Portable SSDs let you increase the amount of storage available and also let you take that data with you on the go. The best portable SSDs let you pack a huge amount of storage in your daily bag, giving you a place where you can offload files from your computer or smartphone, access files on the road, and backup important information, but the world of portable SSDs is a large one, and choosing the best SSD can be quite the challenge.
Valentina Palladino and Jim Salter for Ars Technica:
The best portable SSD you can buy right now is the $149 CalDigit Tuff Nano (512GB). It was one of the fastest performing SSDs we tested, beating out most of the competition in read and write speeds. It’s one of the most portable drives as well, with a metal body that has dimensions smaller than the size of a typical credit card. The device is IP67 water- and dust-resistant, and it has a special USB-C port that has its own waterproof rating. We only wish it came in more capacity variations, but for now, the CalDigit Tuff Nano portable SSD in 512GB is well worth its price of $149.
MacDailyNews Take: For greater capacity with excellent performance, last September, we purchased a 2TB external NVMe SSD — Sabrent Rocket Pro 2TB NVMe USB 3.1 External Aluminum SSD (SB-2TB-NVME) — somehow for $259.99 from Amazon. Today it costs $600! We don’t know how we got that price, but we’ll take it!
