Sandisk Extreme 500 Portable Ssd 120gb

Nosotros could all utilize a little extra room in our digital pockets. Y'all can notice external drives that are smaller and have larger capacities than the SanDisk Farthermost 500 Portable SSD ($199.99 for 480GB), but its speedy operation, reasonable per-gigabyte price, and versatility make information technology a solid-state drive (SSD) worth considering. It's difficult to beat out the value and feature set offered by the 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable ($114.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , our Editors' Choice for external hard drives, but the Farthermost 500 gives it a run for its money.

Design and Features

Design is a battle between grade and function, and in the example of the Extreme 500, the latter has clearly won. The drive itself is a flat, palm-size diamond with rounded elevation and lesser corners. The summit corner is a metal loop that you can employ to hook it to your belt or a lanyard, while the bottom is an easily removed port comprehend. The top side is made from a textured black plastic with a blood-red SanDisk logo in the heart and a perforated rubber border. The bottom is also by and large fabricated of rubber to provide extra traction.

The Extreme 500 is a slim 0.4 by 3.0 past 3.0 inches (HWD), and at one.four ounces the drive is quite light. And while it's a smidge larger than both the Samsung Portable SSD T3 ($779.98 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (0.4 past ii.3 past 2.ix inches, 1.6 ounces) and the Adata SE730 External SSD ($57.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (0.4 by one.vii past 2.8 inches, 1.3 ounces), the departure is negligible when information technology comes to portability. It's nevertheless small enough to fit easily into most pockets, even so large plenty that you don't have to worry besides much nigh misplacing it.

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The drive'southward focus on function also extends to its durability. The Farthermost 500 earns its name past being stupor resistant up to 800G and vibration resistant upward to 5.35gRMS (which measures how much energy is in a random vibration), from 20 to two,000Hz. It's too capable of operating in temperatures ranging from 32° F to 113° F. The Samsung T3 and Adata SE730 are a bit hardier when information technology comes to drops, dust, and waterproofing, but unless you're planning on trekking to exotic locales, the Farthermost 500 should be more than plenty to withstand the trials and tribulations of the average klutz.

For connectors, the Extreme 500 is limited to USB 3.0. As more and more laptops adopt USB-C, y'all may accept to invest in a dongle or two to extend the life bridge of the Extreme 500. Also, the cable included with the drive is rather short: only virtually 9 inches. Information technology's not too bad if you lot're primarily using the drive with a laptop, merely it could exist annoying or limiting depending on your setup.

In terms of storage, you can likewise go the Extreme 500 in 120GB ($89.99) and 240GB ($129.99) capacities. Even at a maximum capacity of 480GB, this pales in comparison to the 2TB of the Samsung T3, only it's on par with the 512GB VisionTek USB Pocket SSD ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and is a off-white amount more than the 250GB Adata SE730 or the Apricorn Aegis Portable iii.0 ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . Overall, it'south a good corporeality of storage considering that SSDs are more than expensive per gigabyte compared with traditional spinning difficult drives.

Because the Extreme 500 is formatted exFAT out of the box, you can use it right abroad with both Windows and Mac computers. This is particularly convenient if y'all need to transfer files across multiple computers running unlike operating systems. And for the security-minded, the Extreme 500 comes with software-based 128-bit AES encryption—not quite as secure as 256-bit encryption you can get on the Samsung T3 and the Seagate Backup Plus Portable, but information technology's a overnice add-on. For extra peace of mind, the drive is also covered past a three-year limited warranty.

Operation

If SSDs are more than expensive and by and large offering less chapters than traditional hard drives, what's the reason for buying them? Speed, speed, speed. They're faster, and information technology makes sense to prioritize quicker transfers if you primarily work with large files like photos and videos. So how does the Extreme 500 stack upwards against other portable SSDs?

On the PCMark vii test, which simulates everyday storage tasks, the Farthermost 500 scored an impressive 5,649 points over a USB 3.0 connection. That outpaces the Samsung T3 (iv,980), the VisionTek USB Pocket (4,127), and the Adata SE730 (iii,076). And on the Blackmagic disk speed test, information technology logged an impressive write speed of 384.5MBps and a read speed of 427.5MBps. It's on par with the Samsung T3 (376MBps write and 430MBps read), but significantly faster at writing than the VisionTek USB Pocket SSD (138MBps) and the G-Engineering science G-Bulldoze slim SSD ($399.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (290MBps).

The Extreme 500 besides zipped through our file transfer test, copying a one.22GB folder in only 7 seconds. Again, it was slightly slower than the Samsung T3 (6 seconds) and the G-Drive slim (4 seconds), though the latter uses a faster USB-C interface. But information technology outperformed the VisionTek USB Pocket (8 seconds), the Apricorn Custodianship Portable 3.0 (eleven seconds), and the Seagate Backup Plus Portable (12 seconds).

Price-wise, the Farthermost 500 comes to nigh 42 cents per gigabyte. That'southward equal to the Samsung T3, but for a much lower overall price and a little less than a quarter of the capacity. It'due south as well a improve value than the 512GB VisionTek USB Pocket SSD (54 cents) and the 250GB Adata SE730 (60 cents). Merely as far as portable SSDs go, the G-Drive slim takes the cake at 38 cents per gigabyte and 1TB of capacity. Of class, SSDs can't actually compete with higher-chapters hard drives on this metric—the 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable, for case, is a mere iii.8 cents per gigabyte.

Conclusion

If you lot want a hardy, speedy SSD that fits into the palm of your manus and miraculously won't burn a hole in your wallet, the SanDisk Farthermost 500 is a safe bet. Information technology's non fully ruggedized, but it is shock and vibration resistant, and 128-flake encryption means you can easily protect your data. The Seagate Fill-in Plus Portable remains our Editors' Selection for external drives thanks to its varied feature gear up, first-class value, and large capacity—but as far equally portable SSDs become, the Farthermost 500 should exist about the top of the listing for consideration.

SanDisk Farthermost 500 Portable SSD

The Bottom Line

The SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD is a versatile solid-land drive that combines durability, fast performance, and value in a compact package.

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