LaCie Portable SSD review: The iPhone of storage

Whether you are a photographer or a media professional, having a super-fast solution for rapidly storing or editing digital content is a must. The small form-factor of an SSD is an absolute necessity as it isn’t just extremely portable but also provides you with the capability of transferring an hour’s worth of content in under a minute. In our line of work, we come across many Solid State Drives (SSD) and very few pique our interest as much as Seagate and its premium sub-brand — LaCie.

Building upon its excellent portfolio of SSDs, case in point, the LaCie Mobile SSD, the French-based storage solution company has recently introduced the Portable SSD in India after making its initial appearance at CES 2019.

The LaCie Portable SSD is by far one of the best storage solutions the world over as it not only comes with a compact form factor but also has performances to boast about. With this solution, LaCie claims that the drive enables fast editing, backups and transfer rates at speeds up to 540MB/s. This puts it at the upper-end in speed tests and got us plenty excited to review it.

After toying with this drive for a substantial amount of time, here are our unbiased thoughts on the LaCie Portable SSD 1TB.

Design, Build

Familiar but in an exciting colour, the LaCie Portable SSD comes dressed in the same design that’s found on the Seagate Fast SSD. While the latter comes in a Black and Grey combination, the LaCie option is constructed in a classy Charcoal Black with Red accents. This screams professional and casual in equal parts. While hard drives aren’t necessarily dressed to impress, it’s well worth knowing that your substantial investment looks the part.

Coming with a shock-resistant build, the drive can withstand drops from up to two metres, which is pretty impressive and practically unheard of in years gone by. The dimensions here is what sets it apart from the competition and measuring a mere 9mm thick and weighing just 82g, this drive is as slim and lightweight as some of the smartphones available in the market. Also, due to this compact form-factor, you can easily slip it into your pocket without it taking up much room and poses as an ideal solution for those who are always on the go.

As far as design elements go, the LaCie branding is on the raised top while the rear hosts the device’s storage capacity, model number and other certifications. The LaCie Portable SSD also sports a USB Type-C connector that’s compatible with USB 3.0 port. Also, you can pair it with a reversible Type-C cable to connect it easily to your MacBook.

Lastly, the LaCie Portable SSD comes with a 3-year warranty which helps in sealing the deal while choosing this drive over others.

Performance

The LaCie Portable SSD that came in for review is the 1TB solution and it is available in 2TB and 500GB as well. The drive offers universal compatibility across various platforms such as Windows and Mac operating systems and also has the ability to allow you to edit straight from the drive itself with speeds touching up to 540MB/s. Apart from this, you can transfer an hour of footage in less than a minute as well as edit multiple streams of 4K video. The drive also allows you to traverse multiple Adobe apps simultaneously and collaborate on the spot by quickly moving files between your SSD and multiple computers.

The drive also comes with the LaCie Toolkit that makes it simple to give your important files the necessary added protection it needs. You can back up with one click, schedule backups daily, weekly or monthly as well as sync files or your projects across multiple devices.

Like other Seagate drives, you also get a free month of Adobe Creative Cloud. This allows you to get access to the entire range of Adobe apps such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro and others.

As mentioned earlier, you get a 3-year warranty with the drive and with it, the brand offers you a data recovery service for free. Interestingly, the warranty not just covers hardware failure but also accidental file deletion, power surges, water damage and malware damage. Also, LaCie provides you with eligibility for one in-lab recovery attempt during the aforementioned warranty period.

When it comes to performances, the drive was tested using the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on a Mac and it output a score of 413.2MB/s in the write test and a slightly higher 421MB/s in the read test. On a Windows system, the Portable 1TB SSD produced a read score of 438.8MB/s in the CrystalDiskMark test and a write score of 425.9MB/s. The scores will vary depending on your machine used and you can easily expect scores touching 540MB/s.

Verdict

The LaCie Portable SSD in a 500GB capacity sells for Rs 11,990 while the 1TB option is for Rs 23,990. The top-end 2TB drive sells for Rs 41,990. Compared to the competition, this drive is on the pricier side but it offers speeds that make its rivals appear ancient. With a classy design and great all-around performances, the LaCie Portable SSD is the Apple of storage solutions and is great for media professionals or anyone wanting a high-speed, no-compromise solution for every need.

In short, the LaCie SSD does what it advertises and makes for the perfect choice over other options.