Customer Ratings & Reviews

When I read the reviews they said it was small but when I opened the box...dang. It hooked up fast and I was able to back up all my photos in a matter of minutes. Worked perfect and it doesn't take up any room at all...

So extremely small and portable! 500 GB is a decent storage size. I use mine primarily for pictures and clearing up space in my phone. For size reference, see attached photo of the product beside my Samsung Galaxy + Buds. When they say small and portable, they mean it! Definitely Highly recommend this item!

Full disclosure: I received a 500 GB SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD in exchange for an honest and timely review. The device is about the same thickness as my iPhone X, but perhaps an inch narrower and about 2 inches shorter. It is very compact and light weight. It has a nice rubber edge for absorbing shock and a little eyelet for attaching it to a carabiner or something similar. It has a IP55 rating, so it can withstand some adversity without being damaged. I connected my unit to my 2017 MacBook Pro with the included USB-C cable. The “drive” also comes with a USB-C to USB-A adapter for use with systems that don’t yet have a USB-C port. My first test was to export 256MB of photos and videos from the Apple Photos app on my Mac. That took around 20 seconds using a very rough measurement with the stop watch on my my Apple Watch. That export includes processing by the Photos app, so I’m sure most of that very quick time (IMHO) was due to the Photos app rather than transfer speed. I then proceeded to look for files to transfer to the SSD and found that everything I dragged and dropped to the drive was transferred as soon as I dropped it. I couldn’t detect any delay at all. Wow. Boom and it is on the SSD. A 200 MB video transferred before I could say “one thousand two” as I counted up. Very nice! That confirms my assumption about the export from Photos. I know I’m not taxing this device in the least. It is fast! I have purchased portable storage devices since the days of 3.5” floppy disks…hard drives, iOmega Jazz drives, and more recently the many generations of USB drives and “sticks”. I have two 2TB USB drives that I use most often these days for backups. The SanDisk Extreme SSD is by far the fastest portable device I’ve used. The compact size/light weight and ruggedness make it even more attractive as a new “go to” portable storage device for my needs. I tend to take a lot of photos and video while traveling. This drive will likely be a nice repository for them when I need to offload or backup my memory cards from my cameras. So far I would definitely recommend this for people who are looking for fast, compact and rugged storage …and are willing to pay extra for those attributes.

I purchased this SSD drive because my mini usb flash drive died. Thankful, I had a cloud back up and I recovered 95% of my lost data. This SSD drive was by my local tech (great guy). It only took like 10 minutes to transfer about 30gb of data. Strongly recommended!

Very good experience with this device. Works well on iPad and pc.

UNBOXING: Upon unboxing this drive I was immediately taken with the appearance and build quality. I knew it would be small, but not this small. It is very nice looking and has a corner loop so you can attach it to a key ring or a carabiner to easily find it in your bag. EXTRAS: Not much extra in the box. It comes with a small USB-A to USB-C cable and a USB-A to USB-C adapter. There is no pre-installed software. When you insert the disk into your device, you will be prompted to download the Sandisk SecureAccess software. THIS IS NOT REQUIRED TO USE THE DRIVE. It is only recommended. However, for users who have security concerns, SecureAcess will set up a password-protected vault that will automatically encrypt all your files. I'm not storing sensitive files, so I elected not to use this software, but I think it's a huge bonus to have that sort of protection available in an automated, easy access package. People who are always security conscious will have their own protections in place and they will likely be more stringent as well as multi-layered, but the average user who may just want to have added protection for their files will find SecureAccess very easy to use. PERFORMANCE: While testing this device for review, I had the average (read not tech savvy) user in mind. I plugged the drive into my MacBook Air, and without any thoughts of formatting, I just starting dragging files into the drive. The word fast is not sufficient to describe this thing. It's light speed fast. I mean seriously, really, really fast. I then plugged the drive into a Chromebook. All the files played perfectly. I then switched to a windows laptop with the same results The drive gets warm, but not hot. It is water resistant which is nice, but don't jump in the pool with it. Caught in a heavy rain or accidentally drop it in a puddle? You'll be fine. From Sandisk Site; The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD is IP55-rated, which means it’s built to withstand water and dust. It is also certified to stand up to 2-meter drops (That's 6.5 feet for the metric impaired like me!) I am a one bag, ultralight traveler and this device has been permanently added to my packing list. I will keep it on a carabiner inside my bag. This device is so easy to use, I would have no problem giving it to a parent or grandparent, with nothing more than a simple lesson on dragging and dropping.

