Performance Summary
In an effort to make sorting through all the results as easy as possible we have combined the results all of all the test results into an easy to digest summary format. By comparing this drive to similar products in all the various tests you will be able to easily find the result(s) you are interested in, see the improvement and decide if this model is worth the investment.
As you can see it is pretty obvious that this model was designed around the aging CompactFlash standard performance levels and not modern XQD or even SD standards. We say this as while the Lexar Portable SSD has excellent read numbers its write performance is less than stellar. So much so that if you can afford to just buy more XQD/CFast/SD cards…. you should. By the same token, for the same amount of money you can get a lot more Portable SSD storage than you can in SD or XQD. Also on the positive side, the read performance is excellent and will make the eventual data dump to a computer a pain-free endevour.
Score Card & TL;DR
Accessories: 4 out of 5
Lifetime warranty and actually useful software is a good combination but one that could be even better. For example, a dust protector that the Workflow readers come with would have been nice. After all, dust can still clog up the USB 3.0 port.
Read performance: 20 out 25
The read performance of the Lexar Portable SSD is certainly its strong point. By the same token it is not enough to even come close to saturating the USB 3.0 bus. Worse still compared to what some of the cutting edge card stadnards like CFast 2.0 (3600X) are capable of the Portable SSD does come off being a touch slow.
Write performance: 30 out of 40
On the one hand this Portable SSD is indeed faster than any hard disk drive, but on the other compared to what even SD cards are capable of this SSD is downright slow. Considering the reason d’etre of this device is to allow professionals the luxury of quickly emptying the contents of a card to it… having said device be the performance bottleneck is not a good thing. Lexar desperately needs to upgrade this model to at the very least 400MB/s write performance. Anything less will simply not keep up with modern card’s performance.
Warranty: 9 out of 10
Just as with the all Lexar models reviewed to date, the Lexar Portable SSD series come with a lifetime warranty that is backstopped by one of the largest NAND manufactures in the world: Micron. This means that the Lexar lifetime warranty is indeed a true lifetime warranty and will be honored for your lifetime and not the cards! The only minor issue is RMA’ing one may mean shipping it to the States. If you have a Micron RMA depot in your country, then you can consider this card a perfect 10.
Value: 17 out of 20
While the shear performance of this drive leaves a bit to be desired the fact still remains it is costs nearly 600% less per Gigabyte of storage than XQD does. In other words, this is a downright inexpensive purchase and even with mediocre performance is still one heck of a bargain for professionals.
Final Score: 80 out of a possible 100
