From its silicone-wrapped aluminum case to its blazing data transfer speeds, SanDisk’s Extreme Pro Portable SSD features a lot to supply , but it’s neither as rugged nor as well-designed as some competitors. Find more in SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 1TB Review.
Pros & Cons
PROS
IP55-rated for shock-, dust-, and water-resistance.
Rubberized aluminum case is straightforward to grip.
Excellent read/write speeds.
Includes USB-A and USB-C cables and five-year warranty.
CONS
A little expensive.
Exposed USB port, so not that rugged.
No activity light.
Cables are slightly short.
Price – SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 1TB
There are many good portable solid-state drives to think about , so your choice comes right down to a mixture of affordability, speed, convenience, and value-added extras. SanDisk’s Extreme Pro Portable SSD ($229.99 for 1TB) does an excellent job in a number of these areas—it’s in no time and it comes with two USB Type-C cables, one with a Type-C and one with a Type-A end for your computer, instead of an easy-to-lose USB-C-to-A adapter. But its cost of 23 cents per gigabyte, while not outrageous, is somewhat steep, and it isn’t as rugged as some rivals. It’ll satisfy many patrons , but it falls in need of an Editors’ Choice.
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 1TB Review
The Extreme Pro’s convenience is slightly diminished by its form factor: Mainly to supply room for a corner loop to which one might attach a carabiner or other clip, the case is larger than it’s to be. Not that it’s huge, mind you; we’re talking about 1TB of storage during a 6.1-ounce package measuring 0.4 by 4.3 by 2.3 inches. Still, it is a bit bulky compared to other external SSDs.
In reality, attaching a carabiner and keys would be a mistake—not only wouldn’t it add bulk which may be uncomfortable during a pocket, but the keys would almost certainly mar or gouge the synthetic rubber that covers the case. The loop looks cool, but is of limited utility. it is best and most practically used if you wanted the drive clipped to your belt or pack for straightforward access.
Another gripe is that the lack of an activity light. Some manufacturers provide them, but many do not , probably to save lots of weight and price . But as nitpicky because it sounds, an activity light is good to have; how else are you to understand that data is really being read or written, since an SSD makes no noise or vibration as a tough drive does? a small LED would be helpful, especially since you’re paying a touch more for this drive than for a few others. (If you’ll accept a slower interface and without the word “Pro,” SanDisk’s own SATA- instead of NVMe-based 1TB Extreme Portable SSD is about 17 cents per gigabyte.)
On the plus side, SanDisk does comes through with a few of very useful value-adds. As mentioned, the corporate includes two USB cables, one USB-C-to-USB-A and one USB-C-to-USB-C. (The device’s interface is USB 3.1 Gen 2; the unit is backward-compatible with older USB specs, but if you employ it with, say, a USB 3.0 connection, your peak read and write speeds are going to be affected.)
In addition, the drive comes with SanDisk’s proprietary SecureAccess encoding utility preinstalled. (The drive ships formatted for Windows; Mac users will want to reformat the drive and download the Mac version of the utility from the link provided during a PDF.) The software creates a password-protected “vault” (OK, it is a folder) on your SSD. Pro tip: don’t lose the password. If you do, SanDisk can not help you.
Finally, the acute Pro carries a five-year warranty, while most rivals are limited to 2 or three years. That’s a pleasant touch.
It’s Fast, But Is It Tough Enough?
As a sealed unit containing no moving parts, any SSD is inherently somewhat rugged. The SanDisk Extreme Pro carries an Ingress Protection rating of IP55, so it goes beyond that to be reasonably shock-, dust-, and water-resistant. But while the SanDisk should be ready to withstand a six-foot drop or occasional splash of water, you can’t immerse the unit, nor are you able to expose it to beach sand or dust storms. If you drop it into the surf, the bath , or your backyard koi pond, it’s probably gone.
This is actually pretty obvious as long as there’s no protect the drive’s USB port, which remains exposed in the least times. If you would like a closer-to-indestructible pocket SSD, our current Editors’ Choice is that the ADATA SE800.
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 1TB performance Review
On a more positive note, the acute Pro Portable SS aced our benchmark tests. This thing promises transfer speeds within the 1,000MBps range, and it delivered a la mode . As noted earlier, the internals on this drive, like on the ADATA, Crucial, and CalDigit models charted below, are PCI Express-based and support NVMe; compare the numbers that these drives deliver with what we saw from the SATA-based HyperX Savage EXO. These newer-generation PCI Express-based drives will need a USB 3.1 Gen 2-compliant USB port to hit their peak speeds, but it’s worth choosing one among these newer models if you’ll do many large sustained transfers.
BlackMagic 3.1 Disk Speed Test
The BlackMagic drive-testing tool, which is out there just for Macintosh computers, was created by an Australian producer of video software and hardware and is usually employed by videographers to work out how a drive will perform when working with large video files. the acute Pro tore through this test, scoring at the highest of the heap. The Crucial X8 had a trivially faster read speed, but the SanDisk had a ditto write speed. it is a wash.
SanDisk Extreme Pro (Blackmagic)
In the end, most all the tested SSDs, apart from the SATA-based HyperX Savage EXO, scored alright during this benchmark.
Drag-and-Drop Test
In this real-world test, we hold a stopwatch in one hand while copying a 1.2GB test folder containing several different file types from our testbed system to the SSD with the opposite . This offers an honest check out the type of transfer speeds one might expect to seek out within the wild. The SanDisk Extreme Pro finished the operation in two seconds, tying the ADATA SE800 and taking only half the time it took the HyperX.
SanDisk Extreme Pro (Folder Test)
PCMark 8
The PCMark 8 storage subtest mimics typical productivity workloads like data processing and videoconferencing. The Crucial X8 edged the SanDisk Extreme Pro by a negligible amount.
This test also demonstrates that for workaday tasks like these, the raw speed of an SSD (PCI Express or SATA) doesn’t matter all that much.
Crystal DiskMark
Crystal DiskMark’s sequential read/write tests measure the performance of drives as they read and write large blocks of contiguous data. Here, the acute Pro was the champion on the strength of its write speeds, reading data at 957MBps and writing at 970MBps.
SanDisk Extreme Pro (CDM Sequential)
Once again, the HyperX Savage EXO mentioned the rear, reading and writing at a touch better than half the speed of the SanDisk SSD.
Impressive But Imperfect
SanDisk’s Extreme Pro Portable SSD is a beautiful drive that might be perfect for videographers, photographers, and anyone else who creates large amounts of knowledge and wishes to store and transfer it quickly and efficiently. The drive is good-looking and swift, and it comes with useful cables and helpful utilities, to not mention the longest warranty you’re likely to seek out on a product of its kind.
Is it the last word external SSD, though? almost . First, it is a bit expensive in terms of cost per gigabyte. Second, the shortage of an activity light detracts from the drive’s attractiveness, and its merely partial ruggedization (including a permanently exposed USB port) sees it topped by some like-priced or cheaper competitors. it is a excellent SSD, but just shy of a superb one.
