash.

The Adata SE920 Exterior SSD is a high-performance USB4 SSD for many who want fast information switch speeds. 

It combines passive and lively cooling with a compact metallic housing for passive cooling, and a micro-fan with openings for lively cooling. The person can truly activate the fan by urgent on the housing. 

If you’re engaged on a venture equivalent to a video or picture edit, or one other process that would require lots of drive entry over a time period, then change on the fan. The remainder of the time you’ll be able to in all probability go away it. 

The SE920 is primarily designed for Home windows customers, evident from the formatting within the NTFS file system and the backup software program for Home windows, however this shouldn’t be an issue for knowledgeable Mac customers. The SE920 is rapidly reformatted in APFS utilizing the macOS Disk Utility.

Knowledge switch charges measured with Aja System Take a look at Lite had been spectacular. The SE920 achieved 2992MBps for writes and 3161 MBps for reads. Knowledge charges are steady over an extended interval and the thermal design works completely.

All this comes at an excellent worth. We advocate the SE920 to any content material creator.

We usually set up evaluations of transportable drives and desktop drives individually, however the brand new SanDisk Professional Blade is a modular SSD storage system that may be very a lot designed for skilled and artistic customers, and permits you to change between transportable and desktop modes as required.

You can begin by shopping for the Professional Blade SSD Magazine, which is a solid-state storage module that’s out there in 1TB, 2TB or 4TB sizes (the 1TB was discounted from $179.99 to $119.99 on the time of our overview). The SSD Magazine is pre-formatted in APFS format for Mac customers, and is hard sufficient to face up to being dropped from a top of three meters or 9.8 foot, and face up to 4000lb (1814kg) crush strain, making it best for out of doors use. Nevertheless, the SSD Magazine modules can’t hook up with a pc on their very own, so SanDisk supplies two choices for transportable and desktop use.

For transportable use you should purchase the Professional Blade Transport, which is a compact case for the SSD Magazine, and is provided with a USB-C port for connecting to your Mac. The Transport measures simply 130.4mm lengthy, 71.5mm large and 16mm thick, so you’ll be able to simply slip it into your pocket or a carrying case identical to some other transportable drive. It’s additionally attainable to attach the Transport to a digital camera that has a USB-C interface to be able to report high-res video slightly than having to hold a number of smaller SD reminiscence playing cards.

While you get again to the workplace you even have the choice of inserting the SSD Magazine modules into the Professional Blade Station ($499.99/£490.99). This desktop storage system doesn’t embrace any built-in storage of its personal, however it has 4 slots that permit you to insert SSD Magazine modules (not included) offering as much as 16TB of high-speed solid-state storage. The Professional Blade Station has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, with one used to attach your Mac, whereas the opposite port can be utilized to daisy-chain further storage units if required. The Professional Blade Station is pretty costly – on condition that it doesn’t embrace any storage of its personal – however it offers you the choice of making a high-speed, high-capacity SSD storage system to be used in your workplace, while additionally having the ability to take away the person SSD Magazine modules and use them as transportable drives every time you might want to.

Western Digital – which owns SanDisk today – claims that the Professional Blade Station can present learn and write speeds of 3000MB/s and 2600MB/s respectively. Our assessments truly recorded a learn pace of 2600MB/s and write pace of 2300MB/s, however that’s nonetheless one of many quickest SSD drives we’ve ever seen, making it an excellent choice for artistic customers who want a quick storage system that they’ll use each within the workplace and on the street.

LaCie’s Rugged drives have been fashionable with Mac customers for a few years, due to their mixture of high-performance and that now-familiar orange sleeve that helps to maintain the drive protected while you’re working open air. Nevertheless, the Rugged vary has largely used standard arduous drives prior to now, that are slower than the most recent solid-state drives, in addition to being larger and heavier. Welcome the Rugged Professional SSD, which is primarily geared toward artistic customers. (We have a look at the LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5 above, which is a more moderen mannequin that helps Thunderbolt 5).

