Lexar Workflow DD512 USB 3.0 Solid State Drive Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The availability varies a bit from region to region, but Amazon is a steady source to find the Lexar Workflow USB 3.0 SSD’s. In the UK we can find it for £152.42 at Amazon while Wex Photographic has it listed for £169.00. Our US readers will find it the drive for $169.00 at a wide variety of shops including Amazon and BH Photo and Video. Newegg has the 256GB model, but it doesn’t look like the 512 is in at the moment.

Overview

Lexar have created a unique series of storage devices with the Professional Workflow series. The hubs coupled with the universal sized drives and card reader give the user a great flexibility as well as features. The system allows for increased productivity simply by the way they work as well as such useful features as the LED fill display to give a quick view on how full the drive is.

The build quality on the Workflow DD512 is great even though it is made from plastics. But these days plastic doesn’t have to be a bad thing since it is both durable and light, and so is the Lexar DD512 USB3 SSD. The tiny size and shape with rounded corners will further allow it to fit pretty much any pocket and camera accessories compartment in your photo bag. The use of a full sized USB type-B connector further increases the durability as it’s naturally a lot more sturdy than a micro connector.

We saw speeds around the 450MB/s while reading and up to 250MB/s while writing; just as the drive had promised us. The conditioning that I run on solid state drives is hard thing to swallow for any drive, especially a USB based one like this one and considering that, the drive stood up very well.

We saw a drop in the write access times after the conditioning and that in return resulted in some lower scores, but I believe this could be fixed with a firmware update. The drive is pretty new to the market as well as from the Lexar’s Professional series, and when thinking of their long experience with storage I expect this to improve over time. That said, the drive still lived up to the rated speeds on both writing and reading.

Pros:

• Good reading performance
• Unique WorkFlow docking and Hub system
• Sturdy and stable full-size USB B-type connector
• LED capacity meter
• Cheap

Cons:

• Write speeds and access times took a hit from conditioning.

“The Lexar Workflow series is great for anyone who deals a lot with removable storage and the DD512 USB 3.0 SSD is no exception. The external Lexar drive performed as advertised and I have no hesitation to recommend it.”

Thanks to Lexar for providing this review sample.