It’s onerous for anybody to get enthusiastic about bodily storage. I imply, let’s be sincere — exterior onerous drives and stable state drives are a dime a dozen. There’s tons of choices on the market, and for essentially the most half, you’re not going to search out main variations between a lot of them.
That’s, until you check out the OWC Envoy Professional Elektron. This moveable SSD presents storage in an ultra-compact footprint. And paired with its speeds as much as 1011MB/s, this drive not solely offers an awesome choice for anybody in search of on-the-go storage. It does so in an extremely rugged footprint, all with out costing an arm and a leg.
Be aware: OWC despatched us the Envoy Professional Elektron to evaluate and hold. Nonetheless, all ideas and opinions about this bag are our personal. We’ve got not been instructed what to say, nor have we been influenced in any method. We inform you this as we at all times need to be sincere with you.
Professionals
- Very rugged design that has an aluminum exterior
- IP67 rated, which means it may possibly stand up to excessive climate
- Crush and water-proof
- Small and compact; excellent for journey
Cons
- Learn speeds are a bit sluggish in comparison with the competitors
- Solely out there as much as 2TB in storage
Technical specs — OWC Envoy Professional Elektron SSD
All the technical specs for the OWC Envoy Professional Elektron SSD are from the product itemizing on the B&H web site:
- Connection: 1x USB 3.2 / USB 3.1 Gen 2 (USB Kind-C)
- Kind Issue: M.2
- Energy Supply: USB Bus Energy
- Materials: Aluminum
- Noise Stage: 0 dBA
- Environmental Resistance: Crush, Water
- Certifications: BSMI, CE, FCC, RCM, VCCI, as per Producer
- IP Ranking: IP67
- Working Temperature: 41 to 95°F / 5 to 35°C
- Storage Temperature: -4 to 140°F / -20 to 60°C
- Dimensions: 3.0 x 2.0 x 0.5″ / 7.6 x 5.2 x 1.2 cm
- Weight: 3 oz / 85 g
Construct high quality — OWC Envoy Professional Elektron SSD
On paper, the OWC Envoy Professional Elektron is about what I anticipated when it comes to tech specs. It presents respectable speeds and a USB-C connection. It has a surprisingly small kind issue. However the largest shock got here with its exterior. This factor is rugged, capable of stand up to mud, water … you title it.
The compactness right here is enticing, as it may possibly simply be thrown right into a small digicam bag zipper, sling accent slot and even your pocket.
The drive presents capacities at 240GB, 480GB, 1TB and 2TB. I used to be despatched the 1TB model for evaluate. Personally, I’d prefer to see a 4TB choice supplied right here. OWC does have the Envoy Professional EX mannequin which presents 4 and 8TB choices, but it surely is available in a lot pricier ($264 for 1TB, in comparison with $169).
The Envoy Professional Elektron is de facto made for the on-the-go creator. Speeds received’t blow you away — coming in at a max of 1011MB/s — but it surely’s actually appropriate sufficient for use as a journey or backup drive. I’ll be utilizing it to dump photographs on-the-go from my iPad, along with making a few of my favorites out there for enhancing on-the-fly.
The drive does include a USB-A adapter for customers who haven’t been capable of improve to a USB-C system but. I might have appreciated to see this simply detachable; I had to make use of scissors to take mine off.
Total although, this is among the nicer drives I’ve used. It’s bought a premium construct and isn’t very heat to the contact, which is a big profit over different SSDs I’ve examined.
First impressions — OWC Envoy Professional Elektron SSD
To match its premium construct, OWC has put collectively a easy onboarding that helps you format your drive. It is a good contact, as many producers don’t appear to care about this step, which might pressure customers to make use of system functions they may not perceive. OWC makes it straightforward, and I recognize that.
You’re capable of rapidly configure your drive in one in every of 4 methods:
- Robotically for macOS 10.13 and later (creates a single AFPS quantity)
- Robotically for macOS (creates a single HFS+ quantity)
- Robotically for macOS and Home windows (creates a single exFAT quantity)
- Handbook configuration (providing choices to create two volumes and different formatting)
As a result of I used to be planning to make use of the drive with my Mac Studio and iPad Professional, I went with the primary choice, which created a single AFPS quantity that I might use with each units. This feature additionally allowed me to get the perfect speeds — particularly with my iPad Professional — as older iPad Professional fashions might be riddled with sluggish USB-C transfers if formatted utilizing extra world choices like exFAT.
The onboarding expertise was positively a pleasant change, and continued my thought as this SSD being a “premium” choice for creatives.
Placing it to the check — OWC Envoy Professional Elektron SSD
Disk velocity check for the OWC Envoy Professional Elektron SSD
Disk velocity check for the SanDisk Excessive Moveable SSD
When it got here to working velocity checks, I had an thought of what I might see. It’s almost unimaginable to get the max speeds of any SSD related to your pc, as there are different variables that may play into that. In my checks, I used to be capable of obtain a write velocity of round 914MB/s, with a learn velocity of 643MB/s.
No, that’s not the quickest drive round. OWC presents two Thunderbolt 3 drives that are available significantly sooner, with the Envoy Professional FX and Envoy Professional SX. However these are additionally significantly costlier, in addition to being bigger.
In comparison with my SanDisk Excessive Moveable SSDs, the Envoy Professional Elektron is about 80MB/s sooner. Nonetheless, the learn velocity on the Envoy Professional Elektron is about 70MB/s slower when in comparison with the SanDisk. Each drives supply appropriate speeds, however the OWC presents a ruggedness that simply places it barely forward of SanDisk’s choices in my e-book.
