SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD – up to 1050mb/s – USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 review

How secure to keep personal file in SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD – up to 1050mb/s – USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2? Help keep private content private with the included password protection featuring 256‐bit AES hardware encryption. Password protection uses 256-bit AES encryption and is supported by Windows 8, Windows 10 and macOS v10.9+. Know about more feature in SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD – up to 1050mb/s – USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 review.

Pros & Cons – SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD – up to 1050mb/s – USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2

PROS

• Solid speed compared with its peers
• IP55 water- and dust-resistance rating
• Competitive and consistent performance
• AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption
• Weather-resistant
• Durable, grippy finish
• 5-year warranty

CONS

• Unprotected USB Type-C port
• Dongle-style adapter for USB Type-A ports instead of a second cable
• No power indicator
• Short cable for desktop use
• Slightly slower reading files than Samsung’s T7

Price – SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD – up to 1050mb/s – USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2

The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2 (starts at $119.99 for 500GB; $199.99 for 1TB as tested), the latest iteration in the company’s line of durable external SSDs, is faster and more economical than the original version (the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD). 

The WD store (SanDisk’s parent company) sells the Extreme Pro Portable in three sizes: 500GB for $120 currently, 1TB for $230 currently (the size we tested), and 2TB for $430 currently. We found the same prices on major online sites: 500GB for $120 on Amazon and 1TB for $230 on Amazon. The five-year warranty is in effect no matter where you buy. 

Compare SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD – up to 1050mb/s – USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2

SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD – up to 1050mb/s – USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 review

Build

This SanDisk drive employs rubber for its chassis, with an orange plastic loop at the top-right that can be used to securely attach it to an item. While its edges are smooth, the top and bottom surfaces are textured, which makes handling the drive easier

Design

It is thin enough, at 8.85mm, to slip comfortably into one’s back pocket. Its small footprint – 50 x 96.2mm – makes it far smaller than most recent smartphones. It also features a good-sized lanyard hole on the upper right of the device. Most camera bags come with lanyards attached, so this is a nice feature for professionals. 

Connectors

The sole connector on the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD is a USB 3.1 (Gen 2) port which is handy when used with the bundled Type-C to Type-C cable, allowing it to hit up to 550MBps according to the manufacturer – a fraction higher than when you use it with the bundled Type-A adaptor.

File format

The Extreme Portable SSD comes pre-formatted as an exFAT device which means that it can work on Windows and Mac out of the box. Reformatting it to NTFS will limit compatibility to Windows but will enable TRIM which will improve the longevity of the drive.

Capacity

SanDisk’s Extreme v2 comes in capacities of 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB, with prices ranging from $0.15-$0.19 per GB. Rated for up to 1,050/1,000 MBps read/write, the SanDisk Extreme v2 can deliver some very responsive performance, but these are peak figures. 

Data transfer limit

The drive is rated to support sequential read speeds of up to 1,050MBps and write speeds of up to 1,000MBps. This is zippier than the previous-generation, SATA-based Extreme Portable SSD, with rated read and write speeds of 550MBps and 500MBps respectively, though no match for the 2,000MBps of the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2-based SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2.

Security

You also get a copy of SanDisk’s SecureAccess 3.02 software that allows you to create a password-protected folder (or private vault) to store all your sensitive files using 128-bit AES encryption. Note, however, that it seems that the application – developed by a third-party called EncryptStick – will store your files temporarily in plain-text.

Resistance

The drive carries an IP55 rating for water and dust resistance. The drive is also fairly shock resistant as it will withstand a drop of 2m on a concrete floor without major damage.

SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD – up to 1050mb/s – USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 performance review

In Blackmagic, the SanDisk Extreme posted 920.6MB/s read and 950.4MB/s write, which was slightly below its quoted speed. In comparison, the My Passport drive hit 878.8MB/s read and 893.3MB/s write while The T7 recorded 894MB/s read and 840MB/s write.

Looking at 4K random performance, the SanDisk Extreme hit 5,034 IOPS read and 17,053 IOPS write. The WD portable drive showed 4,330 IOPS read and 18,877 IOPS write while the Samsung T7 hit 4,204 IOPS read and 12,306 IOPS write.

Moving on to 4 threads, the SanDisk Extreme continued its great performance with 1.04GB/s read and 1.02GB/s write for 2MB sequential speeds, which were pretty much on par with the company’s quoted speeds. In comparison, the My Passport NVMe SSD had showed 991.52MB/s read and 939.98MB/s write, while the T7 had 980.5MB/s read and 841.5MB/s write.

With 2MB random performance, the SanDisk hit 1.03GB/s read and 870MB/s write. As for the other drives, the WD saw 985.82MB/s read and 742.67MB/s write, while the T7 hit 978.7MB/s read and 920.0MB/s write. Finally, 4K random the SanDisk hit 18,787 IOPS read and a massive 66,585 IOPS write. In comparison, the My Passport showed 17,616 IOPS read and 39,793 IOPS write while the T7 recorded 17,805 IOPS read and 37,202 IOPS write.

DiskBench is a storage benchmarking tool that allows us to test the transfer or copy performance of a storage device with real data. We test external drives with three file transfers that consist of 25GB of photos (10GB of jpgs and 15GB of RAW photos), 50GB of movies, and 25GB of documents. First, we transfer each folder from a 1TB NVMe SSD to the external device; then we follow up by reading a 3.7GB 7-zip file and a 15GB movie back from the device.

Alternate of SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD – up to 1050mb/s – USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2 (1 TB)

The second version of the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD has the same speed, features, and short cable of our pick, the WD My Passport SSD. The SanDisk is more rugged, but it’s also a bit more expensive.

If the Western Digital My Passport SSD is sold out or unavailable, or if prices shift to make the My Passport SSD significantly more expensive, we recommend the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2 (1 TB). Like the My Passport SSD, the Extreme Portable SSD supports some of the fastest USB transfer speeds (USB 3.1 Gen 2), and the two drives finished in a virtual dead heat in our tests.

The SanDisk also comes with 256-bit AES hardware encryption, if you choose to use it. Compared with the My Passport SSD, the Extreme Portable SSD looks a bit more durable; it also has an IP55 dust- and water-resistance rating, and it should easily survive a drop onto a wet sidewalk or roadside. That extra brawn comes at a slightly higher price than what you pay for the My Passport SSD, but the SanDisk also has a lengthy, five-year warranty.

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