Overview
WD with the My Passport line is one of the largest manufacturers of external storage. I myself have three pieces with a capacity of 2–4 TB. In 2017, they launched the My Passport SSD, which belonged to the first generation of external SSDs. It impressed us mainly with its unique design and compact dimensions, but unfortunately it never got into my hands. However, this is now changing, as we have received an upgraded version with the same name for 2020.
My Passport SSD
WD as a brand has recently undergone design changes, which has been reflected in the product packaging, but also in the shape of the SSD itself. The white-yellow box gives a fresh impression and its visual offers a look at the basic specifications.
In the packaging you will find the SSD, a short USB-C cable, an adapter from USB-C to classic USB type A and short documentation. The SSD uses USB 3.2 gen 2 with 10 Gb/s throughput for transfer.
The aluminum body impresses with its wavy design on the front and back. You can choose from up to four colors, our gray, blue, red and gold. Its dimensions are 100 × 55 × 9 mm and it weighs 46 grams.
Comparing dimensions will, again, be most sensible with other external SSDs. In the picture below you can see the Samsung Portable T5, SanDisk Portable SSD and the recently tested Patriot PXD. The new My Passport is quite large, although it does not offer water resistance like SanDisk. However, it has increased resistance to falls of up to two meters and also against vibrations.
Like the PXD, this novelty belongs to the new generation with theoretical speeds of 1050 MB/s for reading and 1000 MB/s for writing. The NAND memory used will probably be 64-layer TLC. At least that’s what most various sources say, but WD isn’t one. And there are little doubts that it could also be MLC memory. The behavior of the SSD suggests this a bit (but about that later…). On the other hand, if that were the case, the manufacturer would certainly boast of such a configuration.
My Passport 2020 is available in 512 GB, 1 and 2 TB capacities. Unlike the PXD, it also offers hardware encryption using 256 bit AES. It is compatible with both Windows and macOS, including Time Machine after formatting. Another important piece of information, the manufacturer of the SSD offers up to a 5-year warranty.
Testing took place as always on the Intel Z390 platform, specifically on the Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Xtreme motherboard with Intel Core i9-9900K processor and 32 GB 3600 MHz DDR4 Corsair Dominator Platinum, from which 25 GB was allocated to the RAM disk.
WD with the My Passport line is one of the largest manufacturers of external storage. I myself have three pieces with a capacity of 2–4 TB. In 2017, they launched the My Passport SSD, which belonged to the first generation of external SSDs. It impressed us mainly with its unique design and compact dimensions, but unfortunately it never got into my hands. However, this is now changing, as we have received an upgraded version with the same name for 2020.
Write: practical tests
As the Patriot PXD tests have already shown us, comparing the first and second generation of external SSDs is not very smart, as the speed differences are up to double. Therefore, we will focus more on comparing the novelty and the PXD. In the 9 GB, 24–36 MB and 427–1235 KB tests, there are minimal differences, at the level of 2.3 or 8%, which can be considered negligible. The results of 5–10 MB and 12–59 KB file tests are interesting. In the first case, the PXD experienced a large loss of performance due to the pSLC buffer. My Passport’s performance does not decrease and therefore offers up to 94% higher performance in this particular test. The opposite situation is in the test with the smallest files where PXD starred. The novelty in this test has only slightly higher performance than the T5 and SanDisk. This means that the writing took 17 minutes and not 20.
Write: synthetic tests
Synthetic write tests are almost fully in the hands of My Passport. Sequential write is again 8% faster and achieves great results in the 4K (64 threads) test, where it beats the PXD, being up to three times faster. The access time is almost the same, but the novelty lost by a hair in the 4K write test. However, the 2% difference is really small.
WD with the My Passport line is one of the largest manufacturers of external storage. I myself have three pieces with a capacity of 2–4 TB. In 2017, they launched the My Passport SSD, which belonged to the first generation of external SSDs. It impressed us mainly with its unique design and compact dimensions, but unfortunately it never got into my hands. However, this is now changing, as we have received an upgraded version with the same name for 2020.
Read: practical tests
Reading tests are a bit tighter than writing. WD wins the 9 GB one by 5%, we see a 1% difference at 24–36 MB. 5–10 MB one is more suitable for My Passport with a lead of 21%, but in 427–1235 KB, the PXD is 17% faster for a change. The biggest difference is again seen in the smallest files, where the PXD dominates again. My Passport took 16 minutes to complete this test, the T5 and SanDisk up to 40. However, the PXD only took a little over two minutes, which is a really huge difference.
Read: synthetic tests
Synthetic read tests are in favor of My Passport with one exception. However, the differences in sequential, 4K (64 threads) and access time are only 1–2%, which means nothing in real life. 4K read is the only one in which the PXD wins, quite significantly with a 28% difference.
WD with the My Passport line is one of the largest manufacturers of external storage. I myself have three pieces with a capacity of 2–4 TB. In 2017, they launched the My Passport SSD, which belonged to the first generation of external SSDs. It impressed us mainly with its unique design and compact dimensions, but unfortunately it never got into my hands. However, this is now changing, as we have received an upgraded version with the same name for 2020.
Overall score and performance on macOS
The overall score shows the victory of the My Passport over the PXD, where mainly the write weighed. Tests on macOS show WD winning in writing by 8%, but a close 3% loss in reading.
WD with the My Passport line is one of the largest manufacturers of external storage. I myself have three pieces with a capacity of 2–4 TB. In 2017, they launched the My Passport SSD, which belonged to the first generation of external SSDs. It impressed us mainly with its unique design and compact dimensions, but unfortunately it never got into my hands. However, this is now changing, as we have received an upgraded version with the same name for 2020.
Rating
An upgraded version of WD My Passport SSD for 2020 brings a new design, but above all significantly higher speeds. Compared to the Patriot PXD, the novelty surprised mainly in the field of writing and with slightly higher speeds overall. However, it all depends on the conditions and the performance in other tests was comparable or in really specific cases even worse. But the big difference is the non-use of the pSLC buffer as in PXD, which is probably due to the use of above-standard fast TLC memory. This means that performance does not drop even if you want to write sequentially across the entire capacity of the SSD at once. I tried to transfer 300 GB of videos and the speed was still around 600 MB/s and at the same time just a “warm” surface of the cover does not indicate overheating (and performance drop for this reason) even when transferring larger directories.
What gives the My Passport great benefits are also secondary features such as hardware encryption, a longer 5-year warranty and slightly higher resistance to shocks and falls. WD also offers small software for disk search or backup options. Overall, the new My Passport SSD has a more comprehensive package than the simple Patriot’s approach with the PXD, where you only get the SSD and that’s it. What I am heading for is the price difference between these SSDs, which is huge. We are talking about the amount of about 100 euros when comparing the 1 TB versions, i.e. 260 euros in the case of WD and 160 of Patriot. Nevertheless, for me personally, this is too big a price difference with the same capacity, even though WD offers more features and a longer warranty. However, you may need HW encryption, so My Passport is the only option from the pair of the compared disks. Let us know your opinion on this issue in the discussion.
| WD My Passport SSD (2020) |
| + high speeds without drops (does not use pSLC buffer) |
| + body resistant to falls and shocks |
| + USB-C with USB-A adapter in the package |
| + 5-year warranty |
| + HW encryption |
| - higher price |