Read
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD was one of the first external SSDs we’ve tested. After the test, it became my sidekick and I’ve been using it to this day. However, some time has passed since its introduction in 2018 and the manufacturer now brings a revised version with the same name. The novelty has double the speed in specifications, hardware encryption and several improvements of the insides.
Extreme Portable SSD V2
The exterior design of the package hasn’t been changed, but we can immediately notice improvements over the original model. The v2 offers twice as fast both read and write speeds, while other features such as drop protection or water resistance have been retained.
In the package you will find the SSD itself, a short USB-C cable, an adaptor from USB-C to the classic USB type A and short documentation. The SSD uses the USB 3.2 gen 2 standard with 10 Gb/s transfer rate. The USB cable has been shortened by 1 cm compared to its predecessor and is also slightly thicker.
The design and materials used are practically identical to the predecessor, again there’s a dark blue rubber surface with an orange hole for a keychain. The rubber body provides increased resistance to shocks and vibrations up to 1500 G and 5 g RMS at 10–2,000 Hz. The drive is also IP55 certified, so it is resistant to rain, splashes and dust.
The body has intergenerationally grown a little and gained some weight. To be specific, we’re looking at 100.5 × 52.4 × 8.9 mm versus 96.2 × 49.5 × 8.8 mm. The weight has increased even more, from 42 to 63 grams. However, we are comparing the 500 GB and 1 TB models, so a certain deviation is also caused by different capacity.
The manufacturer states maximum speeds of up to 1050 MB/s for reading and 1000 MB/s for writing on the product page. This is twice as much than 550 MB/s for both read and write compared to what was offered by the predecessor. Although both SSDs have the same 10 Gb USB-C connector, the speed changes are caused by the use of different memory chips, a controller and a bridge, which we will take a closer look at below, discussing the new product and the predecessor.
A comparison of the three SanDisk Extreme models: Portable SSD, Portable SSD V2 and Pro Portable SSD V2 shows similarity in design, but slight differences in dimensions, with the Pro model being the largest and the original Portable SSD the smallest.
The exterior differences are therefore rather cosmetic and relatively negligible, everything important has happened inside. Even when opening the cases, which I do not recommend due to the water resistance, I noticed a more demanding and better build quality of the latest SSD. However, the performance is affected by the components used, which we will compare with the old ones.
After opening and looking inside, you may notice one big difference. The novelty (on the left) shows a number of thermal pads that surround the SSD and the PCB on both sides, while the predecessor had black insulation, the exact opposite procedure. The higher weight is also caused by a larger number of parts and thermal components.
But let’s move on to the essentials. The original Portable SSD used a WD Blue Marvell 88SS1074 SSD controller and TLC memory. The bridge between SATA and USB was ASMedia ASM235CM, which you also saw in Silicon Power PC60. The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2 2020 received 64-layer 3D TLC BiCS-4 memory, the SanDisk 20-82-10023 controller and the ASMedia ASM2362 bridge, which was also offered by the first-generation Pro version. It is the bridge of the new generation that enables the combination of NVMe SSD and USB, while until recently your only choice was SATA and USB, which was the case with the original model or the recently tested PC60.
Thanks to the new memory and especially the controller and the bridge, the new SSD is significantly faster, but as we already know NVMe SSDs, they also produce more heat, which is what a larger number of thermal pads are used for. The intergenerational difference is therefore relatively large and it can be expected that the tests will be interesting as well.
In practice, external SSDs have proven to be a great replacement for both USB pendrives and external HDDs, as they offer sufficient capacity to transfer large files and are also the fastest. However, they are not short of the compact size and ease of carrying that define conventional flash drives. Thanks to the USB-C connector, you can also connect them to tablets or smartphones in addition to computers without the need for an adapter.
Testing took place as always on the Intel Z390 platform, specifically on the Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Xtreme motherboard with an Intel Core i9-9900K processor and 32 GB 3600 MHz DDR4 Corsair Dominator Platinum, from which 25 GB was allocated to the RAM disk.
