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Tiny 500 GB PNY USB-C external SSD now shipping for $75 USD, weighs just 36 grams

Tiny 500 GB PNY USB-C external SSD now shipping for $75 USD, weighs just 36 grams
Tiny 500 GB PNY USB-C external SSD now shipping for $75 USD, weighs just 36 grams
The ultralight portable drive comes with a three-year manufacturer warranty and Acronis True Image protection software at no extra charge.

PNY recently sent us its latest 500 GB Pro Elite USB Type-C portable SSD for our honest impressions. The PNY drive is notable for being smaller than most other portable SSDs at just 5.25 x 4 x 1.25 inches and 1.28 ounces while supporting theoretical read and write rates of 865 MB/s and 875 MB/s, respectively.

The packaging includes one USB-C to USB-C cable and one USB-A to USB-C cable. A download code for Acronis True Image Data Protection is also thrown in at no extra charge.

For our host PC, we initially went with the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 15 which integrates USB-C Gen. 2 and USB-A 3.x ports. While the PNY SSD would run fine via USB-C, it had connection issues on USB-A for reasons unknown. We subsequently switched to the Intel NUC11PAQi7 to see if a new host PC could address the issues we experienced on the Microsoft laptop.

Thankfully, everything ran much more smoothly once we switched to the Intel mini PC. We're able to confirm PNY's advertised transfer rates with multiple benchmarks as shown below on both USB-C and USB-A connections. Transfer rates can even approach 1 GB/s for 512 KB block sizes according to ATTO. Results are impressive considering the small size of the drive.

We recommend owners use USB-C to USB-C cables whenever possible since we experienced issues when connecting to USB-A ports on certain laptops. The drive can currently be found on Amazon in 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB capacities for $59, $75, and $129 USD, respectively.

CrystalDiskMark 8 with USB-A cable
CrystalDiskMark 8 with USB-A cable
CrystalDiskMark 8 with USB-C cable
CrystalDiskMark 8 with USB-C cable
ASSSD with USB-A cable
ASSSD with USB-A cable
ASSSD with USB-C cable
ASSSD with USB-C cable
ATTO with USB-A cable
ATTO with USB-A cable
ATTO with USB-C cable
ATTO with USB-C cable
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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2021 05 > Tiny 500 GB PNY USB-C external SSD now shipping for $75 USD, weighs just 36 grams
Allen Ngo, 2021-05- 5 (Update: 2021-05- 5)