SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2: higher performance, new body

Conclusion

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.

• Contents
• Overview
• Write
• Read
• Overall score and performance on macOS
• Utility app
• Conclusion