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD was one of the first external SSDs we’ve tested. After the test, it became my sidekick and I’ve been using it to this day. However, some time has passed since its introduction in 2018 and the manufacturer now brings a revised version with the same name. The novelty has double the speed in specifications, hardware encryption and several improvements of the insides.
Write: practical tests
Practical tests in Windows show that the new generation offers about 60% higher performance for larger files, which also placed it among models such as PXD and My Passport SSD.
Write: synthetic tests
Synthetic write tests confirm better results by a whole class, although depending on a test we see an improvement from 25 to 109%. The biggest improvements can be seen in 4K (64 Threads) and access time.
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD was one of the first external SSDs we’ve tested. After the test, it became my sidekick and I’ve been using it to this day. However, some time has passed since its introduction in 2018 and the manufacturer now brings a revised version with the same name. The novelty has double the speed in specifications, hardware encryption and several improvements of the insides.
Read: practical tests
Practical read tests also show an improvement of about 60%, but the jump with 427–1235 kB and 12–59 kB files is interesting, where we observe improvements of 110 and 132%.
Read: synthetic tests
Synthetic read tests again ranked this SSD between PXD and My Passport SSD, although SanDisk loses in access time and 4K (64 Threads) by about 50%.
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD was one of the first external SSDs we’ve tested. After the test, it became my sidekick and I’ve been using it to this day. However, some time has passed since its introduction in 2018 and the manufacturer now brings a revised version with the same name. The novelty has double the speed in specifications, hardware encryption and several improvements of the insides.
Overall score and performance on macOS
The overall score is 77% higher than the previous model, which is expected due to improvements across all tests. We also see an improvement in the benchmark on macOS, but surprisingly, the SSD achieved better numbers in writing than reading. Here too, however, we see that SanDisk lags slightly behind WD My Passport or Patriot PXD.
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD was one of the first external SSDs we’ve tested. After the test, it became my sidekick and I’ve been using it to this day. However, some time has passed since its introduction in 2018 and the manufacturer now brings a revised version with the same name. The novelty has double the speed in specifications, hardware encryption and several improvements of the insides.
SanDisk Security
On the SSD’s storage, you will find the SanDisk Security application, which allows you to encrypt the SSD.
After installing it, it will prompt you to choose a password and hint. You can change or delete the password later.
After connecting the password-protected drive, you will be prompted by SanDisk Drive Unlock to enter the password to unlock the SSD. You can also choose to unlock automatically for selected devices that are safe. This eliminates the need to enter the password on your devices all the time, but on an unknown device, the SSD will not load up automatically.
Utilities work quickly and easily, they are available on both Windows and macOS, and I have nothing to complain about after a short test. They work as expected.
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD was one of the first external SSDs we’ve tested. After the test, it became my sidekick and I’ve been using it to this day. However, some time has passed since its introduction in 2018 and the manufacturer now brings a revised version with the same name. The novelty has double the speed in specifications, hardware encryption and several improvements of the insides.
Conclusion
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD in its second version brings many changes that you will not notice on the outside except for the slightly larger dimensions and weight. Everything significant has taken place inside, and in addition to a remarkable revision of cooling using thermal pads, we’ve lived to see the transition from SATA to NVMe, which in practice resulted in twice as much speed increase on paper and about two-thirds in real life compared to the predecessor.
At the same time, the drive has retained all the features that I praised last time, namely the increased resistance to water, shock and dust. The novelty also includes hardware encryption with utility applications that work well.
All I can complain about is that the rubber surface really tends to catch dirt, which fortunately can be easily wiped off, or washed with water. Compared to its predecessor, storage size has also increased, so the base version has 500 GB, followed by 1, 2 and 4 TB versions. Perhaps the last difference compared to the predecessor is the extended warranty from 3 to 5 years, which is also a positive change. So the intergenerational gap is really big, and I can strongly recommend the new, second version from 2020.
| Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD V2 |
| + dvojnásobný výkon oproti predchodcovi |
| + výrazne prepracované vnútro disku |
| + telo odolné voči pádom aj vode |
| + 5-ročná záruka |
| + redukcia USB-A v balení |
| + jednoduchý a funkčný SW pre šifrovanie disku |
| - gumové telo sa ľahko špiní |