I am one of the early adopters of Solid State Drives, replaced my existing desktop and laptop drives with SSD as early as 2013. They confidently improved the performance of the computer instantly without expensive upgrades. The same can be said for external SSD, which in recent months became more popular thanks to reduced price per MB. LaCie is a premium brand by Seagate that focuses on design, performance and reliability. Through PR Galleria, Seagate Singapore sent me the LaCie Portable SSD for a hands-on review.
There are several benefits of SSD. They are smaller and lighter than HDD, they are more durable because there are no mechanical moving parts. Most importantly, they are a lot faster in moving data. The only drawback is price: the LaCie 500GB SSD retails at S$199, and for the same price, you could get a 4TB HDD. So, is it worth paying for SSD?
If you just need a basic portable storage medium, then HDD remains the most cost-effective solution. But if you store your large working files on an external drive and requires fast read and write access, then you got to get an external SSD.
I did a speed test comparison between a USB 3.0 HDD and the LaCie Portable SSD. Here are my findings:
Similar Write Speeds. When copying files from my desktop or laptop, both the HDD and SSD achieves similar speed, with LaCie slightly faster.
Outstanding Read Speeds. When copying files to the desktop or laptop, the LaCie SSD performs over 3 times faster. The HDD took an average of 100MB/s while the LaCie achieves over 300MB/s. It took me almost 12 minutes to transfer 50GB , but only 2.5 minutes with LaCie.
The below tests are done over the USB 3.0 Type-A interface.
Even Faster with USB 3.1 Gen 2. The LaCie Portable SSD comes with 2 cables. USB Type-A to Type-C is USB 3.1 Gen 1 certified, while USB Type-C to Type-C is USB 3.1 Gen 2. Running speed test, the Type-A cable can already achieve over 450MB/s read speed. I do not have a USB 3.1 Gen 2 device to test, but at most it can only reach up to 540MB/s, which was advertised. Therefore, if your computer has a USB 3.1 or Thunderbolt port, you are going to enjoy even faster transfer speed than USB 3.0 HDD.
Works with Smartphones. The LaCie consumes lower power than traditional HDD, so it works well with smartphones. If you are currently doing backup with external storage like micro SD cards or USB flash drives, and if your smartphone supports high USB transfer speeds, the LaCie Portable SSD can backup your smartphone in a shorter time.
Other Features
LaCie Portable SSD owners enjoy 3-year product warranty, 3-year Data Rescue Service, free 1-month Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, LaCie Toolkit that automates backup and data sync.
Conclusion
What is the price to pay for speed and performance? Once you have experienced SSD, you will not turn back. I would recommend every household to own at least one portable SSD in addition to your growing stash of external HDD (I have at least 4 of them, and countless 5.25″ internal HDD). The LaCie Portable SSD comes in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB option, and is also available under the parent Seagate brand in different colour styling. As always, shop smart and compare any in-box bundle and in-store price discounts before making your purchase.
Disclosure: the product is provided free of charge by Seagate Singapore (@seagate) through PR Galleria (@prgalleria) in exchange for the article. Product has been personally reviewed by the author and contains his own opinions and experience.
