You might not think external storage could get more interesting than needing to back everything up, but if the latest announcement from SanDisk is anything to go by, speed is a big deal.
It’s pretty clear you need to back up regularly, but for some people, backing up regularly isn’t always something that happens. Being regular when you’re backing up means something different to everyone, and whether it’s every week, every month, or at least once a year, it is clearly important to have some form of backup plan in your life, even if it’s only for the important files: photos, videos, and documents that matter.
But one of the reasons we hear that can act as a bit of a roadblock and barrier to backups is speed. Quite simply, if a drive takes its time, you might be less likely to back up data to an external storage solution.
While there are plenty of online options that can work in the background, backing up to Dropbox, Google Drive, and Apple’s online iCloud storage can get expensive, especially in comparison with local storage.
Hard drives are known for taking a little longer, thanks in part to the older and slower technology, but there’s something else out there: solid-state.
Also known as an SSD (or “solid-state drive”), think of this as fast memory direct and available, removing the wait time while also improving durability, because there aren’t moving parts. It’s this that you’ll find in your iPhone, and the latest and greatest computers, and it’s proving to be an interesting battleground for storage makers, such as Samsung, WD, Seagate, and SanDisk, the latter of which has something new. Not just one thing, either but three things, and with their launch, competitors such as Samsung are squarely in sight.
The new models form part of the SanDisk SSD range, and there are three models: fast, faster, and faster than pretty much everyone else. Granted, they’re not worded like that, but on specs alone, that’s basically what it appears SanDisk is doing.
In the fast category, there’s the SanDisk Portable SSD, a variant that offers up to 520MB/s read times, making it more like an SSD from a few years ago, such as the Samsung T5 or original WD My Passport SSD. Available from $149 for 480GB or $269 for 1TB, it’s kind of the starter’s approach to a SanDisk SSD.
Next is the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD, which uses a drive more like the ones we’re seeing this year, sporting up to 1050MB/s read and up to 1000MB/s write, similar to what we saw in the Samsung T7 Touch and 2020 WD My Passport SSD. Available from $189 for 500GB and $319 for 1TB, it’s also water and dust resistant, sporting IP55 certification.
Finally, there’s that approach that might make SanDisk faster than everyone else, arriving in the SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD. It gets the same IP55 rating, but ups the storage speed yo up to 2000MB/s read and write, which is around twice the speed of 2020’s best external SSDs so far.
It also looks to be reasonably competitive, fetching $399 for 1TB and $749 for 2TB, which while more expensive than the rest, might just win people over because of that speed.
You’ll find them at the end of November, though, so if you need this sort of speed from an SSD to go now, you’ll have to wait a couple of months.
