DAS

Lexar has a long history of serving the flash-based consumer storage market in the form of SSDs, memory cards, and USB flash drives. After having started out as a Micron brand, the company was acquired by Longsys which has diversified its product lineup with regular introduction of new products. Recently, the company announced a number of portable SSDs targeting different market segments. The Lexar ARMOR 700 Portable SSD makes its entry as the new flagship in the 20 Gbps PSSD segment. Despite its flagship positioning and rugged nature, the ARMOR 700 is reasonably priced thanks to the use of a native USB flash controller - the Silicon Motion SM2320. Similar to the SL500, the product uses YMTC 3D TLC NAND (compared to the usual Micron...

Kingston DataTraveler Max UFD Series Review: New Type-A Thumb Drive Retains NVMe Performance

Kingston's new products in the portable flash-based external storage space have met with good market reception over the last year or so. Two products in particular - the Kingston...

17 by Ganesh T S on 7/11/2022

Samsung MUF-256DA USB-C Flash Drive Review: Thumb-Sized Performance Consistency

Portable SSDs have seen great demand over the last few years. Advancements in flash technology and controllers has resulted in compact drives delivering blistering speeds. These advancements have also...

20 by Ganesh T S on 7/6/2022

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

SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD and ArmorLock SSD Review

Western Digital introduced the SanDisk Professional branding in May 2021 for its G-Technology products targeting the content-capture market. The company has taken the opportunity to update some of the...

6 by Ganesh T S on 10/12/2021

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

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

SanDisk Extreme PRO and Crucial X6 4TB Portable SSDs Review: Contrasting High-Capacity Storage Options

The portable SSD market has been steadily expanding thanks to the increasing digital footprint of consumers. Technological advancements such as 3D NAND with high layer counts and the emergence...

20 by Ganesh T S on 8/18/2021

Silverstone MS12 and Yottamaster HC2-C3 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20Gbps Enclosures Reviewed

Late last year, we took stock of the the state of the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ecosystem. It was not a rosy outlook at that time. But since then...

21 by Ganesh T S on 8/12/2021

Crucial X6 Portable SSD 4TB Launches at $490: Phison's U17 Flash Controller Enters Retail

Crucial introduced the X6 Portable SSD last year as an entry-level alternative to their NVMe-based X8 Portable SSD. Launched in capacities of up to 2TB, the X6 adopted a...

1 by Ganesh T S on 3/2/2021

CES 2021: OWC Envoy Pro FX - A Dual Mode (Thunderbolt / USB) IP67 External SSD

As part of its CES 2021 announcements, OWC provided details of the Envoy Pro FX - an IP67-rated dual-mode SSD capable of operating optimally with both Thunderbolt 3 /...

9 by Ganesh T S on 1/13/2021

CES 2021: Western Digital's Portable SSDs Get Capacity Upgrades: 4TB of TLC for $680

Western Digital markets portable SSDs under different brands, catering to different market segments. The flagships in each brand make use of of very similar platforms - a M.2 NVMe...

3 by Ganesh T S on 1/11/2021

Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q USB / Thunderbolt 3 Dual Mode External SSD Review: Yin and Yang

The external storage market has shown renewed vigor in recent years, thanks in part to growth fueled by bus-powered flash-based storage solutions. The introduction of 3D NAND, coupled with...

14 by Ganesh T S on 12/14/2020

Sabrent Rocket Nano Rugged IP67 Portable SSD Review: NVMe in a M.2 2242 Enclosure

Portable bus-powered SSDs are a growing segment of the direct-attached storage market. The ongoing glut in flash memory (and the growing confidence of flash vendors in QLC) has brought...

11 by Ganesh T S on 10/30/2020

Crucial Portable SSD X6 and X8 2TB Review: QLC for Storage On-the-Go

Bus-powered portable flash-based storage solutions are one of the growing segments in the consumer-focused direct-attached storage market. The emergence of 3D NAND with TLC and QLC has brought down...

22 by Ganesh T S on 10/21/2020

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD v2 and WD My Passport SSD (2020) Review

External bus-powered storage devices have grown both in storage capacity as well as speeds over the last decade. Thanks to rapid advancements in flash technology (including the advent of...

7 by Ganesh T S on 9/30/2020

Western Digital Unveils USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD v2

The SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD released in 2019 has been one of the top performers in the external flash storage market segment. Putting a high-end WD Black SN750-class...

14 by Ganesh T S on 9/30/2020

ADATA External and HP Portable SSDs Review: Featuring the ADATA SE800 and HP P700

Portable flash-based storage solutions are one of the growing segments in the direct-attached storage market. The emergence of 3D NAND with TLC and QLC has brought down the cost...

13 by Ganesh T S on 9/24/2020

Toshiba Updates Canvio Portable Storage Lineup with Flex and Gaming HDDs

Hard disk drives still rule the roost when dealing with bus-powered portable storage devices that are economical on a $/Gb basis, particularly at higher capacity points. Seagate and Western...

12 by Ganesh T S on 8/31/2020

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