The SSD Review The Worlds Dedicated SSD Education and Review Resource | 
In September of 2020, we did a review on Crucial’s newly released X6 Portable SSD which had a great price point and decent capacity. Its performance was a bit lower than we had seen in the previous Crucial X8, the former providing current 1GB/s data transfer through USB 3.2 Gen 2 while the newer X6 maxed out at 540MB/s because of its compact size. Well… Crucial has just come out with a new updated X6 and it literally destroys the preconceived notion that high capacity can’t be had in a small form factor.
Introducing the Crucial 4TB X6 Portable SSD. It is an industry leading 4TB in capacity. Its size is also the smallest in the industry at 2.7 x 2.5 x 3/8 inch and it weighs only 1.5 oz, which is pretty light considering a M.2 SSD maxes out around 0.35oz. Better yet, this SSD has been bumped up to USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds with up to 800MB/s read and write speeds. This has been done with the newest Phison PS2251-17 U17 DRAMless controller tied into Micron 96-layer 3D NAND flash memory.
Inside the package, you will find the X6, Startup Manual and a single Type-C to Type-C cable. There is no USB-C to USB-A cable for backwards compatibility to USB 3.1 and one is available on Amazon for only $9.99.
The Crucial X6 is constructed of a very solid and well designed exterior black plastic casing and is compatible with Windows, Mac, PS4, XBox One, IPAD Pro, and Android. The X6 comes with a 3-year warranty.
The Crucial X6 is rated for a 2 metre drop, is shock and vibration proof, however there is no word on water resistance. Better yet, Crucial’s MSRP for the X6 is 489.99 which is more than $200 below the closest competition. Check Amazon now! Let’s validate the 800MB/s read and write performance with a few benchmarks:
ATTO Disk Benchmark is perhaps one of the oldest benchmarks going and is definitely the main staple for manufacturer performance specifications. ATTO uses RAW or compressible data and, for our benchmarks, we use a set length of 256mb and test both the read and write performance of various transfer sizes ranging from 0.5 to 8192kb. Manufacturers prefer this method of testing as it deals with raw (compressible) data rather than random (includes incompressible data) which, although more realistic, results in lower performance results.
CRYSTAL DISK BENCHMARK VER. 8.0.1 x64
Crystal Disk Benchmark is used to measure read and write performance through sampling of random data which is, for the most part, incompressible. Performance is virtually identical, regardless of data sample so we have included only that using random data samples.
ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL
Anvil’s Storage Utilities (ASU) are the most complete test bed available for the solid state drive today. The benchmark displays test results for, not only throughput but also, IOPS and Disk Access Times. Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and use in our benchmark testing.
TxBench is one of our newly discovered benchmarks that we works much the same as Crystal Diskmark, but with several other features. Advanced load benchmarking can be configured, as well as full drive information and data erasing via secure erase, enhanced secure erase, TRIM and overwriting. Simply click on the title for a free copy.
REPORT SUMMARY AND FINAL THOUGHTS
We have been trying to find a comparable that would make one understand just how small the Crucial X6 is. The closest thing I might say is its typically 1/3 the size of a smartphone (Samsung Note 8). Considering this is a 4TB portable SSD, that says alot and there isn’t another 4TB portable SSD that comes close. Now add to that the fact that the X6 provides USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer speeds of 800MB/s and that this is the lowest price 4TB portable SSD on the market by a longshot.
Editor’s Choice!
Check Crucial X6 4TB Pricing at Amazon.
Just wanna know if you feel the same way about this hard drive now? And I’m going to be using it for is recording and playingank 4K movies . And was just wondering with all the hype about QLC do you think it will last at least five years and the circumstances I told you about? Thanks in advance.Steve
I have no problem whatsoever recommending the X6 for the scenario of which you speak. It has speed, value and capacity, on top of the Crucial warranty that most never need.