There are literally hundreds of external storage options available. Between spinning hard drives, SSDs and memory sticks, it can be challenging to know what the best choice is. When it comes to high-capacity, portable storage that delvers fast performance, you’ll end up looking for portable SSDs. That’s where the LaCie Portable SSD comes in. This compact USB-C storage powerhouse offers slick performance in a tiny, elegant package.
The first thing that struck me as I extracted the LaCie Portable SSD from the packaging is how small it is. I’m testing the 1TB unit – it comes in 512GB and 2TB version as well – and its very small and light. It’s a mere 93.5 x 79 x 9.1mm and weighs just 81g. That’s small and light enough to not bother even the most fastidious traveler trying to lighten their load.
The unit also ships with both USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A cables so you can use it with both legacy and newer systems.
Performance was excellent. During my first file copy, of three video files totalling 2.9GB, copying from my MacBook Pro to the LaCie portable SSD took under 7 seconds. Reading from the drive to copy the same files back to the MacBook Pro was about a second faster. Copying a 9.9GB Windows 10 virtual machine, created in Parallels 14, to the Portable SSD took a touch over 21
Operationally, the drive was able to cope with pretty much everything I threw at it. I ran a Windows 10 VM from the drive and then played a movie within the VM from the drive while simultaneously playing another movie from the same SSD through MacOS. With both movies in fullscreen mode the drive didn’t miss a beat. Opening office files, editing images and working with video were all handled with aplomb.
The big question is whether the LaCie portable SSD represents good value for money.
- 500GB LaCie Portable SSD USB-C: $199.95
- 1TB LaCie Portable SSD USB-C: $399.95
- 2TB LaCie Portable SSD USB-C: $729.95
That’s a lot dearer than similar capacities when compared to desktop drives and buying your own SSD and popping it into an enclosure. But, most of those other options won’t give you the performance and portability that LaCie
If you’re looking for a portable storage option with plenty of capacity, strong performance and a small form factor, the LaCi Portable SSD is a great option. But you’ll pay for it.