Lexar SL500 USB SSD evaluate: 20Gbps storage cut thin to win

Label When Reviewed

2TB: $230

Very most life like Costs Today: Lexar SL500 20Gbps USB SSD

Physically, Lexar’s SL500 transportable USB 3.2×2 SSD makes its SL600 and SL660 stablemates stare love tubby monkeys. Surely, measuring a mere 0.3-inches thick (decrease than 0.2 at the edges), by 2.1-inches wide, by 3.3-inches long, the SL500 form with reference to all external SSDs appear tubby.

Because it’s furthermore attractively styled, and weighs a mere 1.5 oz, let’s factual converse the SL500 is a mammoth model among external SSDs.

Extra reading: Explore our roundup of the finest external drives to get out about competing merchandise.

What are the SL500’s aspects?

The SL500 is a mammoth-slim, USB 3.2×2 (20Gbps) external SSD that is accessible in 2TB, and rapidly, 4TB flavors. It ships with a transient Form-C to Form-C cable and is warrantied for five years. That’s a restricted warranty that no query assumes that you won’t hit it with a sledgehammer, or write a lot of petabytes of data to it.

The force ships formatted to exFAT, so it’s readable and writable on both Windows and macOS (Linux too, clearly) honest out of the box.

Lexar involves its DataShield tool for both operating systems, which enables you to stable the SL500 with a password. If you opt to expend a password, you’ll want to install the app on any laptop you need to come by entry to the secured force from.

How famous does the Lexar SL500 cost?

The 2TB version of the SL500 is being launched on March 20 at a list note of $230. That’s roughly par for the course for a name-set aside USB 3.2×2 20Gbps unit, though you would possibly per chance presumably presumably furthermore come by name-set aside 10Gbps 2TB SSDs and no-name 20Gbps 2TB SSDs for rather rather much less. (Our favourite 10Gbps external SSD, the Necessary X9 Pro, let’s consider, charges factual $95 for 2TB.) A 4TB version of the SL500 will seemingly be accessible later within the twelve months at an undisclosed note.

How like a flash is the Lexar SL500?

The 2TB SL500 we tested fared rather effectively against the likes of the Samsung T9 and Necessary X10 Pro. Its artificial benchmark outcomes had been so shut (rather better) to the beforehand reviewed SL600, I double-checked to leer that I hadn’t grabbed the substandard file. I hadn’t.

The outcomes had been effectively within statistical variance and the fraternal victory used to be so shut, it’s seemingly to be the same controller and NAND in a various form factor.

Lawful-click on a chart and pick out “Birth image in still tab” to leer more detail.

Random 4K writes in CrystalDiskMark 8 had been as soon as more outstanding, and with reference to the same to the SL600.

Our staunch-world 48GB transfers had been a various story, and a gradual folder write dropped the SL500 two areas at the relief of the SL600. Reasonably of a mystery if we’re calling it the same force. That makes it the fourth quickest out of 10 USB 3.2×2 SSDs we’ve tested, though together with the USB4 OWC 1M2 in 20Gbps mode drops the SL500 to fifth.

Also, make certain that to expend the shorter cable that ships with the SL500 or one licensed for 20Gbps USB. A reproduction routine if truth be told crashed the expend of an extended undeniable-Jane Form-C cable — a happenstance we’ve no longer frequently considered but one we can’t blame on the force.

Lend a hand to customary, the SL500 posted an almost the same time because the SL600 writing our gargantuan 450GB file. This makes the 48GB performance disparity the total more puzzling.

In the event you aquire the SL500?

The mammoth-slim form factor of the SL500 renders it uniquely transportable as effectively as appropriate form for auxiliary storage to your cell phone or other exiguous instrument. It’s no longer rather as like a flash writing as some, but it no doubt’s like a flash adequate that we’ll rob into consideration the SL500 a lawful thing in a exiguous bundle.

How we take a look at

Power assessments within the intervening time expend Windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit operating on an X790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of memory total). Intel built-in graphics are used. The 48GB transfer assessments expend an ImDisk RAM disk taking on 58GB of the 64GB total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, which furthermore contains the operating system.

Every take a look at is performed on a newly NTFS-formatted and TRIM’d force so the outcomes are optimal. Present that as any force fills up, performance will decrease due to much less NAND for secondary caching, and other factors.

The performance numbers shown apply handiest to the force we had been shipped as effectively because the potential tested. SSD performance can range with potential due to more or fewer chips to read/write across and the amount of NAND accessible for secondary caching (writing TLC/QLC as SLC). Distributors furthermore from time to time swap parts. If you ever see a gargantuan discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we characterize (systems being roughly equal), by all technique—allow us to know.

Very most life like Costs Today: Lexar SL500 20Gbps USB SSD

Creator: Jon L. Jacobi, Freelance contributor