The SSD Review The Worlds Dedicated SSD Education and Review Resource | 
We are always on the go and the safe transport of our data is of high importance, especially for media professionals such as myself. Whether it is travel from home to office or offsite to remote regions for a new project, I need to make sure my data is safe and backed up as it is created.
Typically after a photo shoot, I backup my images to multiple external HDDs, which can be a tedious task at best. This increase in redundancy helps to ensure I always have a copy of my data. However, I have seen my share of scares when backup drives have corrupted, fell and were damaged beyond use, or have just been stolen. Having a portable SSD could have definitely helped out in most of those cases. SSDs offer much faster speeds over HDDs, much greater physical endurance, and a smaller foot print as well as more reliability.
SPECIFICATIONS, PRICING, AND AVAILABILITY
The SSD2go Pocket takes up minimal space with its 89.0 x 69.9 x 10.4 mm (3.5 x 2.75 x 0.41 inch) dimensions. This type of ultra-portable SSD proves that big things come in little packages. Although it has a small stature, it is extremely robust and capable of taking all the abuse you can give it with its CNC machined aluminum housing. It is packed full of features both outside and in that make it a strong successor to the SSD2Go name. Additionally you can give it your own personal touch with free custom engraving when ordered through the Angelbird Webshop.
This is more than just a powerful ultra-portable SSD. It is also stuffed full of exclusive software that can be accessed once the PSP (Personal Support Portal) is set up. Access allows use of Parallels 10, Bitwig Studio 1.0 and the System Reflection Backup Tool. PureMix Audio Production video tutorials and artist provided music for content mixing is also included with the drive.
Along with the software, it is also the world’s only USB drive with TRIM and SMART support for MAC. Other features include being USB OTG compatible, full UASP support, overload protection, ESD protection, ECC, and EMS protection.
The SSD2Go Pocket comes in three capacities (128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB) with each one packing more of a punch than the last. The sustained read/write speed is 450/150 MB/s, 450/300 MB/s, and 450/390 MB/s respectively for each model; likewise, its rated IOPS are 33,900, 36,200, and 38,800. Furthermore, the TBW rating for each is 262 TB, 512 TB, and 1048 TB respectively. This type of endurance is better than what we have seen from most SSDs in the marketplace. Just this alone should prove the quality these drives carry, but if that isn’t enough for you, this portable SSD is capable of operating anywhere from -20° C to 70° C (or -4° F to 158° F), and they are also backed by a five year warranty.
Just to prove the robustness of this drive, Angelbird has put up a rather amusing video demonstrating it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVjvGhhyA88
With a drive packed full of features and promising specs, it offers itself up at a competitive price. U.S. prices begin at $179 for the 128 GB model then continue with $249 for the 256 GB model and lastly, $449 for the 512 GB model. It is available in Australia, the U.K., DACH and the U.S.
PACKAGING AND COMPONENTS
The SSD2Go Pocket ships in simple white packaging. The front of packaging offers a preview of the device inside while the back of the packaging offers a brief summary and specs for the device.
The inside of packaging features the SSD2go Pocket along with its impedance controlled and specially manufactured 5 Gbit/sec USB cable. The packaging also contains a QR code with a link to the website where the device’s exclusive software is accessible.
The Angelbird SSD2go Pocket is extremely robust. The housing is CNC machined aluminum that has been glass pearl blasted and hard anodized. For the housing color, there are the choices of silver, blue, red, and black. In the image above to the right, you can see the USB 3.0 port as well as the activity light hole. The reason Angelbird went with a typical USB 3. 0 port rather than a micro USB 3.0, was due to its endurance. The standard port can handle ten times the amount of plug and unplug cycles as the micro connector can.
The device itself uses a SMI 2246EN SSD controller and contains 16nm L95B custom packed Micron NAND. The formatted capacity for use to the end user is 471GB.
Due to the extreme durability and permanent enclosure design of this device, it is essentially impossible for us to open it to take photos of the internals. This marketing shot of the interior components was provided by Angelbird at the time of posting.
The biggest advantage over the spinning hard disk, is, I think, the lower power demand. This means it can connect to a smartphone, tablet, etc – using just a USB (2 or 3) cable, without any other power source. Is this true, for simple read-writes?
I havent tried this with those cables…to a Smart phone.
I gave it a shot on my nexas 7. I couldn’t get my Android device to recognize/power up the drive with any of the USB mounting apps i tried.
Actually, some ssds have bigger power requirement than your standard 2.5″ 5400rpm drives. Lots of ssds can easily exceed 2.5W cap, usb2 offer in write intensive or random workload.
But its true, that in idle ssds tend to use less power.