The drive exterior size is very good when thinking about the storage size. It is indeed very fast writing and reading. Power consumption is acceptable (very important when connected to smartphone device). It connects directly to my Android smartphone (through USB-C connector). Easy to back-up phone data to the disk without using a PC. The drive would get warm to hot when used (mostly writing). According to the specifications, it is water resist, shock resist! I am not going to try the limit but looking at its structure, it is indeed sturdy and well sealed. The drive is coming with a small USB-C connection and an adapter to USB-3. Working well with Linux, Windows, Chrome OS and Android Systems. The drive is delivered with SanDisk volt software that can be used to encrypt personal files. Handy if you are using the drive for saving confidential data. Price wise, it is really acceptable (taking in count the connection to android phones. Special cable is required to connect to Apple phones).

I use this drive daily as my job as a photographer. I take it on location and is very sturdy and handles all weather. Not water proof but I’ve used it during hurricane coverage and held up nicely.

I was expecting it to be compact being a SSD but this exceeded my expectations. It also has rather rugged look and feel. With the number of free or low priced "cloud" options portables dont have the same desireability as they once did for a lot of people, but we find them very useful. We many times travel to areas that there is not that great of WiFi available to take a ton of photos, so having an external to back up the SD cards from the cameras is really a must for us. And this being the size it is makes it even more portable than many others we have had in the past as its only .042 inches thick. I can carry it in any pocket and its so light its hardly noticable, does not weigh you down at all. It even fits in my cell holster with my iPhone X in it as well. It can handle speeds up to 550mbps on the transfer of data and has an Ip55 water/dust resistant rating so splashes, rain sprinkles, spills or sweat is no problem at all. Included is a USB Type-C to Type-C cable and a Type-C to Type-A adapter, and I have a few USB C to C and USB C to A with us that we carry with us for one of the other phones and othe equipment so whatever device we need it on we are good to go.

Great storage device to use as large "Thumb Drive"

Works with the Xbox and my computer (I bought two during Black Friday).

This drive is blazing fast. ~100MB/s on and external USB 3 drive used to be speedy to me, but this drive blows them away topping out at 442MB/s write and 453MB/s reads (on USB C). Copying a large 16GB file from an internal SD took 48s - copying topped off at 340MB/s. The internal drive tested at 550MB/s read so it shouldn't be the limiting factor. I'll test it out on my home computer to see if it performs the same as my work computer. 1.9GB of 1483 small photos took 16s and one 1.48 file took 6s. This drive is faster than any mechanical HD but you can carry it in your pocket. I comes with a puny USB C cable but I'd guess it's small for portability's sake. It also came with C to A adapter for those that don't have a Type-C port. There was no difference in benches using the adapter. The drive comes formatted in exFAT, testing it NTFS format made no difference so I'll reformat it exFAT. Of course during the reformat I deleted the Sandisk security software. No biggie since I use a popular open source program for drive encryption. Per GB this drive is pretty expensive even compared to a DIY portable SSD. But using an m.2 drive to match the size of this drive would put you more in line. However, I don't think those DIY cases would be as rugged as this one though. The rubber case should withstand a quite a few bumps and drops, plus the rubber gives a better grip than a slick plastic/metal enclosure. For me, this drive is just too fast to be delegated to just a backup or photo storage drive. This thing will be my portable steam drive to use on my laptop when away from home. I'll keep the cheaper, slower mechanical drives for backups.

Please take note that I received this product for free in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. It's Sandisk - the name that I trust for long-lasting storage in all walks of my electronic life - phones, cameras, solid state hard drives. I had no doubts when I received this product that it would change my perception of Sandisk's products. It didn't! First thing I noticed - it's so tiny! I can fit in your front jeans pocket or your front shirt pocket! It includes a USB-C cable as well as a USB-C to USB-A adapter. The only device I have that accepts USB-C is a Chromebook, so benchmarking was out of the question there, BUT, I can say that some rather large video files I put on the drive played without any issues. Attached are the screenshots from my PC using USB-A USB 3.0 ports. I found the results to be impressive! Roughly 3x faster than mechanical hard drive attached via USB 3.0 to the same computer! If you're looking for a fast drive that's portable and reliable, don't waste your time with anything else - this is the one to buy!

Ran this little guy through an array of "standard" benchmarks. If you see my attached screenshots, you'll see it tests extremely well for an external drive. I tested with an i7 based laptop with 16GB of Ram a 1TB NVMe SSD to ensure no system bottleneck. (Oddly enough, testing with a true USB-C 3.1 port vs a USB-A 3.0 port did see better peak speeds, hit almost exactly to spec, but slower on 4k speeds) In "real world" testing, I moved a large video file to and from the SSD, with the averages hitting 385MB/s Reads and 336MB/s Writes. I then tested moving my Counter Strike Global Offensive game folder to and from the drive, with the speed hitting around 190MB/s Reads and 240MB/s Writes (I did not swap them, ran tests extra times, it was quicker writing to the external SSD than reading off of it) As far as the physical unit goes, its smaller than expected, has a nice rubbery texture. Haven't really tested out the IP55 rating, but I wouldn't try swimming with it, due to the rating being more for surviving rain or a quick dip in some water. TL:DR This is a great drive, overall super speedy (fully using a USB 3.0 port plus), and a decent value!

