I'm at a bit of a mission right now to
find the perfect portable SSD before our
trip to CES now what I mean perfect
it doesn't mean performance price will
factor heavily into this - and my first
top in the search was a few weeks back
when I reviewed the Samsung t3 portable
SSD
and after performing various synthetic
and real-world tests I concluded in one
single try that I had found a winner
so this was a drive that was going to
come with me when I'm away covering
events but I also mentioned this are
there any alternative solutions that
might give the t3 a run for its money I
think this little guy could be it but
before I move on quick look at our
sponsor yak cable mod configurator
allows you to select only the cables you
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sleeping that is very flexible or mod
mesh that is more vibrant then you
choose your length and color combination
custom cables just got more custom with
the cable mod configurator this is the
PNY elite portable SSD I have the 480
gigabyte model that officially costs two
hundred and fifty dollars that's a $50
premium over the t3 s 500 gigabyte
variant and before you hop into the hate
rain remember I said officially it isn't
all that rare to see this drive going
for as low as a hundred and fifty
dollars which isn't that bad at all
unfortunately there are only two
variants of the elite before 80 gigabyte
and the 240 gigabyte model that costs
$150 but can also be picked up for as
low as $100 larger capacities that
compete against Samsung's massive but
super expensive one terabyte and two
terabyte versions haven't been rolled
out yet but aside from the premium price
talk can this dry perform closer to or
even better than the t3 from a physical
standpoint the Pnyx SD has a much
smaller footprint than the t3 in fact I
couldn't believe that they were able to
cram a 480 gigabyte module inside this
tiny form factor here's a shot comparing
it to a flash drive it can easily fit
into your pocket your wallet or even a
carry-on bag without taking too much
space the enclosure is made out of
aluminum and it feels rock-solid this
should technically complement shock
resistance even though PNY doesn't
market anything about that
I wanted to point out that the sides of
the drive are covered in plastic and on
my sample
they weren't sealed properly which
resulted in some movement when plugging
in the cable and removing it off the
drive that's definitely something to be
mindful about especially when you
consider Samsung's t3 didn't exhibit any
quality issues this SSD comes with a USB
3.0 standard micro B 10 pin port
compared to the 3.1 type C standard on
the t3 now remember that Samsung's
interface is USB 3.1 genuine so it's
actual transfer speeds are identical to
USB 3.0 I prefer time.see over this
interface because it's reversible no
matter how you plug it in whereas you
can't do that on the pn1 SSD another
interesting add-on to Samsung's portable
SSD is that you can easily transfer
files to and from a compatible Android
phone that supports the type C but speed
wise the P&Y elite SSD should meet the
450 megabytes per second spec under
ideal conditions provided your system
supports the USB protocol PNY also
includes a free copy of akron s data
protection software then you can install
on your PC and utilize the SSD for
backup so that's a bonus so let's start
with synthetic benchmarks using the
crystal disk mark to test large file
size transfers the t3 gave us better
numbers overall with much better read
performance of about 7 percent and just
slightly higher writes moving on to a
doe benchmark as a test smaller file
sizes the PNY SSD performed marginally
better on the right side with identical
weight numbers autism real-world tests I
transferred a 63 gigabyte folder packed
with 4k videos back and forth between
the computer and the drives starting
with the t3 that whole folder took 2
minutes and 45 seconds to transfer to
the desktop averaging between 370 to 390
megabytes per second read performing
that backwards took 3 minutes and 30
seconds because the white speeds were
topping at around 300 megabytes per
second the PNY SSD - at the same time
transferring the folder to the desktop
averaging the same speed but performing
that backwards wasn't that impressive
you see for a few seconds the drive
averages 240 megabytes per second but
then it dips to 95 megabytes per second
for the rest of the transfer which
resulted in about seven minutes to
complete the
tasks I rebooted the computer
reformatted the drive plugged in
multiple times and even tried a
different port and the tests yielded the
same results a bit awkward now to
investigate this bit further I rendered
a seven minute 4k video using Premiere
Pro CC 2017 and sending destination to
these drives the results only a six
second difference with the t3 leading
here so I think it's safe to say that
the Pnyx SD still holds up pretty well
with the right tests if you're
transferring small scale files so what
could be happening here it could be that
the drives cache is being used up in the
first few seconds of transfer and after
that the nan is left to fend for itself
lowering performance over time for
larger transfers so I'm going to leave
you guys on this note the PNY portable
SSD is a fast drive the smaller
footprint compared to the t3 is amazing
but I would be extra careful lugging
this thing around since the risk of
losing is quite high it is that small as
for performance the t3 still holds its
value in speeds plus the extra 20
gigabytes of space can come in handy at
times at the end of the day it still
comes down to preference if you find the
Pnyx SD for a cheaper price than the t3
go for it
I still cannot comment on the
reliability factor of this SSD since
it's fairly new to the market and I hope
to make a follow-up video regarding that
what are your thoughts about this
portable SSD frumpy and why did it give
Samsung t3 a run for its money should I
still keep looking for alternatives
feedback is always appreciated
I'm heber with hurricane X thank you so
much for watching and we'll see you in
the next one