Western Digital today announced the launch of its first portable SSD, bringing solid state storage to its popular "My Passport" lineup of storage devices.

The new My Passport SSD is Western Digital's fastest portable drive yet, offering transfer speeds of up to 515 MB/s. Designed for USB-C devices like the MacBook and MacBook Pro, it features a USB Type-C port and ships with both a USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-A adapter.

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"The WD brand is focused on delivering fresh, new personal storage devices that offer amazing performance in a beautiful, yet durable design," said Sven Rathjen, vice president of marketing, Client Solutions, Western Digital. "Our fastest portable drive yet, the My Passport SSD is a powerful solution for people who need to move content quickly and easily wherever life takes them."

The My Passport SSD, available in capacities ranging from 256GB to 1TB, is palm-sized and easily portable, plus it is 6.5-foot drop tested and able to withstand 1500G of force.

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Western Digital's My Passport SSD is available from Best Buy's website and will be available from select retailers starting this quarter. The 256GB model is priced at $99.99, the 512GB version is priced at $199.99, and the 1TB version is priced at $399.99.

Tag: Western Digital

Top Rated Comments

Weaselboy Avatar
Weaselboy
113 months ago
Or just getting a USB flash drive...
The controllers in those tend to be pretty lame. It works okay if you just want to copy some documents over, but try running an encrypted backup to a USB key and watch how the transfer speeds go straight down the tubes. I've tried it.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrGimper Avatar
MrGimper
113 months ago
surprisingly cheap. just don't understand the point of a portable SSD vs. just getting a cheap portable hd.
Probably the same reasons for any SSD over spinning rust .... Speed, reliability, physical size etc etc
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
filmantopia Avatar
filmantopia
113 months ago
surprisingly cheap. just don't understand the point of a portable SSD vs. just getting a cheap portable hd.
As a video editor, when you're working off of a drive, speed is everything.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrGimper Avatar
MrGimper
113 months ago
About 3 years ago I put an SSD in a LaCie rugged Thunderbolt enclosure and ran it on Thunderbolt 1. I got speeds of about 350MB/s. Put the same drive in a UASP USB3 enclosure and got about 450MB/s.

Spinning disk in each enclosure was around 65MB/s if I recall.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrGimper Avatar
MrGimper
113 months ago
The 256GB (Shown as 250GB) is available for pre-order on Amazon.uk for £109.99, with a release date of tomorrow.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Weaselboy Avatar
Weaselboy
112 months ago
Are SSDs providing the same data integrity as HDDs? I know Samsung's Pro models have a 10 year warranty and the EVOs have a 5 year warranty, but I thought spinning HDDs were less susceptible to data corruption and SSDs risked losing data if they were powered off for long periods of time.
Unpowered flash storage can lose data over time, but we are talking months not days. Pretty good article here (https://blog.korelogic.com/blog/2015/03/24#ssds-evidence-storage-issues) about it.

So yeah... if you want to archive off some photos and put the drive on a shelf for a year, an SSD would not be the best option.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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