Plextor EX1 Portable USB 3.1 Gen 2 SSD Review

Memory (DDR4/DDR5) and Storage (SSD/NVMe) 366 Page 1 of 12 Published by

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Introduction

Small Portable Storage With Proper Performance

We review the lightweight yet stupendously fast Plextor EX1 Portable USB SSD. It a very fast portable storage unit based on a USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection offering it a full 10 Gbps connection! Basically this product has the DNA of an SSD and can reach over 500 MB/sec on both reads and writes - making this an seriously fast storage unit that is easy to carry around as it weighs in at just 30 grams.

Our sample has been equipped with 128 GB storage space and if you are on the move, this great device might just be what you need in terms of fast data you can travel with. The Plextor EX1 Portable SSD external storage drive is a thin external storage unit, lightweight as well. It is not just compatible with USB 3.0. (also known as SuperSpeed USB) that has a bandwidth rate of 5 Gbps (gigabits per second), it also supports USB 3.1 Gen 2, making is compatible with a 10 Gbps host interface. And that will show in raw performance

The Plextor EX1 series are available in three volume sizes, 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB. These units are shockproof and vibration proof SSDs feature a USB 3.1 Gen 1 and 2 connection interface (USB 2.0 backward compatible) and come with Fnet encryption software that provides 128-bit AES file encryption and password protection so that you may add a layer of security towards the unit. Inside is a Marvell controller with some TLC NAND from Toshiba (15 nm). These are paired to a VIA Labs VL716 USB 3.1-to-SATA bridge. The performance claims are bold, up to 550 MB/s for read perf and up to 500 MB/s for write speed. Combined with TLC NAND, this means that plector has embedded a small SLC cache to speed up that performance. A technology used by most TLC based solutions these days. Realistically at these values, the EX1 is faster and cheaper compared to the Samsung Portable T3 SSD as the 128 GB model as tested sells for 79 USD.

Well have a peek with the help of a photo first and then head onward into the review.


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Plextor EX1 Portable USB SSD - 128 GB - USB 3.1 Gen 2

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