Page 2 - A Closer Look, Test System
Netac is a Chinese company out of Shenzhen since 2004, although you probably have not heard of them until the last few years if you live in North America. With regards to the design of the SSD, I cannot help but think it has not quite shaken off its Chinese design roots. It has the same design as the Netac ZX10 2TB, which I was not a big fan of. In my opinion, the reason why the ZX20L looks tacky is because of outdated styling choices as well as inappropriate typefaces. There are too many lines and crevices going all over the place on the surface of the enclosure, and the silver reflective elements make it look cheap. I feel like Netac can significantly improve its aesthetics by cutting out all the unnecessary details. Neighboring companies from the area like Lexar has certainly been able to keep up with the latest trends, and we can see that with the SL660 BLAZE my colleague Aaron Lai reviewed in 2023.
The Netac ZX20L 512GB weighs about 50g without the cable and is 102mm wide, 30mm deep, and 9.2mm thick according to the manufacturer. The enclosure is made out of aluminum, which is lightweight and great for heat dissipation to prevent thermal throttling. The matte finishes are mostly fingerprint resistant. All in all, this gumstick-format portable solid state drive feels solid and flexes to nothing.
I read online that some users found the ZX20L gets uncomfortably hot during operation. To test this, I conducted an extended continuous workload test on this SSD and measured the surface temperature using an IR thermometer, The highest surface temperature I was able to record at any point was 50.4c. I agree this is a bit hot, but USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SSDs do tend to heat up. No thermal throttling was observed in any of my tests.
As it is with the majority of the front of the Netac ZX20L 512GB, the aluminum back has a matte black finish. A series of regulatory logos, model number, capacity, and the unit's serial number are found on this side as well. There are also 256GB, 1TB, and 2TB variants of the Netac ZX20L.
One 30cm long USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable and one 30cm long USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable are included and plugs into the left side of the drive. The included cables are very reasonably long, and I am glad they included a Type-A cable for those who need it, even though pretty much every new PC has a USB Type-C port in 2025. Two tiny red LEDs can be found next to the SSD's USB Type-C port. They stay on when powered and blink to indicate drive activity.
As always, because the ZX20L has an NVMe solid state drive inside and uses the USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface, the port already provides all the power it needs; no external AC adapter is required. The company makes no claims for any tests against extreme temperatures, shock, or vibration, so it follows there is no official IP certification. I would guess like any solid-state storage device, the Netac ZX20L 512GB should be reasonably durable against these things in day-to-day use. There is no hardware encryption support with the ZX20L.
I am not entirely sure what drive and controller reside inside the Netac ZX20L 512GB. The company does not post the rated write endurance either. But what we can do is find out how it performs in the next few pages.
Our test configuration is as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K
CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black
Motherboard: ASUS ProArt B660-Creator D4
RAM: Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3600 4x32GB
Graphics: ASUS Dual GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
Chassis: NZXT H710i
Storage: Kingston KC3000 1TB, Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD 1TB
Power: Seasonic PRIME Ultra Titanium 850W
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Compared Hardware:
- Netac ZX20L 512GB
- ADATA Elite SE880 1TB
- ADATA SE920 1TB
- Crucial X10 Pro 2TB
- Crucial X9 Pro 2TB
- Crucial X6 2TB
- Crucial X8 1TB
- Crucial X8 2TB
- Kingston XS1000 2TB
- LaCie Mobile SSD 500GB
- LaCie Rugged SSD 1TB
- Lexar SL660 BLAZE 1TB
- Lexar Professional SL100 Pro 500GB
- Netac ZX10 2TB
- Western Digital Black P50 Game Drive SSD 1TB
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 8.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 5.70
7. Conclusion
