Western Digital today introduced its first portable SSD, the My Passport SSD.
The new palm-sized SSD claims read/write speeds that rival those of internal SATA-attached SSDs -- up to 515MBps. The new drive uses a USB Type-C (reversible) connector and the USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gb/s) standard; it also comes with an adapter to use with the more traditional USB Type-A ports found on many computers.
WDThe drive is 0.39-in x 3.5-in x 1.8-in in size and comes with a three-year limited warranty. It has a suggested retail price of $399.99 for the 1TB model, $199.99 for the 512GB model and $99.99 for the 256GB drive.
The SSD also comes with WD Backup software, which can schedule automatic backups to the drive or to a Dropbox cloud service account. The drive is also compatible with Apple Time Machine, but must be reformatted before it can be used with the service.
My Passport SSD also comes with 256-bit AES hardware encryption and password protection, and has been tested using a 6.5-foot drop tested for shock-resistance to withstand 1500G of force.