Lexar wants to put 1TB of blazing fast SSD storage in your pocket, maybe even vie for the best SSD for gaming crown. Billed as the world's fastest 1TB portable SSD, the new SL100 Pro is rated to deliver read speeds of up to 950MB/s, and write speeds of up to 900MB/s. That's 'hold onto your butts' territory in the portable space; not quite at the level of the best NVMe SSDs but wildly impressive for a pocket drive.
Of course, you will need a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port to come anywhere close to those theoretical maximums. The drive itself is equipped with a USB-C port, though Lexar thoughtfully includes both a USB Type-C cable and a USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable (USB-A ports are far more common than USB-C).
The drive's rated speeds are nearly twice as fast as Samsung's T5, which is one of the best portable storage drives around. However, it's not as capacious, with Samsung's drive offered in up to a 2TB capacity. It's also presumably not as tough and tumble as LaCie's XtremKey 128GB, another one of our favorites, although at these prices you'll probably want to take really good care of it.
Nevertheless, if speed is of the utmost importance, Lexar has a definite leg up on the competition. The SL100 Pro is also remarkably compact, measuring a scant 55 x 73.4 x 10.8 mm (2.165 x 2.89 x 0.425 inches), and features 256-bit AES encryption. Fast storage isn't cheap, and the SL100 Pro is no exception. Here's how pricing breaks down for the 1TB and smaller capacities offered:
- Lexar SL100 Pro 1TB—$279.99
- Lexar SL100 Pro 500GB—$149.99
- Lexar SL100 Pro 250GB—$99.99
While not inexpensive by any means, at the top end, the 1TB model is actually somewhat competitively priced with Samsung's T5, which lists for $249.99. However, street pricing is significantly less—Samsung's drive sells for $207.14 on Amazon at the moment.
That said, it's hard to compare prices right now because we have no idea if Lexar's drive will release at the actual MSRPs listed above, or if street pricing will end up being lower. We'll find out soon enough—Lexar says the SL100 Pro will be available later this month, backed by a three-year warranty.