The Rugged SSD vary begins at round $180/£180 for a mannequin with 500GB storage, however we had been in a position to overview the SSD Professional, which stands out from the remainder of the vary with its matte-black sleeve. It’s fairly costly, costing $419/£249.99 with 1TB of storage, and a hefty $739.99/£379.99 for the 2TB mannequin and $1,049.99/£999.99 for 4TB, however it justifies that worth with a good harder design and the most recent, super-fast solid-state drives designed for skilled video work. (U.Okay. costs dropped in 2024 however US costs don’t appear to have adopted go well with. Fortunately you will get good offers at numerous resellers).

Switching to a solid-state drive signifies that the SSD Professional is now the smallest mannequin within the Rugged vary, measuring simply 3.8in/98mm lengthy, 2.5in/65mm large and 0.6in/17mm thick. It solely weighs 100g/3.5oz, so you’ll be able to simply slip it into your pocket or bag while you’re touring and barely even discover that it’s there.

Regardless of its compact design, that new black sleeve is severely robust and rated IP67 for resistance to water and mud, permitting it to outlive in 3.2 foot/1m of water for as much as half-hour. It might probably address being dropped from a top of 9.8 foot/3m, and might even resist the burden of a two-tonne automotive driving over it. It features a five-year guarantee in case something does go unsuitable, which incorporates one go to to LaCie’s data-recovery labs if you might want to retrieve necessary information.

The Rugged SSD Professional contains only a single Thunderbolt 3/USB-C interface, however most of its excessive worth is all the way down to using the most recent NVMe solid-state drives, which offer high efficiency for high-end video purposes, equivalent to enhancing 8K or super-slow-motion video information (which may be monumental, as they shoot at as much as 240 frames per second on the most recent iPhones). The drive didn’t disappoint, recording constant write speeds of 1780MB/s, and a good sooner 2480MB/s for learn speeds – with each figures leaving nearly each different SSD drive we’ve ever examined trailing in its wake. And, when backing up our iTunes music library, the Rugged SSD Professional blew us away by backing up 5GB of music information in simply 5 seconds – look away for a few seconds and also you’ll miss it!

In fact, not everybody will want that form of efficiency – particularly at this worth – however when you work with high-res video and wish a quick, robust drive for out of doors work then the Rugged SSD Professional is in a category of its personal.

The LaCie Transportable SSD is an choice for individuals who don’t want James Bond ranges of safety. Obtainable with 500GB, 1TB or 2TB of storage, the Transportable SSD has a brand new design in comparison with its predecessor. Moderately than sharply angular corners and edges of the now discontinued LaCie Cellular SSD, the compact Transportable SSD has easily spherical corners – maybe following Apple’s current fetish for rounded corners on icons in Huge Sur and Monterey.

It’s smaller and lighter than earlier drives from LaCie too, measuring simply 0.4in/10.6mm thick, 1.9in/50mm large, and 3in/80mm lengthy, and it weighs a mere 1.5oz/45g, so it’s best for carrying round along with your MacBook or iPad while you’re touring.

The drive has a single USB-C interface, and features a USB-C cable, however the low price signifies that there aren’t any added extras, equivalent to an adaptor for older Macs which have USB-A (3.2) connectors.

LaCie hasn’t lower some other corners, although. The Transportable SSD has a strong, sturdy design that ought to be capable to address just a few bumps in a backpack or briefcase, and it performs very properly too.

LaCie quotes learn and write speeds of 1000MB/s, however repeated assessments with the BlackMagic pace take a look at app confirmed the Transportable SSD comfortably cruising alongside at round 1,300MB/s with no hassle in any respect.

That mixture of pace, compact design and aggressive pricing makes the Transportable SSD an incredible choice for anybody that wants a conveyable backup drive for his or her Mac or iPad.

Learn our full overview.

T5 EVO isn’t as quick as a few of its SSD rivals, however it’s nice as a general-purpose backup system and supplies a sooner and extra transportable various to a standard arduous drive. In contrast to many solid-state drives, it supplies as much as 8TB of storage, making it an excellent choice for individuals who want lots of space for storing for his or her work information, photographs and movies. It’s competitively priced, beginning at $189.99/£146 for 2TB of storage.

The drive is compact, simply 17mm thick, 40mm large and 95mm lengthy, and weighing 102g. There’s a chunky metallic ring on one finish that can be utilized to connect the drive to a backpack or belt.

