By: Jonathan Kwan
April 3, 2020
If there is anything that has been an overarching theme in almost everybody's lives in the last few weeks, it would be the practice of social distancing. The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented affair in our lifetime; where it seems the whole world has been shut down and most people are staying at home other than making necessary runs to buy food and supplies. For me, it has been quite a challenge because I love going out, meeting people, and being social. I am usually out quite literally every day; in fact, I usually have things scheduled almost every night of the week before everything went downhill. But given the situation we are all in, it is absolutely essential that we take the situation seriously and do the necessary things -- no matter how hard -- to keep the public and ourselves safe from the virus. Figuratively speaking, keeping your data physically disconnected also has its merits. I love storing my data on the cloud, but if you want to keep things physically disconnected from the internet and also avoiding external dependencies, having a fast external storage device is a good way to go. The Lexar Professional SL100 Pro 500GB portable solid state drive not only allows you to keep an air gap between your data and the internet, but also has 256-bit AES encryption support to keep your data safe locally from the outside world. But how well will it perform compared to other drives in its class? Read on to find out!
Our review unit of the Lexar Professional SL100 Pro 500GB arrived in a small brown corrugated cardboard box from the company's public relations firm in Fullerton, California, USA. Using DHL Express Worldwide, the package arrived on our doorstep here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in excellent condition for our review today. It has been a long time since I have received anything using DHL as the carrier, but here we are.
The Lexar Professional SL100 Pro's retail box design reminds me a lot about the company's professional photography roots. The black and gold color scheme brings be back to the mid-2000s and the brand's -- albeit under different ownership at the time -- high end CompactFlash and Secure Digital cards. Needless to say, it is clean and down to business. A photo of the SSD itself in three-quarters view is prominently displayed across the center, while the Lexar's logo and product name are placed at the top. A bunch of icons at the bottom highlights its performance, USB 3.1 Type-C interface, portability, durability, and protection. Features and specifications are printed on the remaining sides of the box.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the features and specifications of the Lexar Professional SL100 Pro 500GB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Color: Black
Capacity: 500GB, 1TB
Interface: USB 3.1 Type-C
Speed: Up to 950MB/s read, up to 900MB/s write
System Supported:
- Mac® OSX 10.6+
- Windows® 10/7/8
- Standard USB (Type-A or Type-C) port
Operating Temperature: 0°C to 70°C
Storage Temperature: -40°C to 85°C
Dimension (W x L x H): 55 x 73.4 x 10.8 mm / 2.165” x 2.89” x 0.425”
Weight: 70.5g / 0.155lbs (Without Cable)
Out of the box, everything is neatly laid out thanks to a plastic tray and the fact there is not a whole lot of stuff to begin with. You will receive the Lexar Professional SL100 Pro 500GB itself, USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable, and a USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable. There is no product literature included; not that I usually read them anyway, haha. To be fair, the usage instructions are already printed at the back of the box, which goes along the line of plugging it in to a USB port.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 6.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 5.70
8. Conclusion
