Portable SSD Touch 500GB

VAVA US$89

Great security, but suboptimal for gaming

As a pure gaming drive, the Vava Portable SSD Touch is a little overqualified. The product of a crowd-funding exercise, its main claim to fame is to cram AES 256-bit encryption with fingerprint activation into a very small footprint. That makes high levels of security very convenient. But it also adds to the cost of the drive. It’s unlikely most gamers will demand that level of security for their libraries. So, putting that added investment towards more storage space and raw performance as opposed to data protection will probably make more sense. That said, if you’re

looking for multi-purpose USB storage, the Vava has plenty going for it. That includes compact proportions and a robust build, thanks to an aluminium and zinc alloy frame.

What it’s not, is particularly speedy. That’s largely down to the drives underlying SATA interface, which claims peak performance of 540MB/s read and 480MB/s write. In practice, Vava actually slightly outperforms those claimed sequential speeds.

VERDICT

Encryption and fingerprint security Quality alloy chassis Expensive for the performance