With more and more people starting to take full advantage of their phone’s (and to a lesser extent tablet’s) built-in 4K video abilities it should come as no surprise that more and more people are demanding bigger… faster… better portable external storage solutions. After all, both ‘i’ and ‘non-i’ phone manufacturers are refusing to increase storage options to keep up… and the options they do offer are laughably overpriced. As such this new spin on the old ‘sneaker-net’ idea is (once again) gaining traction with the buying public. So much so that a lot of manufacturers are starting to “see a need and fill it”. However, there are others who have been here all along offering excellent storage options tailor-made for photo and video-graphers. Of the latter AData has been producing some extremely good, and extremely good value, options for years now. Take for example their recently released SC740 series of portable flash drives.
On paper, the SC740 does meet the vast, vast majority of the needs of the typical consumer. With 1TB (or more if you opt for the larger capacity option) few budding influencers will take issue with the amount of recorded time they can save to it. Weighing in at a mere 40 grams even fewer will complain about the weight… and when it comes time to download to their trusty editing computer almost no one will complain about the time it takes to move all that potential money-making content from the SC740.
Furthermore, with an asking price of about $75 USD (for the 1TB variant) few will be overly bothered by the asking price, as that is rather decent for the paper specifications… and actually on the low end for what the real-world performance typically costs. Hell, even storage nerds will have a hard time complaining about the hardware the SC740 relies upon… as the combination of Micron NAND with the SMI SM2320 “all in one” controller is a proven combination. One that even noticeably more expensive devices in the exact same market niche use. For example, the Kingston XS2000 use this (similar to same) combination (albeit the NAND does very batch-to-batch) yet demands a lot more than what the AData SC740 is asking. Bluntly stated, many use this combination because it is a very potent USB 3.2 Gen2x2 controller paired with excellent (for the class) Micron (176-Layer) NAND.
Mix in excellent shock protection with the end-user replaceable nature of the “integrated” cable and there is indeed a lot to like with the SC740 series. With that said, this is a plastic with rubber chassis-based model. That is how AData got the weight down and yet was able to keep its protective abilities high. As such, easy magnetic-based mounting is not included. Given the ‘curved’ nature… magnetic mounting is even more difficult. As such, there are a few possible issues that may keep the SC740 from being a tailormade solution for everyone. So without further ado let’s see what makes the SC740 tick and see who the SC740 is made for, and who might be better suited by… alternative options.
