WD My Passport SSD (NVMe)

£160/$190 (1TB) shop.westerndigital.com

This is WD’s latest version of its popular My Passport SSD, not to be confused with the previous incarnation, which is still on sale. The new version has a smoother, more rounded design; but while it looks different, it still goes by the same My Passport SSD name, just for that little extra confusion.

We weren’t that impressed with the speeds we got from the old My Passport SSD, but this new one is built around NVMe SSD tech and promises to be nearly twice as fast, with advertised peak read/write speeds of 1,050 and 1,000MBps respectively. Refreshingly we found WD’s claims to be bang-on, as CrystalDiskMark measured 1,041 and 1,002MBps read/write rates – very impressive. Switching to real-world testing inevitably brings a performance hit, but the new My Passport SSD still performs well. We achieved an average 651 and 569MBps read/write speed with video files, and 538/364MBps with multiple image files.

Capacities include 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and a 4TB option, with connectivity being via USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2. A USB-C to USB-A adapter is included. PROS Very fast in most scenarios; sleek and easily pocketable; good capacity options CONS Video write speed is not class-leading; bland‑looking piece of kit