This portable SSD changed how I work on the go — and I’m kinda in love

Whenever it comes to buying a MacBook, there’s a simple rule: don’t waste your money on the ludicrous internal storage upgrade prices, and focus on beefing up performance instead.

Well, to those who may be stretching the size of their SSD, the SanDisk Extreme PRO with USB4 may be the drive you’ve been looking for.

It is a fair bit bigger than previous SanDisk Extreme Pros — around 77% larger by volume to the smaller Extreme Pro 2.

But in exchange, you’re getting a rugged all-terrain build quality that gives you real confidence in its ability to stand up to demanding conditions, along with some crazy file transfer speeds. It's one of the best external SSDs you can buy right now.

SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB4 - 2TB: $279 at Amazon

Making the jump to USB4 unlocks some super zippy read and write speeds that come very close to matching your computer’s internal speeds — to the point that during my month testing it, I was able to rely entirely on it as a replacement for my small built-in storage.

U.K. Price: £250 @ Amazon

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Rapid and reliable

During my month with it, I quickly became reliant upon this — not just as an additional storage device but as my primary place to open up and use dense files like my Final Cut Pro library.

And the end result? Loading, rendering and exporting times that were almost just as fast as reading directly from the internal storage.

I always expect a bit of a slowdown when I move to external, but how close this gets is simply mind blowing to me. With this kind of near-parity, that question of whether to invest in the outlandish prices of internal storage upgrades vs a portable SSD just flies out the window.

Similarly across the board with various apps like Photoshop and Illustrator, I found equally impressive results too. Put simply, I trusted this SSD with everything — and it delivered fast in its rugged package that comes with a 5-year warranty.

Some Thunderbolt wobbles

That’s not to say it’s completely perfect through and through. SanDisk advertises some truly bonkers speeds — up to 3,800 MB/s read and 3,700 MB/s write to be exact.

And while it is the fastest I’ve used (especially when compared to USB 3.2 SSDs), I was never able to hit them. So why couldn’t I hit that specifically?

The truth is it comes down to two frustrating things about port standards — the difference between USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 and the different ways companies implement USB4.

According to SanDisk, you can hit these top speeds in just the right conditions with just the right drivers. But on the Intel-based RTX 5070 PC I’ve got and the M3 Pro MacBook Pro, I simply couldn’t.

My bet is that there is a particular USB4 standard (maybe AMD) where it could be achieved? But I can only show you what I tested.

Should you buy?

At $279/£250, this is a steep investment for the 2TB of storage that you get. But as a creative pro, I fell in love with it and I know you will too if your workload is as demanding as mine.

If you just need something to give you plenty of additional storage for your files, then you could double that SSD size with slower speeds for $299.

But if speed really matters to you and what you do on-the-go, there's nothing better right now.

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