PORTABLESSDs FROM £69

We review 12 portable SSDs that cover a wide range of standards, form factors and target users

Before you buy a portable SSD, you should consider several factors. Most obviously, speed. While they all use USB-C ports, there’s a huge difference in transfer

rates, with two factors in play: one is the chips and electronics inside the drive, and the other is the standard supported by the connector. The fastest drives all support USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, with its 20Gbits/sec bandwidth, but that’s only of use if the device you’re connecting it to also supports that standard (or USB 4, which is backwards-compatible). Most don’t, so you could end up wasting money.

Then there’s how much storage you actually need. Generally, we’d play safe. If you think you can “get away” with 500GB, go for 1TB. The same is true if you think 1TB should be just about enough; it won’t be.

You also need to think about how big the drive is physically. Some portable SSDs are little bigger than a USB thumb drive, while others barely fit in a pocket. Match the size to the target device you’ll be connecting it to; for example, if it’s just going to sit next to a PC then who cares, but if you’re going to use it to add extra storage to your camera while on a photo shoot, then compactness rules.