Lexar Portable SSD product reviews

To be honest, when I see or hear "SSD" or "Solid-State Drive" I expect a metal-cased slimline drive of a style familiar to anyone who's ever looked inside a laptop or modern notebook. I was NOT expecting a strange little black plastic box about the size of a pack of cards, but a bit shorter. I had a bit of a double-take moment when I realised that this actually WAS the drive, and I hadn't been sent the wrong device by accident.

At "half a terabyte" in terms of storage space, and running at memory-card speeds, this drive certainly is a great way to store a honking wad of data, and the 5 white LEDs on the front - to give you a rough idea of how full the drive is, in 100gb+/- increments - is certainly a very useful feature... but I can't get past the sheer size of the thing. With MicroSDXC cards now starting to reach these kinds of storage capacities, even if you add in a USB interface there isn't a need for such a big box... even without opening it up, you can feel that most if the insides in just airspace. For me, this was a minor... yes, only a minor... turn-off. I admit, I am falling into the modern trap of "small + sleek = stylish" so "black plastic box" wasn't a big draw.

Another thing that confused me was the choice the designers made to utilise the clunky big USB 3.0 Type-A plug on the back. Some of you older readers may recall the style of plug - the big square peg that used to be the ONLY USB plug for printers way back... bit now it's blue, and even bigger to accommodate the extra pins required for the USB 3.0 standard. To test a theory, I rummaged through my box of dusty antique parts and found one of the old USB 1.0 Type-A cables... sure enough, this unit worked, albeit very, very slowly. Still... the USB 3.0 Expanded MicroUSB style cables would have been nicer. I can only assume the clunky plug makes it easier to dock this unit in the stacker-type tower dock that comes as part of the "Professional" range of devices - which includes an array of memory card readers for photographers and videographers who may want to download multiple cards at once.

"So... does it have any redeeming features then?" you may well ask. Weeeelllll... maybe. While the price is pretty scary for something that will hold only half a terabyte - you can get a 2TB+ portable SATA HDD for around $150 these days after all - this unit has something disc-based drives will never have... sheer speed. As a solid-state unit, with no need to send drive-heads arcing out to locate a particular string of microdots on a rapidly spinning disk, this baby can read and write data pretty much as fast as your computer can ram it down the cable. When you are wanting to move big chunks of data in as little time as possible, that's a HUGE bonus. Imagine trying to back up your laptop to optical discs these days?! -shudder-

Clearly the target market for these kinds of devices is the commercial or industrial sectors, but this site talks to the consumer segment, so the appeal of this device to the "average Joe" will be moderated by their need for such things. Typically though, most people NEVER seem to think about backing up their data. But they should... and this unit would be ideal for those who decide to wise up and get their "personal and irreplaceable" data - eg. photos of weddings, anniversaries, family once-in-a-lifetime holidays, births, deaths, etc - backed up to something that can be unplugged, tucked away in a really safe place, and updated easily, quickly and inexpensively.

Overall, while the the style choices left me a bit cold, the functionality - and the need for this kind of unit these days - had me quite impressed. It's about time units like these became more commonplace, though I will admit I would really like to see more storage in a box this size - 4TB at least. While not as 'read anywhere' as 'the cloud', at least with this type of storage you know that no-one is going to hack it from China or Russia and send copies of your photos all over the place. Your data will be as safe and secure as the place you physically stash it.