It doesn’t have the armor-plated safety of Samsung’s T7 Protect, however the T5 EVO doesn’t lower corners on construct high quality. The drive is metallic after which wrapped in a rubber sleeve to offer additional safety. It doesn’t quote an IP score for resistance to water and mud although.

It’s not the quickest back-up drive you should purchase, and whereas there’s a USB-C port for connecting to a Mac or PC, it solely helps the comparatively outdated USB 3.2 (Gen 1) customary, and Samsung quotes pretty modest speeds of 460MB/s for each learn and write efficiency. Our assessments confirmed that the drive’s write efficiency was proper on the nostril with a pace of 460MB/s when operating the Black Magic disk pace take a look at, though learn efficiency was slower at 370MB/s.

T5 EVO will likely be an incredible choice for laptop computer customers who need to ditch an outdated arduous drive and change it with a extra transportable solid-state drive that gives loads of storage.

Lexar makes a variety of reminiscence playing cards and solid-state drives which might be very a lot geared toward artistic customers, and its Armor 700 drive supplies quick, high-capacity storage in a rugged design that will likely be best for out of doors photo-shoots or filming.

Because the identify suggests, the Armor 700 is sturdily constructed, boasting an IP66 score for water and mud safety. Because of this the drive can face up to highly effective jets of water (however not full immersion beneath water), and is tightly sealed to forestall mud or different particles from penetrating the drive. It’s additionally wrapped in a shock-resistant rubber sleeve that may address being dropped from a top of three metres. The drive is on the market with 1TB, 2TB or 4TB of storage, so it supplies loads of storage on your Time Machine backups while you’re on the street. Lexar additionally contains an app referred to as DataShield that permits you to create an encrypted folder on the drive for storing delicate information and information.

The Amor 700 is provided with a USB-C interface, with a USB-C cable and USB-A adaptor included within the field. Lexar states that the drive supplies learn and write speeds of as much as 2000MB/s, however it does require a tool that helps USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 with a purpose to obtain these speeds (sure, USB requirements are an entire mess today). Apple doesn’t assist that particular model of USB, which signifies that Macs, iPhones and iPads with USB-C will solely get a most pace of 1000MB/s. Our assessments truly recorded scores of 910MB/s for write efficiency and 925MB/s for learn efficiency, however that’s greater than sufficient for routine backups while you’re out and about. Lexar additionally states that that is quick sufficient to report 4K ProRes video from an iPhone 15 or 16, and the Armor 700 remains to be competitively priced when in comparison with rugged drives equivalent to LaCie’s Rugged SSD.

Skilled customers who actually need high efficiency could choose a drive that helps Thunderbolt – equivalent to LaCie’s high-end Rugged Professional – however Thunderbolt drives are nonetheless very costly, making the Armor 700 an excellent choice for folks on a tighter price range. You possibly can’t purchase direct from Lexar, although, so it’s value purchasing round on-line to search out the perfect worth.

The Verbatim TurboMetal SSD is a basic NVMe drive with a size of round 106mm, a 55mm large and 18mm skinny metallic housing, and weighs 150g.

Like many USB4 enclosures, it makes use of an lively fan and cooling slots for cooling. The fan is temperature-controlled and begins routinely when the temperature rises.

Verbatim specifies a USB4 information switch fee of 3600MBps for writing and 3700MBps for studying. Nevertheless, we achieved 2664MBps for writing and 3123MBps for studying on an M3 MacBook Air in a 4K take a look at with Aja System Take a look at Lite. These will not be unhealthy values, however the perfect USB4 drives we’ve measured obtain barely greater writing speeds however not greater studying speeds. The M4 Max Mac Studio confirmed significantly better values, with 2869MBps for writing and 3499MBps for studying.

In a 30-minute endurance take a look at with the Backmagicdesign Disk Pace Take a look at, the fan began after 10 minutes. The TurboMetal received too heat after round 9 minutes within the information switch fee, which dropped considerably to beneath 1000MBps. Shortly after beginning the fan, the temperature of the SSD levelled off once more, and the information switch fee rose to its authentic worth. The runs solely when it has to.

