Tiny 8TB SanDisk SSD: It's 'world's highest capacity' pocket-sized portable drive
Western Digital's tech feat for the CES 2020 conference in Las Vegas is a prototype of a massive solid-state storage drive that can fit in a pocket.
Mobility
The SSD with an 8TB capacity is just a prototype, but it blows away most of the portable SSD options available today, which offer just 2TB of storage capacity.
Western Digital (WD), which bought SanDisk for $16bn in 2016, says the 8TB portable SSD is the world's highest capacity, pocket-sized, portable SSD prototype.
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There are no details on what this portable SSD would cost, but the 1.92TB SansDisk Extreme 900 Portable with 2TB can be bought at a discounted price of $279, normally available for $499. Last year WD showed off a similar prototype portable SSD with a 4TB capacity.
With so much capacity, data transfer speeds are also going to be important. The 8TB prototype features USB speeds of 20Gbps using the SuperSpeed USB protocol, according to WD.
The possibilities of having 8TB at your disposal to offload photos and videos without the cloud are tantalizing, but there are no details about when this prototype might become a product available to consumers.
However, SanDisk has launched a new 1TB thumb-drive, dubbed the 'Ultra Dual Drive Luxe USB Type-C' storage device that connects with smartphones and laptops.
The Type-C USB 1TB thumb-drive costs $250 and can be reserved now. It is scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2020. The device is compatible with most Android phones, Windows 10 laptops, and MacBooks, but not the iPhone.
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The all-metal design thumb-drive is available in smaller capacities too, including a 32GB drive for $11, a 256GB drive for $46, and a 512GB drive for $90.
SanDisk promises USB 3.1 Gen 1 performance, with 150MB/s read speeds for quickly moving files to a computer.
The 8TB prototype features USB speeds of 20Gbps using the SuperSpeed USB protocol, according to WD.