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 SL500 Portable SSD is one of the moderately priced 20 Gbps PSSDs in that set. The SL500 is able to achieve its price point thanks to the use of a native USB flash controller - the Silicon Motion SM2320. The unique aspect is the use of YMTC 3D TLC NAND (compared to the usual Micron or BiCS NAND that we have...

SK hynix Tube T31 Stick SSD Review: Bridging Solution Springs A Surprise

SK hynix is one of the few vertically integrated manufacturers in the flash-based storage market. The company is well-established in the OEM market. A few years back, they also...

15 by Ganesh T S on 4/15/2024

SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE Portable SSD Ecosystem Review

Western Digital had unveiled the SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE modular SSD ecosystem in mid-2022 to serve the needs of the professional market. Compact and sturdy NVMe drives (PRO-BLADE SSD Mag...

13 by Ganesh T S on 3/7/2024

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

LaCie Rugged Mini SSD Review: Power-Efficient Flash Storage at 20 Gbps

LaCie's portable storage drives have enjoyed a fan following, particularly among creative professionals valuing both performance and product design / appearance. After Seagate's acquisition, the brand has continued to...

8 by Ganesh T S on 1/3/2024

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

Crucial X10 Pro Portable SSD Review: 20 Gbps Performance in a Budget Offering

The portable SSD market has seen rapid growth over the last decade. Almost all of the tier-one NAND flash manufacturers have jumped in with multiple offerings, presenting consumers with...

19 by Ganesh T S on 11/10/2023

Crucial Unveils X9 Portable SSD: QLC for the Cost-Conscious Consumer

Crucial entered the portable SSD market relatively late, with their X6 and X8 PSSDs being the mainstay for many years. Based on QLC NAND, they were marketed for read-intensive...

1 by Ganesh T S on 9/27/2023

Crucial X9 Pro Portable SSD Review: Micron 176L 3D NAND Delivers Record UFD Consistency

Crucial introduced their X9 Pro and X10 Pro high-performance portable SSDs last month. Based on Silicon Motion's SM2320 native USB flash controller, coupled with Micron's 176L 3D TLC NAND...

18 by Ganesh T S on 8/18/2023

Crucial X9 Pro and X10 Pro High-Performance Portable SSDs Announced

Crucial's X6 and X8 Portable SSDs have been attractive budget options for the mainstream consumers looking to purchase high-capacity direct-attached storage drives. The company has been delivering some industry-firsts...

8 by Ganesh T S on 7/25/2023

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

Transcend ESD310C Dual-Interface UFD Review: Silicon Motion Powers Portable SSD in a Thumb Drive

Transcend recently introduced the ESD310C portable SSD in a thumb drive form-factor. A compact device with both Type-A and Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) interfaces, the ESD310C...

28 by Ganesh T S on 6/22/2023

OWC Envoy Pro Mini Review: SSD in a Thumb Drive Exceeds Expectations

OWC has been a key player in the storage industry over the last few decades, particularly for Apple users. Their lineup of portable flash-based direct-attached storage devices has a...

19 by Ganesh T S on 3/2/2023

Western Digital Launches 22 TB HDD for Consumers in Updated My Book Portfolio

Western Digital's 22 TB hard disk drives hit retail in July 2022, with a trio of products catering to the prosumer and business / enterprise markets. Today, the company...

13 by Ganesh T S on 2/15/2023

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

WD_BLACK P40 Game Drive USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Portable SSD Review: Balanced Storage

Western Digital had announced new products in the WD_BLACK lineup back in May 2022 to augment their offerings in the gaming market. The WD_BLACK P40 Game Drive SSD was...

6 by Ganesh T S on 11/18/2022

SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 Thunderbolt / USB Dual-Mode Portable SSD Review

Western Digital is introducing a new flagship portable SSD today under the SanDisk Professional brand. The PRO-G40 dual-mode PSSD ticks all the right boxes for prosumers, content creators, and...

13 by Ganesh T S on 10/6/2022

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

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

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