In the course of the endurance take a look at, the information switch fee dropped briefly however stabilised instantly. DriveDX measured the temperature at round 46 levels Celsius after utilizing the fan, which remained on.

The TurboMetal Transportable SSD is on the market in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities with a 20cm USB4 cable. It’s formatted as FAT32, so Mac customers ought to reformat it to APFS. The included software program is just for Home windows.

The TurboMetal SSD is a discreet USB4 drive. The information switch charges are appropriate for on a regular basis use, however some SSDs supply higher pace. The common dips point out thermal safety, however they shouldn’t have an effect on most purposes.

Many transportable drives use an ordinary USB-C port for connecting to a Mac or PC, however SanDisk’s Professional-G40 opts for a high-speed Thunderbolt 3 port to offer most efficiency for skilled customers who must work with giant video and graphics information (and, after all, it’s backward-compatible with USB-C as properly).

The Professional-G40 was first launched in 2022, and was already on our record of the perfect SSD drives for Mac, however this present mannequin supplies each improved efficiency and better capability on your work information. The design hasn’t modified although, with a compact, transportable drive that measures simply 12mm thick, 58mm large and 111mm lengthy. It weighs simply over 120g – relying on the capability you select – so you’ll be able to slip it right into a jacket pocket or right into a carrying case alongside your MacBook with no hassle in any respect. The drive can be extraordinarily robust, with a sturdy metallic case that’s rated IP68 – one of many highest scores attainable – for resistance to water, mud and different particles. Western Digital, which now owns the SanDisk model, additionally claims that the drive can survive drops from a top of 3m, and might face up to crushing strain of as much as 4000lbs. The drive even features a five-year guarantee as properly.

The 2022 model of the Professional-G40 supplied learn and write speeds of 2700MB/s and 1900MB/s respectively when utilizing the Thunderbolt cable included within the field, however the present mannequin is rated at 3000MB/s for learn and 2500MB/s for write speeds. Our assessments confirmed it to be completely spot-on for write efficiency, persistently hitting 2500MB/s. The learn efficiency didn’t fairly hit the quoted 3000MB/s, settling at simply over 27000MB/s, however that’s nonetheless far sooner than most USB-C drives, and supplies the form of efficiency that skilled customers want for backing up their work information.

That mixture of excessive efficiency and ultra-rugged design does imply that the Professional-G40 is kind of a bit dearer than many USB-C drives, so it’s in all probability overkill when you simply want an reasonably priced transportable drive for backing up private information. Nevertheless, skilled customers will likely be happy to search out that the worth of the Professional-G40 has been diminished just lately, with the 1TB mannequin now costing $299.99/£294.99, whereas the 2TB model is $449.99/£441.99. And, as talked about, there’s a brand new 4TB model to offer additional capability, priced at $699.99/£687.99.

The light-weight, compact design of solid-state drives makes them an incredible choice when you want a conveyable back-up drive to make use of along with your MacBook while you’re touring. Nevertheless, transportable SSDs do are inclined to have restricted storage capability, typically with a most of simply 1TB or 2TB. In distinction, the SanDisk Desk Drive supplies each high-speed SSD efficiency and excessive capability too, beginning with a minimal of 4TB for $379.99/£359.99. If that’s not sufficient then you may also step as much as 8TB, for $699.99/£663.99.

Because the identify suggests, the Desk Drive may be very a lot designed for desktop use in an workplace, and it’s bigger than most standard SSDs, standing 40.2mm excessive and 99.2mm on all sides, and weighing 268g. The drive itself remains to be small and light-weight sufficient to slide right into a backpack or touring bag alongside along with your MacBook, however it does require a mains energy provide as properly, so this isn’t a drive that’s going to depart the workplace fairly often (we did attempt to energy it by a USB-C port on our MacBook Professional, however that didn’t work).

It’s additionally just a little disappointing that the Desk Drive simply has a single USB-C port for information switch. At this worth, a few additional ports would have been a helpful bonus, particularly for MacBook fashions that solely have a few USB-C ports of their very own.

