OWC has just revealed its latest external SSD, the Envoy Pro EX. The Envoy Pro EX works with both Macs and PCs and promises pretty ridiculous transfer speeds for an external drive.
The company claims that its new Envoy Pro EX is the fastest USB-C based SSD on the planet, with its NVMe-based storage offering transfer speeds as high as 980MB/s. For context, even SanDisk’s Extreme 900 Portable SSD peaks at 850MB/s in ideal conditions. It’s a drive that could handle 4K video editing one moment and sit in your pocket the next.
Being an external drive, the Envoy Pro EX is meant to be on the go, and OWC promises that its anodized aluminum shell gives it a certain degree of ruggedness. It also includes an IP67 rating, which means that the device is dust tight and can handle being submerged in up to one meter of water for as long as 30 minutes.
USB-C vs Thunderbolt 3
This doesn’t make this external drive the fastest ever though. Some Thunderbolt 3 based external SSDs are faster and they easily outperform the Envoy Pro EX.
They’ll be better for users who insist on performance comparable to a good internal SSD. But not all of them are as slim as the Envoy Pro EX, and they’re often much more expensive.
It starts at $89 for an enclosure-only model and $129 for a 250GB version, but you can always go up to a $430 2TB model if you need beefy amounts of storage.
OWC Envoy Pro EX Specifications
• Transfer speeds of up to 980MB/s
• Capacity up to 2TB
• IP67 Rated (dust tight + water resistant for up to 30 minutes in 1 meter of water)
• NVMe M.2 SSD
• Compatible with both Mac & PC, plus direct-connects to devices like the latest USB-C cameras from Blackmagic Design
• Bus-powered
• Quiet fanless operation
• Ultra-portable
• Thunderbolt 3 compatible
