We are inching toward an era where portable SSDs are becoming commonplace.
Compared to HDDs, SSDs are smaller and lighter. Transcend’s ESD230C in particular is so small and slim it can fit in your wallet. On hand, it feels like simple plastic toy, but that’s a tiny compromise for the convenience of carrying around a smaller storage space.
The ESD230C unit that we received for review comes with 240GB. Read and write speeds have been impressive. Transferring over 10 gigs of data, using the USB 3.1, took about five to seven minutes. A 1.3GB data was transferred in a few eye blinks.
Transcend’s unit came with a regular type A USB that ends with a type C, for desktop transfers. It also ships with a cable with both type Cs, which is great for thinner laptops that only have type C ports (Such as the Lenovo Yoga S940 seen above.) It also works well for mobile phones, allowing you to free up space from your smartphones. It also works just like an HDD many of us are used to. You can store videos in it and watch them through your phone. This is particularly handy while getting stuck in traffic.
This is also compatible to gaming consoles – the PS4 and the Xbox One. And because this is an SSD, games stored here will load faster.
When using the ESD 230C, it’s recommended to check out the Transcend Elite app. This can be downloaded for Windows, OSX, or Android. This allows you to backup and schedule backups of your data, access restore points, encrypt and decrypt files, backup from Google Drive or Dropbox, and lock and unlock the entire Transcend storage device.
The Transcend ESD230C is definitely worth a look if you need a portable SSD. It’s small and relatively easy to pack. There are other configurations that can come with this SSD series, including a 960 gig version.