Featured

Apacer ASMini 240GB Portable Mini SSD Review

Introduction

A large physical size isn’t always the best which is proven by Apacer‘s ASMini, and that is the drive which I’m testing today. The ASMini is a tiny portable SSD that is smaller than the palm of your hand. That is perfect for those who wish to have fast storage on the go.

Tiny Size With a Punch

Apacer’s tiny ASMini measures a mere 54mm by 81mm and it’s only 6mm high. That’s easily small enough to be called palm-sized. It is about the size of a name card. There is barely a weight to speak of either as it weighs a mere 42 grammes. Despite the small size, the drive is easily able to max out the connection’s performance limit.

The ASMini is a USB 3.0 drive and that comes with a 5 Gbps limitation. That’s easily maxed out by the ASMini which has a performance rating of 450MB/s when reading and 400MB/s when writing sequential data. The random 4K write speeds are rated at 60.000 IOPS.

Design

The subtle design aspects aren’t easy to photograph, but I think this shot manages to catch the pattern quite well. While the design is simple with a one-colour metallic-looking casing, the pattern breaks it and gives it an overall appeal. The lines will “play in the light” which gives it a little extra. Also visible here is the connection and activity LED, the little hole to the left in the image. The LED sitting behind it is quite bright and it will shine through the casing when it’s dark.

Also visible here, is the connection and activity LED, the little hole to the left in the image. The LED sitting behind it is quite bright and it will shine through the casing when it’s dark.

The drive is very small as we can see in this size comparison with standard 2.5-inch SSD. The use of chips and PCB only, in comparison with HDDs which have motors, arms, and platters, the drive stays very light. In fact, it could be even smaller if Apacer wished so.

USB Type-C Reversible Port

USB has gone through a lot of development stages in recent times and one of the things to come out of that is the Type-C connector. The connector is compatible with USB 3.0 and newer as well as Thunderbolt 3. Apacer added the Type-C port to the drive but included a cable with a Type-A connector on the other end. That makes it compatible with more devices and those with a modern system can use a third-party Type-C to Type-C cable too.

Capacity Options

This is one section where there isn’t a lot to say. There is one choice when it comes to capacity and that’s the 240GB version that I’m testing today. While that doesn’t leave a lot of options, it’s a sweet-spot size between capacity and price.

Reliability and Features

Portable storage should be solid and not mechanical, at least in my opinion. It’s something that’s supported by the simple fact that SSDs are a lot less prone to damage than HDDs are with their moving parts. Apacer’s ASMini can handle vibrations up to 20G and shocks up to 1500G. It can also operate in a humidity from 5% and up to 95%.

On the more technical side, the drive has an MTBF rating of 1 million hours and it is backed by a 3-year warranty. The drive supports TRIM and NCQ, S.M.A.R.T., and also an ECC error correction engine with a 72bit/KB rating.