Last week, Transcend launched a 1TB version of its JetDrive Lite 330 expansion card for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, giving users a convenient way to add significant amounts of storage to their machines without any extra bulk. I've had a chance to spend some time with the new card, and while there are limitations for some of the things you might want to do with it, the JetDrive Lite 330 can be a very handy addition to your setup.

transcend jetdrive box
While the JetDrive Lite 330 is at its heart simply an SD card, the novel aspect of it is that it's designed to specifically fit flush with the ‌MacBook Pro‌'s edge, allowing you to essentially leave the card inserted at all times without having to worry about the card or the slot being damaged from pressure being put on a normal-sized SD card that sticks out a bit.

The JetDrive Lite 330 has a thin plastic face that rests up against the edge of the ‌MacBook Pro‌, and it provides just enough of a surface to get a fingernail behind it to remove the card. It's a simple but great design that all but guarantees the card will stay in place throughout day-to-day usage, packing your machine in and out of a bag, and more.

transcend jetdrive inserted
Transcend says the JetDrive Lite 330 card offers read speeds of up to 95 MB/s and write speeds of up to 75 MB/s per second, and I came close to that in my testing, with Blackmagic Speed Test registering roughly 90 MB/s and 75 MB/s respectively. That's of course well over an order of magnitude slower than the internal SSD on a ‌MacBook Pro‌ or even a Thunderbolt or USB 3.1+ external drive, but for certain tasks, it's definitely sufficient.

transcend jetdrive speed test
Given the transfer speeds, you definitely can't use the JetDrive Lite 330 as a boot drive or anything where you're rapidly reading and writing data. It's simply not designed for those tasks, but it's ideal as some extra onboard storage for documents, media, and other types of data.

One popular use case for the JetDrive Lite is as an onboard Time Machine backup drive, and the new 1 TB capacity option makes this a more reasonable solution than ever. My 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ has a 1 TB SSD, but only about 230 GB is currently used. It's frequently recommended that your Time Machine drive be at least two or three times as large as the drive you're backing up, in order to have enough room to save a sufficient amount of history, so this new 1 TB JetDrive Pro 330 is perfect for me as a test case.

It should be obvious, but it's important to note that onboard Time Machine storage isn't an ideal solution, as if your Mac is lost or stolen, so is your backup. I back up to an Apple Time Capsule at home (offsite backups would be even safer to protect against larger losses such as a fire or home burglary), but I'm currently doing a lot of international travel and the JetDrive Lite is a great way to tide me over with some sort of backup without needing an online service or potentially cumbersome external drive solutions.

Setting the JetDrive Lite up as a Time Machine drive was incredibly simple, with the card being recognized as a standard drive in Finder immediately after insertion, and then showing up in Time Machine settings as an available backup destination. Once I selected it and initiated Time Machine, it took a little over 80 minutes to complete the initial backup. Subsequent backups have taken no more than a minute or two as Time Machine looks for changes and pushes 500 MB or so onto the card.

Overall, backups are actually much faster and smoother than my usual Time Machine backups over Wi-Fi to the spinning hard drive of my Time Capsule at home. Browsing through Time Machine backups is also smoother.

transcend jetdrive bananaBanana for scale

Once I'm done with my international travels and back to regularly backing up at home, I'll be able to make more use of the JetDrive Lite 330 for general storage, perhaps bringing some music and photos over that currently live on external drives. Having all of that accessible right from my Mac without having to worry about carrying external drives is nice.

Apple charges $400 to double the storage on a ‌MacBook Pro‌ from 1 TB to 2 TB, and of course a single speedy 2 TB drive has certain benefits over this JetDrive Lite solution, but the reverse is also true. The JetDrive Lite offers additional flexibility as it can be easily added after the fact and can be removed as needed for safe storage or transfer to another machine.

The 1 TB JetDrive Lite 330 is available now for $249.99 from Amazon, and for those who don't need as much storage, there are cheaper 512 GB, 256 GB, and 128 GB options also available.

In addition to the latest 14-inch and 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ models from 2021, the JetDrive Lite 330 is also compatible with 13-MacBook Pro models (Late 2012 through Early 2015 generations), and Transcend offers other JetDrive Lite products to fit various 2010–2017 MacBook Air and 2012–2015 ‌MacBook Pro‌ models with different SD card slot designs.

