Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

I think it is safe to say that the P500 series are not the absolute fastest USB 3.2 device out there, but perhaps you'll allow me to say that they're fast enough for what they need to be on a USB port? Whilst offering reasonable performance, this product is all about value as the 1 TB unit tested, based on 1TB NAND TLC, sells at 99 USD, and that is a pretty good deal. Portable USB storage has evolved rather fast. A couple of years ago your fastest USB stick reached 25 MB/sec, newer models may be 100 MB/sec, and these days with advanced NAND technologies they can pop an M2 SSD and make it portable USB3 storage, often faster than a SATA3 SSD. Thus unit falls into that category, it's a pocket-size device that is lightweights and very easy to connect. With a compatible USB 3.2 host-client setup you thus can reach numbers peaking anywhere from 250 MB/s Writes up to roughly 400 MB/sec reads. So yes, the P500 definitely is not the fastest within its category though, that has to be stated. But I don't know about you, how fast does a USB connected puck need to be really? I mean it is certainly fast enough for anything I demand or need for external/portable storage. Heck, this unit is even faster than an enthusiast-class SATA3 SSD, over USB. It is also sturdy, incredibly so. You could drive over it with a car and it would probably not break (that is an opinion though, not a spec).

Pricing and some TLC

A secondary key factor is that prices have come down increasingly with the development of the latest NAND technologies. Where Samsung will easily ask 500 bucks for their Thunderbolt version, here we have this 1 TB unit sitting at that $99,- These are MSRP prices, street price will get lower. Downsides: we're missing some data, we know the NAND is written TLC, we have no idea what the TBW values are though. Realistically though with a portable drive, that matter much less.  HP, however, tops this unit off with a 3-year warranty, which is really nice. Write performance, depending on the workload you'll sit at ~250 MB/sec copying multi-gig files sustained and linear (ISO/ UHD Movies, etc). From there on the trend is upwards closer to that 400 MBsec range for your read and copy from performance. 

Temperatures are not an issue. We show a peak temperature after writing, writing, writing, and then some writing. The internal M.2. SSD is running below its actual performance capacity due to the USB 3.2 Gen2 bandwidth available, and that housing functions as one big heatsink. We have not seen load temperatures much higher than 44 Degrees C. And even if it would overheat, it has throttling protection. In an extreme write state, it can get warm in your hands though.

Concluding

For every product there is positioning. We're not disappointed in the P500, even despite the moderately sluggish writes. I do need to reemphasize something I said before, how fast does a portable USB drive need to be? For me, this is fast enough for everyday normal usage. Then again, any end-users will take a faster product if it's priced the same, that's the reality as well. Stability and compatibility, hey it's USB man - wise we had no problems whatsoever with it. Overall and last words, this is a fair priced USB 3.2 SSD. It is easy to carry around a portable storage unit offering reasonable enough performance for today's USB standards. Pricing is everything, and at 99 USD really you can't go wrong here as if you want a product that twice as fast, you'll easily pay 150 to 200 USD for a 1TB unit of your brand preference. 

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