We could all use a little extra room in our digital pockets. You can find external drives that are smaller and have larger capacities than the SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD ($199.99 for 480GB), but its speedy performance, reasonable per-gigabyte price, and versatility make it a solid-state drive (SSD) worth considering. It's hard to beat the value and feature set offered by the 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable ($125.50 at Amazon) , our Editors' Choice for external hard drives, but the Extreme 500 gives it a run for its money.
Design and Features
Design is a battle between form and function, and in the case of the Extreme 500, the latter has clearly won. The drive itself is a flat, palm-size diamond with rounded top and bottom corners. The top corner is a metal loop that you can use to hook it to your belt or a lanyard, while the bottom is an easily removed port cover. The top side is made from a textured black plastic with a red SanDisk logo in the center and a perforated rubber border. The bottom is also mostly made of rubber to provide extra traction.
The Extreme 500 is a slim 0.4 by 3.0 by 3.0 inches (HWD), and at 1.4 ounces the drive is quite light. And while it's a smidge larger than both the Samsung Portable SSD T3 ($449.00 at Amazon) (0.4 by 2.3 by 2.9 inches, 1.6 ounces) and the Adata SE730 External SSD ($57.99 at Amazon) (0.4 by 1.7 by 2.8 inches, 1.3 ounces), the difference is negligible when it comes to portability. It's still small enough to fit easily into most pockets, yet large enough that you don't have to worry too much about misplacing it.
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The drive's focus on function also extends to its durability. The Extreme 500 earns its name by being shock resistant up to 800G and vibration resistant up to 5.35gRMS (which measures how much energy is in a random vibration), from 20 to 2,000Hz. It's also capable of operating in temperatures ranging from 32° F to 113° F. The Samsung T3 and Adata SE730 are a bit hardier when it comes to drops, dust, and waterproofing, but unless you're planning on trekking to exotic locales, the Extreme 500 should be more than enough to withstand the trials and tribulations of the average klutz.
For connectors, the Extreme 500 is limited to USB 3.0. As more and more laptops adopt USB-C, you may have to invest in a dongle or two to extend the life span of the Extreme 500. Also, the cable included with the drive is rather short: only about 9 inches. It's not too bad if you're primarily using the drive with a laptop, but it could be annoying or limiting depending on your setup.
In terms of storage, you can also get the Extreme 500 in 120GB ($89.99) and 240GB ($129.99) capacities. Even at a maximum capacity of 480GB, this pales in comparison to the 2TB of the Samsung T3, but it's on par with the 512GB VisionTek USB Pocket SSD ( at Amazon) and is a fair amount more than the 250GB Adata SE730 or the Apricorn Aegis Portable 3.0 ($323.25 at Amazon) . Overall, it's a good amount of storage considering that SSDs are more expensive per gigabyte compared with traditional spinning hard drives.
Because the Extreme 500 is formatted exFAT out of the box, you can use it right away with both Windows and Mac computers. This is especially convenient if you need to transfer files across multiple computers running different operating systems. And for the security-minded, the Extreme 500 comes with software-based 128-bit AES encryption—not quite as secure as 256-bit encryption you can get on the Samsung T3 and the Seagate Backup Plus Portable, but it's a nice addition. For extra peace of mind, the drive is also covered by a three-year limited warranty.
Performance
If SSDs are more expensive and generally offer less capacity than traditional hard drives, what's the reason for buying them? Speed, speed, speed. They're faster, and it makes sense to prioritize quicker transfers if you primarily work with large files like photos and videos. So how does the Extreme 500 stack up against other portable SSDs?
On the PCMark 7 test, which simulates everyday storage tasks, the Extreme 500 scored an impressive 5,649 points over a USB 3.0 connection. That outpaces the Samsung T3 (4,980), the VisionTek USB Pocket (4,127), and the Adata SE730 (3,076). And on the Blackmagic disk speed test, it logged an impressive write speed of 384.5MBps and a read speed of 427.5MBps. It's on par with the Samsung T3 (376MBps write and 430MBps read), but significantly faster at writing than the VisionTek USB Pocket SSD (138MBps) and the G-Technology G-Drive slim SSD ($499.99 at Amazon) (290MBps).
The Extreme 500 also zipped through our file transfer test, copying a 1.22GB folder in only 7 seconds. Again, it was slightly slower than the Samsung T3 (6 seconds) and the G-Drive slim (4 seconds), though the latter uses a faster USB-C interface. But it outperformed the VisionTek USB Pocket (8 seconds), the Apricorn Aegis Portable 3.0 (11 seconds), and the Seagate Backup Plus Portable (12 seconds).
Price-wise, the Extreme 500 comes to about 42 cents per gigabyte. That's equal to the Samsung T3, but for a much lower overall price and a little less than a quarter of the capacity. It's also a better value than the 512GB VisionTek USB Pocket SSD (54 cents) and the 250GB Adata SE730 (60 cents). But as far as portable SSDs go, the G-Drive slim takes the cake at 38 cents per gigabyte and 1TB of capacity. Of course, SSDs can't really compete with higher-capacity hard drives on this metric—the 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable, for example, is a mere 3.8 cents per gigabyte.
Conclusion
If you want a hardy, speedy SSD that fits into the palm of your hand and miraculously won't burn a hole in your wallet, the SanDisk Extreme 500 is a safe bet. It's not fully ruggedized, but it is shock and vibration resistant, and 128-bit encryption means you can easily protect your data. The Seagate Backup Plus Portable remains our Editors' Choice for external drives thanks to its varied feature set, excellent value, and large capacity—but as far as portable SSDs go, the Extreme 500 should be near the top of the list for consideration.
The SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD is a versatile solid-state drive that combines durability, fast performance, and value in a compact package.
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