The 2.5-inch USB-C Patriot Transporter 2TB external portable SSD has garnered attention for its competitive pricing as well as read and write speeds of up to 1GB/s.
At $87.99 on Amazon US right now, the Transporter is still more expensive than an average 2TB portable hard disk drive, but the price difference has narrowed considerably.
In comparison with more expensive internal SATA SSDs, the Transporter SSD has a much higher read and write speeds than popular options like the Crucial MX500 2TB (560 MB/s read, 510 MB/s write), Samsung 870 EVO 2TB (560 MB/s read, 530 MB/s write), and Western Digital Blue 3D NAND 2TB (545 MB/s read, 425 MB/s write).
A budget-friendly portable SSD alternative
The Transporter also offers faster read and write speeds compared to traditional 2TB HDDs like the WD My Passport, Seagate Backup Plus, and Toshiba Canvio Basics, which cost between $60 and $70 and deliver significantly slower speeds.
The higher speed offered by SSDs may appeal to users with demanding workloads, but the fact remains HDDs remain a more affordable option for general mass storage needs.
SSDs are intrinsically far more robust as well thanks to the use of solid-state memory. They can withstand drops and get chucked around without suffering from catastrophic failure. You can’t do that with an external hard disk drive.
What’s more, a USB-C portable SSD can usually be plugged into a smartphone or tablet equipped with the same port and act as an external storage device, something no portable HDD can achieve.
