Angelbird SSD2Go USB 3.0 External 480GB SSD Review – Unbelievable Build & Performance + 10% Off

Up on our Test Bench early this morning are three of the most colorful SSDs we have ever seen, these being the Angelbird SSD2Go External USB 3.0 SSDs.

Don’t let their good looks alone fool you; these drives are among the best built we have ever seen, scream out LSI SandForce performance at above 460MB/s and are as at home with a PC as they are a Mac.  This speed has yet to be seen in any portable SSD before today.

Angelbird is an owner/operated Austrian company that first made its appearance on the SSD scene a few years ago with their stackable PCIe SSD,  named Angelbird Wings.  Our relationship with Angelbird goes back to its beginnings and two things seemed to prevent North American success with the Wings SSD, the first being availability while the second was the release and pricing of the OCZ Revo family.  Back on track with North American distribution, Angelbird has introduced a new external SSD that is 100% hand built from the ground up by their manufacturing team, a product manufacture where every part is sourced, built, tested and inspected by hand to ensure that each and every SSD2Go External SSD is an amazing experience.

AngelBird SSD2Go External SSDs are available in 120, 240 and 480GB capacities or in a dual configuration where two SSD2Go drives are back to back as one and function as a dual SSD/dual USB 3.0 package.  Each and every SSD2Go SSD is a custom build and the purchaser selects from A 64 different color combination colors for the drive cover and drive base plate separately.  The SSD2Go SSD is both Mac and Windows compatible (as we will demonstrate), has a 3 year warranty, and pricing on their website is set at $219 (120GB), $389 (240GB) and $669 (480GB) for single units while dual units are priced starting at $439, $779 and $1339, depending on the configuration chosen.  It is entirely possible to get a 120GB SSD2Go on one side with a 120/240/480GB on the other side and the dual color paint job is built into the pricing.

UPDATE!  If you purchase an SSD2Go between now and 31 July 2013, take 10% off through us by entering the code ‘Take10TSSDR‘ during checkout when following any of the links we have provided in this report! 

Specifications for the Angelbird SSD2Go list it as being the single highest performing portable storage device on the market today with read and write speeds of 460MB/s and IOPS at 85,000 with low 4K random write aligned disk access. Also non-existent in portable SSDs before today is that the SSD2Go has a built in UPS, overload protection as well as it being TCG Opal compliant. It is also TRIM capable, has ECC, RAISE, SMART and EMS protection, all of which are part and parcel with LSI SandForce solid state drives.

The fact that the SSD2Go is capable of speeds of 460MB/s is very unique as this performance level has never been reached in a USB 3 device on our benches  prior (or elsewhere that we are aware of) and the main reason has always been the SATA to USB3 bridge used.  Angelbird utilizes ASMedia 6Gbps quality components in such a way that no bottleneck whatsoever occurs in the performance of this SSD, an attribute that has already grabbed the attention of several  media industry professionals.