Plextor EX1 128GB Portable USB-C SSD Review

Bohs Hansen / 8 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

There isn’t an official release time for the Plextor EX1 yet, but Plextor promised to keep us updated as soon as a date has been set. But the MSRP is something that I could find out and the 128GB version comes with a $69.99 price where the two bigger 256GB and 512GB models will cost you $104.99 and $184.99 respectively.

Overview

Plextor has a really long time of experience in the storage field, ranging back many years and it doesn’t look like new types of technology is holding them back in any way. The EX1 portable USB-C Gen.2 SSD performed exceptionally well in our benchmarks and showed a performance that we usually only see from internal drives. Gone are the times where external drives are inferior towards external ones, at least to 95%.

The sequential performance was amazing and we saw great results despite the small capacity in this 128GB drive. The two larger versions with 256GB and 512GB should show a more steady performance where we saw small drops or fluctuations. But even with those small fluctuations, the EX1 easily stood up to the rated performance and doesn’t need to hide from anything. The one small point where it isn’t as good as internal drives is at the random performance and that is due to how USB works rather than the drive itself. But even here it did very good for an external drive with 20K IOPS results.

Design wise, the EX1 is just as amazing as it is performance wise. The exterior looks stunning and feels great to hold. On top of that, it’s sturdy and impressively small. It will easily fit in your pocket which allows you to take all your favourite files with you on the go without having to think about extra space or weight to carry it. It also comes with a cute little bag to carry both the drive and the connector cable as well as protect both while you’re on the go.

Speaking of connector cable, the EX1 embraces the newest USB standards with a type-C connector and USB 3.1 Gen.2 performance. While the drive comes with a type-C to type-A cable, you could easily use an aftermarket type-C to type-C cable and connect it to the latest generation smartphones, tablets, and portable computers too.

Pros

Great performance
Looks and feels great
Tiny and lightweight
Latest USB standards

Cons

Availability

“The Plextor EX1 is without a doubt the best portable SSD that I’ve tested to date. It delivers an impressive performance, it is light-weight and compact, and it looks beautiful too.”