Looking for high-quality portable SSDs is quite a challenge, especially with differing prices on the market. Luckily, lauded brand Western Digital has run up to the SSD trend.
Western Digital just announced its first portable SSD storage called "My Passport SSD," available in three storage configurations, complete with a USB-C port which replaces the USB 3.0 Micro B port of yesteryear.
Western Digital My Passport SSD
The My Passport SSD is tiny, almost palm-sized. It's also currently the fastest My Passport drive from Western Digital's lineup of storage devices, offering users the ability to move files at 515 MB/s. This is the first time for Western Digital to actually release a portable SSD drive, since the company is mostly recognized for its inexpensive solutions for HDD backups.
As you can see, the My Passport SSD borrows the look of the recently redesigned My Passport drives, obviously shrunken down because of the absence of a magnetic drive. The move to finally release its own portable SSD is wise — and also unsurprising. The company acquired SanDisk last year to make inroads in the SSD department, which is something it's already doing with its internal SSDs.
Its new My Passport SSD also signals its willingness to compete with Seagate and LaCie in the increasingly emerging market of SSDs, especially with the latter two companies already offering their own SSDs.
But instead of just releasing a run-of-the-mill portable SSD, Western Digital was meticulous enough to also jump into the USB Type-C trend, which is slowly replacing previous-gen ports. But the company isn't leaving out those who don't have USB Type-C laptops: it's throwing in a USB Type-A adaptor in the box for anyone who might need it.
"My Passport SSD is the perfect storage solution to rapidly manage large photo and video libraries, quickly back up files and important documents, run virtual machines from, or expand your SSD-laptop storage anywhere you take your computer," said Western Digital in an announcement.
My Passport SSD Storage Options, Pricing, And Availability
Western Digital's My Passport SSD, as previously mentioned, will come in three storage configurations: 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB.
Like all SSDs, however, don't expect these to come cheap. The lowest storage size will cost $99.99; 512 GB will cost $199.99; and 1 TB will cost $399.99. These are pretty fair prices considering other, more steep offers out there, but they're still pretty high, although this is mostly because SSDs are far more expensive the HDDs at present. By contrast, a My Passport 2 TB hard drive is just $79.99, much lower than the lowest My Passport SSD storage option.
The drives are protected by 256-bit AES hardware encryption and password protection, and users will get a three-year warranty period for every purchase. The drives are shock resistant up to 1500 G of force and can withstand a 6.5 foot drop. They will be available "this quarter," according to the company.
Thoughts about Western Digital's My Passport SSD? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
