SanDisk held their press event at the Palazzo, with an evening event they called their "happy hour". Of course while the Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Kwan and I have done our happy hour runs to Sakana Grill with cheap sushi, this was a bit different. SanDisk is a major player in the flash memory department, and their showings at CES 2016 were in the same department, but with some new things too.
First up is the SanDisk X400 M.2 2280 SSD. This 1TB solid state drive is the world's thinnest SSD at this capacity. It is also a single sided drive, which means the integrated chips are only on one side. The demo showed how the X400 was not only faster than a traditional HDD, but also ran cooler in a fanless computer. Today's X400 SSD also has a rated capacity of 40GB/day for 5 years, which makes it an ideal solution for private and commercial OEM products, such as digital signage, point of sales, or commercial PCs. In addition, AES 256-bit encryption is compatible. The X400 is available in the standard 2.5" casing. Both sizes are available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities.
The next product SanDisk unveiled was its Extreme 510 Portable SSD. This is actually what they called an All-Terrain Drive, in the fact it is IP55 certified for water and dust resistance. SanDisk had the Extreme 510 trapped in a plastic caging and continually showered it with water to prove the point. Director of Retail Product Marketing, Philippe Williams, told us this was one of their most rugged drives, with transfer speeds of up to 430MB/s. In addition, the drive includes SanDisk's SecureAccess software, with 128-bit encryption. This portable drive comes with a two year warranty, and is available at a retail price of $250 USD.
Next up is the SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick. Much like the Kingston MobileLite Wireless G3 and Pro we saw yesterday, this stick is a media hub for streaming and accessing files from your phone. By transferring files to this stick, you can free up your phone's internal storage for other purposes. Unlike Kingston's product though, this is not capable of charging your devices. However, it is a much more compact solution. It is said to charge in one hour, and can last up to forty six hours on a single charge. While this is not a new product per se, the new thing is the 200GB capacity storage. The Connect Wireless Stick is also available in Black, and in smaller capacities. Retail pricing for the 200GB edition is at $120 USD.
Finally we have the Ultra Dual USB Drive 3.0. Again this is not a new product, as it features a micro USB OTG plug on one end, and a full sized USB 3.0 plug on the other end. This allows for quick transfer of files from your phone to other phones or to your computer and vice versa. The new thing here again is the capacity, which is a bump up to 128GB in size. Retail pricing is $60 USD.
Personally speaking, I think SanDisk has played it safe with their new introductions in some ways. Considering two of the releases were in essence capacity boosts, I would not really call that innovating. However, the Extreme 510 SSD is definitely an interesting product, especially how small and slim it is. The X400 is also potentially interesting, but I would not necessarily see the immediate benefits for the consumer market. Special thanks to Jesse, Phillipe, and the rest of the team at SanDisk for inviting us to their event and spending time with us. Hopefully we will see the Extreme 510 SSD as a review unit soon!
