Kingston XS1000 launches as pocket-friendly external SSD with USB type-C and up to 1,050MB/s speeds

Kingston claims to have made its XS series of external SSDs even more mobile with its latest variant, touted to cut the industry's standard in half with its footprint. The new model is also rated for extra pocket compatibility with a mass of no more than 29 grams.

The XS1000's "sleek and compact" shell resembles that of its XS2000 sibling, although it is all black in this iteration and is designed to measure 69.5mm by 32.6mm. It has room for just 1 USB type-C interface - which is a port rather than a connector, which means that a user will also have to carry a cable around with them in order to use the tiny new storage solution with a PC.

Kingston is confident that consumers won't mind, as the drive packs 3D NAND flash memory capable of getting up to 1,000MB/s write speeds and up to 1,050MB/s over USB 3.2 Gen 2 (to see if it can really hit those speeds, check out our review!).

The XS1000 has been released in 1TB or 2TB SKUs compatible with newer versions of Linux (v. 4.4.x and newer), Chrome OS, Android, iOS/iPadOS (v.13 and newer), macOS (v.10.15.x and newer) and Windows (10-11) with RRPs of US$65.99 and US$109.99 respectively, and is available on Amazon from now.