This SSD is super fast and very portable. It includes all the necessary cables too

The Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD has an interesting and solid design. The case is rubberized and has what I suspect is a place to clip a carabiner. I can’t stress enough how durable and well made this feels in the hand. The device has a single USB C connector at the bottom and includes a short (I would guess 3 inches) USB cable. A USB C to A connector is also included – definitely helpful for use on most devices that are brand spanking new. I hooked the SSD up to my Early 2015 Macbook Pro and benchmarked at 421MB/s write and 427MB/s read. That’s blazing fast – like surprisingly fast – for a single drive over USB. I know it’s over USB 3.1, but I’ve never actually had an external drive actually deliver that level of performance, consistently, and in such a small attractive form factor. Sandisk states that the device is built using a 6Gbps M.2 SATA SSD and is housed in a 2M drop resistant enclosure. The device is also rated IP55 – which protects from dust and low-pressure jets of water. Not water-proof per say, but definitely resistant from everyday splashes and sprays. Overall, I am very satisfied with the Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD. If you find yourself in need of fast durable, but portable, storage solution– look no further.

Just buy it, review done... But seriously, these things are amazing! I have a 250GB SSD in my MacBook Pro, and of course those are all soldered in these days. I was getting so tired of the disk nearly full warnings and deleting things I didn't care to get rid of. Enter the SanDisk Extreme drives. I use a 500 GB version to carry with me in my laptop bag, no noticeable weight to it, a good amount of on the go storage, it feels so durable - slightly ruggedized, and wow, is it fast. So, now when I get an SD card full of audio for work, I don't have to make room on my computer, I just pull out this little drive and throw it in a working folder. The transfer speeds are so good that I haven't noticed any difference between internal SSD speeds or external in Adobe Premiere or Audition. The first thing I used this for was a Time Machine migration, it took 30 minutes to migrate to a new Mac Mini (USB-C of course). And now I have this thing handy in my bag any time I need it, and I have no fear of it breaking thanks to it's rugged construction, light weight and zero moving parts. I love this thing! For the $89 it cost me, it is probably my new favorite laptop accessory! Now the larger models, the price climbs fast, so I have only one 1TB one, where I have three 500GB versions. I have a hard time justifying the cost for my use case, maybe you work with 4k video or something though and find it worth it.

Extremely slim durable easy to carry fast and value for money. This is the best portable solid state drive hard disk to buy easy to use and carry I am using this as my mac back up drive. I suggest every one to buy this product cause this is super fast to read or write and ultra light I give this product as rank 1

My biggest problem---not with this drive--is that I have a 2018 MacBook Pro that I use for a lot of various projects but I could only afford to have it configured with the 500GB drive. I ran out of space after my first project. So, I bought two of these SSDs. The first I needed so I could use it as the storage for my active Final Cut Pro Projects. It's fast enough for me to keep my entire library on the external drive and not experience any lagging. I may not be editing Black Panther, but I do occasionally do music videos, announcements, and commercials. Once I'm done the project I back it up to permanent storage. [I know too many writes to an SSD can be an issue but I'm not sure I have a choice]. I would recommend at least the 500GB for anyone that does small video projects. I ordered the other drive so I could run Windows 10 and an HTC Vive from the external SSD on my MacBook Pro. It is fast enough that it actually works well. There are very few VR titles that seem not to be working due to performance, but I think that may be the limitations of the i7 processor and the video "card" in my PowerBook. But, I am very impressed. Lastly, these drives are so small, I carry the Windows 10 drive with me everywhere so I have a portable VR machine to test and "develop" with.

Pros: Great form factor. I like the rugged aesthetic that Sandisk was going for. Orange and black is an attractive color combination (subjective, obviously). It's also durable for what it is. It's rubberized on the backside and has hard plastic on the logo-facing side. I have no fear of breaking it under normal use or even scuffing it too severely. The key-chain loop is super handy. USB-C 3.0 is great. Read/Write speeds are competitive with other offerings in this class (out-of-the-box portable SSDs). It's also unbelievably small and light. Cons: The included cable is short (roughly half a foot). You'll likely want to upgrade. However, since you can use any USB 3.0 cable you want, this hardly constitutes a con (more of a rectifiable inconvenience).