Silicon Power SP Bolt B10 256GB USB SSD Review

Introduction

We recently had a look at Silicon Power‘s Bolt B80 and today it is time to look at its sibling, the Bolt B10 (product link). The SP Bolt B10 is tiny pocket-sized SSD in a more traditional form factor. At least when we compare it to the Bolt B80. The credit-card-shaped drive offers a good performance and several capacity options.

A Simple Design

Silicon Power designed a drive that’s both ultra-compact and lightweight. Both are great for portability and after all, that’s what the Bolt B10 is for. It measures a meagre 80 by 49.5 millimetres and it is only 9.4mm thick. That’s barely more than a credit card.

The casing is made of black plastic, but it features a smooth surface. It’s nice to hold and won’t slip out of your fingers either. However, you might forget that you’re carrying it at all. After all, it only weighs 25 grammes. The silver border which runs around the drive offers up a nice contrast to the matte black surface.

Performance and Connection

The Bolt B10 is built around the USB 3.1 Gen.1 interface, formerly known as USB 3.0. That offers us a 5Gbps gateway to our system which in return allows the Bolt B10 to deliver 400MB/s at both reads and write operations.

The drive features a Micro-B connector and comes with a Type-A cable included. A classic approach well suited for a drive like this.

Capacity Options

You get three capacity options with Silicon Power’s SP Bolt B10. You can get the smallest version which features 128GB or the 256GB version that I’m testing today. There’s also a larger 512GB version for those who need to take a lot of data with them while they’re on the go.

Extra Features

Silicon Power wants to ensure that owners of the Bolt B10 can enjoy the drive for a long time and that’s why they included both LDPC and Wear Leveling. The LDPC error correction helps ensure the data integrity and protects against data corruptions while the Wear Leveling helps to extend the drive’s lifespan.

Feature Highlights

• Ultra-compact and lightweight for great portability
• Clean and smooth exterior design
• Large storage capacity of up to 512GB
• Transfer rates up to 400MB/s read & write
• Supports LDPC error correction and Wear Leveling
• Free download of SP Widget software for data backup & restore, AES 256-bit encryption, and cloud storage

Product Video

As with most devices, there is an official product video for the Bolt B10 too. The short 38-second video shows the drive and highlights its features.

Package and Accessories

The front of the package shows the included drive through a transparent window piece. Other than that, it’s all kept quite simple. We get information on the included capacity, connection type, and that it is four times faster than an external 2.5″ HDD.

The rear side has the fine prints in several languages. Here you can find the package content as well as drive specifications.

Inside is the drive, the connector cable, and a small user manual note.