We didn’t have any complaints in regards to the Desk Drive’s efficiency, although. SanDisk quotes a pace of 1GB/s, though the outcomes we received had been nearer to 925MB/s and 910MB/s for write and skim speeds respectively. That’s not as quick as some high-end SSDs which might be designed for skilled customers – equivalent to SanDisk’s personal Professional Blade system – however it’s nonetheless rather a lot sooner than a standard arduous drive, and the Desk Drive will likely be an excellent choice for individuals who merely want a quick backup drive that gives loads of storage for photographs, movies and work information.

Seagate’s OneTouch arduous drives are a well-liked alternative with many customers. The OneTouch SSD is the smallest and lightest transportable drive we’ve ever seen and is on the market in black, silver or blue.

When sitting flat on the desk it measures simply 2in/50mm large, 2.7in/70mm deep and a mere 0.4in/10.6mm thick. And it weighs solely 2.6oz/74g, so you’ll be able to simply slip it into your pocket and carry it round along with your laptop computer or iPad while you’re touring. It’s sturdily constructed too, with Seagate claiming that it may well face up to being dropped from a top of 6.5 foot/2m.

The OneTouch drive has a USB-C interface, however Seagate contains each USB-C and USB-A cables to be able to use it with most Macs and PCs straight out of the field.

It really works with Apple’s Time Machine for automated backups, however Seagate additionally contains its personal ToolKit app, which has a ‘sync’ choice for backing up particular folders. The drive additionally features a one-year free subscription to the Mylio photo-organizer app, and 4 months with Adobe’s CC Pictures plan, usually $9.99/£9.98 a month on an annual plan (learn our information to getting the perfect deal on Adobe Inventive Cloud).

The drive is on the market with 500GB, 1TB or 2TB of storage, so it supplies loads of room for backing up giant libraries of photographs, movies or music. It doesn’t fairly match Seagate’s quoted pace of 1GB/s, however it recorded learn and write speeds of 835MB/s and 915MB/s respectively in our assessments, which nonetheless put it among the many quickest solid-state drives that we’ve examined just lately. And, with its ridiculously gentle and compact design, the OneTouch will likely be best for backing up all of your necessary information while you’re on the transfer.

Persevering with LaCie’s Rugged vary of arduous drives and SSDs. These have lengthy been fashionable with individuals who want a sturdy back-up drive that may address tough climate and circumstances when working open air, however the Rugged drives have all the time tended to be slightly giant and ponderous – just like the Rugged SSD Professional (above) – so LaCie has produced a extra compact choice within the type of the brand new Rugged Mini SSD.

As you would possibly count on, the Rugged Mini appears very very similar to its rugged kinfolk, with LaCie’s distinctive vibrant orange rubber sleeve serving to to maintain the drive protected. However, after all, it’s rather a lot smaller than earlier fashions, measuring simply 17.3mm thick, 66.9mm large, 105mm lengthy. It solely weighs 114g as properly, so you’ll be able to simply slip it right into a jacket pocket or backpack while you’re touring.

Regardless of that compact design, the Rugged Mini remains to be robust sufficient to deal with some tough remedy. It’s rated IP54 for water and mud resistance, so it ought to be capable to address life open air when you’re engaged on location for a photo- or video shoot. And, due to that rubber sleeve, it may well deal with drops of as much as 3m and even survive being pushed over by a 1-tonne truck. And if that’s not robust sufficient, the drive comes with a three-year guarantee that features LaCie’s Rescue Knowledge Restoration Service, to assist restore any misplaced information.

The drive’s USB-C port will work with any Mac or PC that additionally has USB-C or Thunderbolt. However, like numerous drives that we’ve seen just lately, it makes use of a model of USB referred to as USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, which isn’t absolutely supported by Macs for the time being. Because of this Macs gained’t be capable to get the total 2000MB/s speeds supported by that interface, and our assessments confirmed this, recording write and skim speeds of 900MB/s and 970MB/s respectively. We’ve seen stronger efficiency from some rival drives, however these speeds must be completely sufficient for routine backups while you’re on the street, and the sturdy design of the Rugged Mini makes it an excellent choice for individuals who want a drive that they’ll use open air frequently.

