Western Digital My Passport SSD Review

WD My Passport SSD

Storage is one of the most important factor to look at while buying any electronic device, be it a smartphone, desktop, or a laptop. Today we have smartphones coming up with 512GB of internal storage and laptops storage ranging up to 4TB. Having additional storage solutions for data creators can help in keeping backup for files for various capacity. Then what matters next is the speed and portability of the storage devices.

Two most widely available types of storage devices in the market include hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). The major difference between the two is the architecture, speed, compactness, and reliability. HDDs are cheaper and come in many storage configurations, whereas, SSDs may be sleek and compact, but are expensive and are available in limited capacities.

Today, I will be reviewing the Western Digital My Passport SSD, which is the only portable SSD drive in WD's My Passport series. Manufacturers are including internal SSDs in laptops already but an external SSD is required when transferring tens and hundreds of GB's of files from one machine to another. HDDs are not the best choice in that scenario.

The storage capacity of the WD SSD I'm reviewing is 256 GB and is available from Amazon.in for Rs. 8,999, which is a bit cheaper than the other competitor brands that offer SSD’s in India.

Box Contents

• 256 GB WD SSD
• USB Type-C cable (USB 3.1 Gen-2)
• USB-C to USB-A adapter
• Quick install guide

Design

Western Digital is well-known for its design and the My Passport SSD is no exception. It has a dual-tone look, with the first half made of plastic with matte black touch, and the other half made of metal with diagonal lines texture, which is a fingerprint magnet. The product is a style-icon in its category. The WD logo sits on one side of the SSD and regulatory certifications logos and barcode on the other.

Weighing 40.8 grams, the SSD is just a tad bit bigger (3.5-inch long) than a credit card and is 10 mm thick, making it extremely compact for everyday use. It can easily fit in the palm of your hand. The product has a high-quality build and according to WD, it can withstand a drop of up to 6.5 feet (1.98 meters). There's a USB Type-C port on one end of the SSD used for connecting to desktops, laptops or even smartphones.

If your PC or Laptop does not support USB Type-C port, then you can use the USB Type-A adapter included inside the box to connect the SSD to your device, which is a great addition by WD.

Overall, I'm impressed with the design and the build of the product, with the only con being lack of LED status indicator.

WD My Passport SSD Port

WD My Passport SSD vs WD My Passport HDD

WD My Passport SSD Size

Features

The WD My Passport SSD comes with WD Discovery software pre-installed, which include WD Backup, WD Security, and WD Drive Utilities applications. The software is compatible with both Windows and Mac operating system and so is the SSD as it is pre-formatted in exFAT file system standard out-of-the-box.

WD Backup is responsible for automatically backing up the files from your PC to the drive. WD Security includes 256-bit AES hardware encryption support, which is said to be the strongest encryption in the market to date with password protection, meaning no one can access the files inside the SSD unless he/she enters the password. The WD Drive Utilities application is used to monitor the health of the drive and optimize it, if necessary.

Also, the SSD was compatible with my Galaxy S8 without the need reformatting it. The drive comes with a 3-year limited warranty too.

Performance

On the box packaging, WD claims that the SSD can transfer files at a rate of up to 515MB/s using the USB Type-C connector provided with the drive. The USB-C cable comes with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support, which means it can support up to 10GB/s transfer speed if connected to a compatible device in a proper format, meaning more than one drive coupled in RAID.

Out of the 256GB, 238GB storage space is available for general use. You can find WD Discovery software .exe and .dmg file pre-loaded when you plug the drive for the first time.

I performed a total of two tests to check the performance of the drive, a benchmark test, and a real-life usage. For the benchmark test, I used the CrystalDiskMark software. As you can see in the screenshot below, the average read and write speed reported by CrystalDiskMark software was around 330 MB/s.

Compared to the real-life test, on Dell XPS 13 with the included USB-C cable, the read speed recorded was at around 270-290 MB/s, and the write speed was maxed out to 200 MB/s. This can vary depending on the files you are reading or writing. Testing the SSD with USB-A adapter, the maximum read speed recorded was 70 MB/s and the write speed ranged between 35 - 40 MB/s, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Also, it took around 40 seconds to write 4.51GB worth of videos and images (165 files in total) from my Galaxy S8 to the SSD using USB-C cable. One major reason for getting an SSD besides speed is no-noise even when you use it extensively. The drive didn't heat up much like the HDDs do.

Verdict

WD's addition in its My Passport series of portable drives, WD My Passport SSD, is the best Solid State Drive you can get in the market currently. With a starting price of Rs. 8,999, the WD My Passport SSD comes in three different storage capacities i.e. 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. At the same price, one can buy a 4 TB variant of the WD My Passport portable HDD but will lack the speed and reliability offered by SSDs.

A much affordable variant of the My Passport SSD with 128GB storage is what WD lacks and it would be great if they come up with the same while launching the 2nd generation of My Passport SSD.

If you are looking for an SSD, then WD My Passport SSD 256GB is the perfect choice, at a bestselling price of INR 8,999. You can buy it from Amazon.in by clicking on the link below.

Buy Western Digital My Passport 256GB External Solid State Drive (Black)

WD My Passport SSD

WD My Passport SSD