On a positive note, the drive comes with two 9-inch cables: USB-C-to-USB-C and USB-C-to-USB-A. That's better than an awkward converter dongle. The SanDisk Extreme Pro V2 supports the latest and fastest USB flavor (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, also called SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps), which offers transfer speeds of up to 2,000MBps for both read and write when connected to a compatible USB-C port. It tested just short of that (1,909MBps read, 1,919MBps write) in our Crystal DiskMark 6.0 sequential read and write testing. Its scores were also a smidge under the speeds we recently saw from the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD (1,992MBps read, 1,967MBps write), which supports the same 2x2 interface. (See how we test SSDs.) TB3 is more popular then USB 3.2 2x2 which is impossible to find in notebook and very rare in Desktops. There are plenty of external storage solutions out in the market, but very few of them will be as durable as the Extreme Pro Portable SSD. It’s got great transfer speeds to keep you going, plenty of storage, and comes in a variety of storage sizes.

Whether you’re trekking through snowy mountains or filming in the middle of the desert, this drive won’t let you down. Creative professionals know the value of storage space. With capacities of up to 2TB, 5 you’ll have enough room for the files you need to work on or deliver. Also, that enclosure is made with an older Alpine Ridge TB3 controller, not titan ridge or newer like on some of these portable SSDs. So, its older tech. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. See how we test. USB 3.2 Gen 1 (a.k.a. the old USB 3.0), typically good enough a ceiling for older external SSDs with SATA-based silicon, caps read and write speeds for external SSDs at about 550MBps and 500MBps respectively. While you can use the Extreme Pro V2 drive with any of these interfaces, buying it without provision for a Gen 2x2 interface would be like buying a Corvette for runs to the grocery store.

SanDisk provides a generous five-year warranty, which we have also seen on other Western Digital products such as the 2020 version of the My Passport SSD. (WD is SanDisk's parent company.)

We tested the Sandisk Extreme Pro 1TB external portable SSD using a Dell Latitude 7490 business laptop which is equipped with a Thunderbolt 3 port. Note that the Extreme pro Portable SSD v2 includes support for hardware encryption via the Sandisk SecureAccess application.Our tests show that the Sandisk Extreme Pro V2 performs on par with current USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives and that’s not a surprise. CrystalDiskMark, for example, hit more than 1GBps on sustained read and write speeds using default settings. The competition

Editor’s Note, August 17, 2023: As recently reported in Ars Technica , a critical mass of users on SanDisk’s forums and Reddit have reported failures of some SanDisk Extreme, Extreme Pro, Extreme V2, and Extreme Pro V2 SSDs, resulting in data loss, as well as the drives becoming unreadable/unmountable. In May, parent company WD released firmware updates for the 4TB SanDisk Extreme, as well as the 4TB, 2TB, and 1TB Extreme Pro models, plus the 4TB Western Digital My Passport, but complaints continue. We are doing our own stress-testing of the sample drives we originally reviewed. As of today, however, we no longer recommend buying any of the aforementioned SSDs, until we are satisfied the issue has been resolved. ( A class-action suit has been levied against WD surrounding issues with these drives.) We have left our original review in place here for reference.] The small and light form factor of the Extreme PRO® SSD means it couldn’t be easier to keep your content with you whether you’re crossing town or traveling to an international location. So you’re left with a conundrum: Buy a storage device that promises to be extremely fast but only in certain circumstances or get one of the many rugged USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives available for significantly less but will work with far more devices.

Game Smarter

The Extreme PRO® SSD works with PCs and Mac™ computers right out of the box and connects with USB Type C and Type A, 3 making it easy to start and keep working in almost any situation. seanwebster said:At that point you wouldn't be testing the actual portable SSDs as they are, you would just be testing the performance of the internal SSDs in that one enclosure. Thus, comparing just the underlying storage alone. You can't compare the performance or thermal characteristics of these portable SSDs without using the default enclosures and bridge chips. As for IOPS - what is the point of testing the device outside of its designed enclosure if it is forever going to be used in the enclosure? I can test portable SSDs' IOPS perfectly fine as they come. They are not going to be used as internal SSDs, only as portables. So, comparing the performance without the bridge chip they come with is irrelevant. And again, I've already reviewed the internal devices as linked above. ;)