The Wireless External SSD You Never Knew You Needed

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USB drives or flash drives are convenient, mostly because they're compact and portable. They come in a range of storage capacities, even up to 2TB in some cases. But typically, in a head-to-head, solid-state drives offer much faster speeds. If you're planning to do anything substantial like transferring large, high-resolution video files, booting into an operating system like Windows from a portable disk, or even playing games off the drive, a solid-state drive is the better option. But you can also lose out on the compact and portable format. Unless you go with a portable solid-state drive, or something even meant to mimic USB thumb drive formats like the Kingston Dual Portable Solid-State Drive. 

It's "dual" because it's two-sided, with a USB-A connector on one side and a USB-C connector on the other. It supports USB 3.2 Gen 2, the latest USB standard behind USB4, to deliver read speeds up to 1,050MB/s and write speeds up to 950MB/s. Those are blazingly fast compared to standard USB, but this little drive can also plug into a host of devices including desktops, laptops, and even smartphones or tablets. There are no extra cables or adapters needed. At $127 for the 512GB, $155 for 1TB, and $328 for 2TB, the prices are reasonable, though you also have to consider the format. Just to compare, a SanDisk 2TB Extreme portable solid-state drive is $210 at full price but it's also quite a bit larger. The SanDisk also requires a cable, whereas the Kingston does not. USB cables and connectors are backward compatible, so if you plug this Kingston into an older USB port it will still work, it will just slow down transfer speeds quite a bit.

Kingston's warranty is very good, for starters, good for up to five years or "SSD Life Remaining," with free technical support. The solid-state drive is also compatible with a variety of devices, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android, all of which are listed on the official product page. It does mention that some mobile devices may require an OTG adapter, though no models are specifically listed.

The real allure is the size and the advertised speed, up to 10Gbps with compatible USB 3.2 Gen 2 devices via USB-C. Knowing which USB ports you have available and which USB ports you're using does matter. Plug into a USB 2.0 or standard USB 3.0 port and you're not going to get the maximum speeds. The good news is, pretty much everything either includes or uses USB-C ports now, versus the standard USB-A. But with this Kingston solid-state drive, you don't have to choose per se. You can use whatever is available as the drive has Type-A and Type-C right there. As for size, it will fit right in your pocket, a side pocket in your bag, or you could even carry it because it's so lightweight. The chassis or shell is metal, so it's quite durable as well.