Western Digital’s line-up of Direct Attachment (DAS) products is focused on a range of brands and form factors. Following the acquisition of HGST / G-Technology and SanDisk, the company now offers similar products across multiple markets. Portable SSDs with bus control are an example. Subtle differences in the feature sets of the products enhance their appeal to the target market.
Late last year, the WD_Black P50 was introduced as the fastest non-Thunderbolt portable SSD on the market, thanks to its USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface. The brand clearly indicated that gamers were the target brand. The regular WD branding is reserved for the My Passport series. We reviewed the first model in the My Passport SSD series back in 2017. It used the planned TLC-based SanDisk X400 M.2 SATA SSD internally with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C host interface. A new version of the My Passport SSD was released the following year with a WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD with 64L 3D TLC flash. Both products were kept performance efficient by using a SATA SSD. Today’s product launch brings NVMe into the picture for the My Passport SSD product line.
The WD My Passport SSD is focused on using productivity cases for business professionals (including certain content creators). The industrial design and appearance of the new version has changed, with the sharp corners and full plastic cabinet now replaced by an aesthetically-pleasing semi-mechanical cabinet with rounded corners. WD claims that the new design feels less rigid and more portable, and generally has a more pocket-sized shape.
While the WD_Black P50 and SanDisk Extreme Pro are portable SSDs for huge games and large media files, the WD Black SN750 uses NVMe SSD internally, the new WD My Passport uses the DRAM-less WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD. This still uses a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, and the performance numbers for the 500GB + models are good enough to saturate a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface. Hardware encryption is one of the key features of the higher-end products in the My Passport lineup, and the new My Passport SSD also supports AES-256 for low-performance data protection.
The WD My Passport SSD 2020 delivers a huge jump in performance (up to 1050 MBps) compared to the 2018 version (540 MBps). The 256GB capacity SKU has been phased out, and only three capacities will be offered – 500GB ($ 120), 1TB ($ 200 – WDs MSRP is $ 190), and 2TB ($ 380). While the My Passport SSD 2018 was only available in one color (gray / black), the 2020 version is available in four colors – gray, red, blue and gold.
The SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD is our current favorite when it comes to USB 3.1 Gen 2 portable SSDs, thanks to its compact design, consistency of performance and thermal performance. Power consumption (especially at low) was one of the Achilles heels compared to the OWC Envoy Pro EX USB-C (which provided similar performance, albeit in a slightly larger form factor). If the WD My Passport SSD succeeds in reaching close to the performance profile of the SanDisk Extreme Pro, while also optimizing energy consumption, Western Digital could end up with yet another compelling offering in the portable SSD market.