Pricing is just a little complicated, although. Within the US, the Rugged Mini prices $84.99/£74.99 (1TB), $109.99/£99.99 (2TB), and $159.99/£149.99 (4TB). We’ve seen a lot decrease costs from Amazon and different on-line retailers, so it’s undoubtedly value purchasing round earlier than shopping for.

Western Digital’s Passport drives have all the time supplied transportable, light-weight designs, and the My Passport SSD combines compact design with sturdy efficiency and extra security measures.

Obtainable in quite a lot of colours, the My Passport SSD supplies as much as 4TB of solid-state storage, though the 1TB mannequin that we overview right here prices $74.99/£94.99.

The drive measures simply 0.35in/9mm thick, and weighs 1.6oz/46g, so it’s sufficiently small to slide right into a jacket pocket while you’re on the transfer. Nevertheless, it’s additionally robust sufficient to outlive being dropped from a top of two metres.

The drive is provided with a USB-C interface, however WD features a USB-C cable and a USB-A adaptor with the drive, so you’ll be able to nonetheless use it with older Macs that don’t have USB-C. The solid-state drive supplies good efficiency too, recording a write pace of 935MB/s and skim pace of 908MB/s, making it an incredible choice for backing up your necessary information on the transfer.

It’s safe too, as WD’s Discovery app permits you to set a password for the drive so as hold your information protected. There’s a second app as properly, referred to as WD Unlocker, which is constructed into the drive itself, and permits you to enter the password to be able to use the drive with one other Mac or PC if you might want to.

When the drive was first launched there have been complaints that the WD apps hadn’t been correctly up to date to 64-bit code for the most recent variations of the macOS, however we examined the drive with our workplace Macs and didn’t encounter any issues.

Learn a full overview over on our sister website Tech Advisor.

There are three variations of Samsung’s T7. The usual T7 is a compact, light-weight SSD that appears similar to the outdated T5 – though it boasts greater efficiency, so be sure you examine the mannequin numbers earlier than shopping for. We examined the T7 Protect, which is a extra rugged mannequin, wrapped in a sturdy rubber sleeve designed for out of doors use. Each of these fashions can use Samsung’s Transportable SSD app so as to add password safety on your information, however there’s additionally a 3rd mannequin referred to as the T7 Contact that has a built-in fingerprint sensor for additional safety and comfort.

Obtainable in black, blue or silver, the T7 Protect prices $129/£110 with 1TB of storage, however we’re seeing nice reductions now it’s been out some time. It has a USB-C interface for connecting to your Mac, however Samsung features a USB-C cable and a USB-A adaptor to be able to use it with older Macs which have USB-A. The rugged protecting sleeve signifies that it’s just a little bigger than the opposite T7 fashions, measuring 0.5in/13mm thick, 2.3in/59mm large and three.4in/88mm lengthy, and weighing 3.4oz/98g. Even so, it’s nonetheless sufficiently small to slide right into a jacket pocket or backpack with no hassle in any respect, and many individuals will admire the additional safety that it presents.

The T7 Protect is rated IP65 for water- and dust-resistance, and Samsung claims that the shock-resistant rubber sleeve can survive drops from a top of three meters.

It’s an excellent performer too. Samsung quotes learn and write speeds of 1,000MB/s, however our assessments with the Blackmagic disk device truly recorded a learn pace of 1,780MB/s, and a write pace of 1,300MB/s, which makes the T7 Protect an incredible backup choice for individuals who must work open air with their laptop computer.

The OWC Categorical 1M2’s cooling fins alone account for round half of the general top of this exterior SSD. The aluminum housing is kind of giant at 5.2 by 2.8 by 0.9 inches (13.2 by 7.1 by 2.3 centimeters) and the very high-quality metallic housing additionally has sufficiently giant rubber surfaces on the underside.

To check for pace, we used two benchmarks, Aja System Take a look at Lite and Blackmagicdesign Disk Pace Take a look at. The outcomes are spectacular: 2736MBps (write) and 2980MBps (learn) in Aja System Take a look at Lite. The values with Blackmagicdesign Disk Pace Take a look at had been round 100MBps greater–it cracked the 3000 MBps mark within the learn take a look at.