G-Technology G-Drive Mobile SSD R-Series 500GB

Speedy, sturdy storage.

Like many of the external solid-state drives we’ve seen since late 2016, the R-Series (R for rugged) adopts a fast USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface. The eye-catching case has an IP67 rating for resistance to water and dust, though there’s no cover for the USB-C port. According to G-Technology, the R-Series is drop-proof up to 3m (onto a carpeted concrete floor), shock- and virbration-resistant, crushproof to 450kg and comes with a 5-year limited waranty.

True to its name, the drive’s body feels durable. At 86g, it’s a little heavier than Samsung’s T5 (51g), and if it’s office hazards you want to protect against, you don’t really need this one’s designed-for-outdoors robustness. At 9.4 x 5 x 1.5cm, the R-Series thankfully isn’t much different in terms of size to Samsung’s offering (at 7.4 x 5.7 x 1.1cm).

G-Technology quotes a maximum transfer rate of 560MB/sec. In our testing, the peak figure was 537.4MB/sec. That makes the R-Series the best (non-RAID) mobile SSD for sequentially reading data that we’ve tested, and puts it within a whisker of the best for writing — the considerably bigger and heavier CalDigit Tuff currently holds that trophy.

But it’s average in tougher random read/write tests; its 366.6MB/sec peak when reading is 46.6 slower than the Samsung T5 and 62.7 slower than the CalDigit Tuff SSDs.

However, it’s still a great, slightly tougher option than the T5, and is available in the tested 500GB capacity, as well as the larger 1TB and 2TB options.