GROUP TEST
SONY SL-E1 960GB EXTERNAL SSD £429.00/$288.84 www.sony.com
Sony’s SL-E1 960GB external solid state drive is one of three that the company produces in the same series; there are also 240GB and 480GB versions, but the highest capacity gives you an element of future-proofing, and fewer worries about running out of space if you’re working on location for long periods of time. The SL-E1 uses a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface with a USB Type C connection, and transfer rates are up to 540MB/s read and 520MB/s write, so you should experience little if any slowdown in your editing and backing up. A USB Type-C to Standard-A cable is included. A small LED oversees transfer if you don’t have a screen. The SL-E1 is very small and light, amongst the smallest and lightest in the group; it weighs only 50g/1.8oz and measures 47x11x80mm, making it feel
of withstanding shocks than a traditional spinning disk. The body is clean and simple, and made of aluminium for durability and to act as a heat sink; it also has a corrugated finish that definitely makes it more grippable and stops the drive looking grubby with fingerprints; on the downside, you may find assorted dust and crumbs collecting within the grooves and needing a brush to remove them. There’s no plug protector for the USB port, either. The drive is compatible with Macs and PCs, as well as Android devices, and can be set up to password-protect selected partitions but leave some areas open for less vital files. PROMOVIEMAKERRATING: 8/10 Pros: Good speed, compact and light, plenty of capacity Cons: Limited toughness
like a thick business card. With a pleasingly curved edge, it’s definitely pocket-friendly. It makes no bold claims of durability, but like any solid state drive the fact that it uses flash memory and has no moving parts means it has a much better chance
SANDISK 2TB EXTREME PORTABLE SSD £549.99/$379.99 www.sandisk.com
than a mobile phone, and it fits easily inmost pockets. It weighs 38.9g/0.086lb, so it’s not noticeable at all in your bag or pocket. The Extreme Portable SSD uses a USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection and can hit a maximum read speed of 550MB/s, and comes with a Type-C to Type-C cable; if you’re using a machine without Type-C connections, there’s a Type-C to Type-A adapter included. The drive is pre-formatted as exFAT, so it can be plugged straight into a Windows or MacOS machine, and the SecureAccess encryption allows files to be password protected. The 2TB version will give you plenty of space to play with – for instance around 65 hours of 4K 30fps video footage – but it also comes in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB version. A three-year warranty is included.
The Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD’s design screams ‘on the move’, with its built-in loop letting you attach it to your bag or clothing. It looks as much like a piece of outdoor gear as a mobile hard drive, and that’s backed up by its ‘extreme’ build (it’s water and dust resistant to an IP55 standard). Testing this we gave it a bit of a splash with water from a shower head, dried it and it functioned as normal. There’s no rubber plug to the USB C connector though, so you wouldn’t want to get that too clogged up. It’ll also withstand drops of up to twometres onto a hard surface, and has an operating temperature of 0 to 45°C. This toughness doesn’t mean increased size and weight, though: the Extreme Portable SSD measures just 96.5x50.8x7.6mm/ 3.8x2.0x0.3in, so no larger
PROMOVIEMAKERRATING: 9/10 Pros: Tough, small, light, fast, high capacity and reasonable price Cons: Not many
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WINTER 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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