Transcend offers a JetDrive Toolbox app for Mac and Windows that supports a couple of functions like tools for recovering deleted files and automatically unmounting and remounting the card depending on your machine's standby status in order to save power, but unfortunately, it's not compatible with M1-based Macs.

Note: Transcend provided MacRumors with the JetDrive Lite 330 for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Top Rated Comments

Jack Neill Avatar
42 months ago

Banana for scale is ?
Americans will do anything to avoid using the metric system...
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ANDJOE Avatar
42 months ago
Banana for scale is ?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Freeangel1 Avatar
42 months ago
WOW. $249 for a 1TB SD Card. You can get an external 1TB drive for $49.

recession is coming.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-ceo-warns-powerful-forces-164626735.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TinyMito Avatar
42 months ago
$249 for SD Card, why not just upgrade the internal to 1TB?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Analog Kid Avatar
42 months ago
I was about to write off this entire article, but the banana scale pulled it out of the fire!

??
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
topdrawer Avatar
42 months ago
250 and they couldn't even do a metal edge to match the MacBook.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro to Reverse iPhone X Design Decision

Monday July 7, 2025 9:46 am PDT by
Since the iPhone X in 2017, all of Apple's highest-end iPhone models have featured either stainless steel or titanium frames, but it has now been rumored that this design decision will be coming to an end with the iPhone 17 Pro models later this year. In a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo today, the account Instant Digital said that the iPhone 17 Pro models will have an aluminum...
iOS 26 Feature

Everything New in iOS 26 Beta 3

Monday July 7, 2025 1:20 pm PDT by
Apple is continuing to refine and update iOS 26, and beta three features smaller changes than we saw in beta 2, plus further tweaks to the Liquid Glass design. Apple is gearing up for the next phase of beta testing, and the company has promised that a public beta is set to come out in July. Transparency In some apps like Apple Music, Podcasts, and the App Store, Apple has toned down the...
imac video apple feature

Apple Launching These 15+ Products Later This Year

Sunday July 6, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
The calendar has turned to July, meaning that 2025 is now more than half over. And while the summer months are often quiet for Apple, the company still has more than a dozen products coming later this year, according to rumors. Below, we have outlined at least 15 new Apple products that are expected to launch later this year, along with key rumored features for each. iPhone 17 Series iPho...
iphone 16 pro models 1

Here's How the iPhone 17 Pro Max Will Compare to the iPhone 17 Pro

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00 pm PDT by
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year. As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch displayGiven the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and...
iPhone Car Key Kia

Here's Which Vehicles Offer iPhone Car Keys

Sunday July 6, 2025 3:03 pm PDT by
In 2020, Apple added a digital car key feature to its Wallet app, allowing users to lock, unlock, and start a compatible vehicle with an iPhone or Apple Watch. The feature is currently offered by select automakers, including Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and a handful of others, and it is set to expand further. Apple has a web page with a list of vehicle models that ...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

Apple Says iPhone Driver's Licenses Will Expand to These 8 U.S. States

Tuesday July 8, 2025 11:26 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states, Puerto Rico,...
iphone 17 pro render majin bu

New iPhone 17 Pro Renders Highlight Apple Logo and MagSafe Design Changes

Sunday July 6, 2025 8:43 pm PDT by
New renders today provide the best look yet relocated Apple logo and redesigned MagSafe magnet array of the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Image via Majin Bu. Several of the design changes coming to the iPhone 17 Pro model have been rumored for some time, such as the elongated camera bump that spans the full width of the device, with the LiDAR Scanner and flash moving to the right side. ...
apple account card feature

Apple Account Card Expanding to More Countries

Tuesday July 8, 2025 7:34 pm PDT by
Apple is expanding the ability to add an Apple Account Card to the Wallet app to more countries, according to backend Apple Pay changes. With iOS 15.5, Apple updated the Wallet app to allow users to add an Apple Account Card, which displays the Apple credit balance associated with an Apple ID. If you receive an Apple gift card, for example, it is added to an Apple Account that is also...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...