LaCie Portable SSD (2nd gen)
This premium drive struggles to justify the extra outlay over cheaper and faster SSDs
PRICE 2TB, £258 (£310 inc VAT) from box.co.uk
The LaCie Portable SSD begs one question from the off: are you paying a premium for the brand name and the design? After all, the Kingston XS2000 ( see below) offers faster speeds for less money across a range of capacaties. Both are offered in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB options, and Kingston has the advantage in two out of three sizes: £88 versus £110 for 500GB, both cost £167 for 1TB, and £277 versus £310 for 2TB (all prices from box.co.uk).
To my eyes, the LaCie is the more attractive device.
It’s a minimalist block of aluminium
with a Type-C y connector at one end, and only a status light and a LaCie logo to break the sleek lines. It’s also small enough to slip into a pocket, with a weight of 45g and compact 80 x 50 x 10.6mm (WDH) dimensions.
The all-metal shell feels built to last, and should withstand shocks and knocks. Just be mindful that the surface can get scratched if it falls on something that’s abrasive, such as a concrete floor, and it doesn’t have any IP rating.
Inside the box is a USB Type-C cable, a one-month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud and details for Seagate’s Rescue Data Recovery services. If something awful does happen then you can send the drive to Seagate’s lab - for free - for a datarecovery attempt, with the promise of a 95% success rate.
That’s all positive. Less so is this drive’s formance in our benchmarks, ere it fell behind the Kingston in ry area; that’s due to the slower
B-C 3.2 Gen 2 interface, rather than Gen 2x2. I notched 1.05GB/sec ds and 1.04GB/sec writes in ystalDiskMark, with other thetic benchmarks being a fraction wer: AS SSD returned rates of und 930MB/sec. It transferred a single 10GB file in 17.6 seconds, for a real-life speed of 574MB/sec.
The LaCie Portable SSD is an attractive and highly portable solid state drive, and its steep price is reflected in bundled data-recovery services and a generous three-year warranty. However, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds it’s a tough sell against the Kingston XS2000, which is significantly cheaper at 500GB and 2TB while also being faster, at least when connected to the right interface. DESIRE ATHOW
SPECIFICATIONS
2TB capacity USB 3.2 Gen 2 USB-C cable stated 1,050MB/sec read and 1,000MB/sec write speeds Seagate Rescue Data Recovery Services compatible with most macOS and Windows systems 80 x 50 x 10.6mm (WDH) 45g 3yr warranty
“It’s a tough sell against the Kingston XS2000, which is significantly cheaper at 500GB and 2TB while also being faster”