Silicon Power Bolt B75 Pro Review

The Silicon Power Bolt B75 Pro is a pretty much the epitome of value when it comes to pre-built, SATA to USB based external storage. Put bluntly, for about 40 percent of the asking price you will easily get 80 to 90 percent of what the LaCie Mobile SSD series has to offer. No matter what way you look at it, that is one incredible value. Of course, that 10 to 20 percent may be important for some people so the Bolt B75 Pro is not the slam dunk success it could have been. It could have easily been 90 to 95 percent of one of the best external, SATA based, USB drives available. All it would have taken is a bit more attention to detail on the exterior chassis and a bit more powerful internal solid-state drive. Of course, in order to do all that Silicon Power would have had to also significantly increase the asking price.

This is the conundrum of value… as at what point is there diminishing returns on your investment? We feel that even though the Silicon Power Bolt B75 Pro is making use of an older, arguably outdated, controller and is only equipped with two NAND ICs opting for a newer controller paired with lower density NAND would have been hard to justify. After all, the Silicon Power Bolt B75 Pro is no slouch in the performance department and is sure to satisfy the average buyer needs and even the typical ‘power user’. Conversely, the LaCie Mobile SSD’s performance is not that much better… and for those who need even more speed only NVMe based solutions are sure to satisfy.

The same is true of the durability. While yes, the LaCie Mobile SSD is built like a veritable tank, the Silicon Power Bolt B75 Pro is no slouch in this department either. It can quite literally survive levels of abuse that will kill the typical external storage solution, it just will not survive being run over by a truck (or shot) like the LaCie almost assuredly can. So, while Silicon Power could have made the Bolt B75 Pro even more robust… at a certain point you just have to shake your head and blame the user for being irresponsible for the resultant damage. Seriously, if you are that concerned and don’t think “milspec” is good enough for you, you are going to have to go the reevaluate your lifestyle and poor life decisions that lead you to such a position.

Less easily ignored is that for some the exterior of the Silicon Power Bolt B75 Pro is going to be a bit of a disappointment. It is a touch drab in appearance to the LaCie Mobile SSD line. Worse still, the internal configuration means the exterior aluminum chassis is not going to act as a heat spreader / heat sink like the LaCie Mobile SSD series boasts. By the same token the Bolt B75 Pro is still going to run rather cool and has a really cool backstory. A backstory that will make for a great conversation piece. Put another way it is more than ‘good enough’ for most people and only those wanting true works of art will find it lacking in the aesthetics department.

To us, for the vast majority of people the $110 Silicon Power Bolt B75 Pro 1TB is going to be more than good enough. It going to be robust and durable enough. It is going to be fast enough. It is even more than pretty enough. So only those really interested in owning the ‘best of the best’ in this class will be able to justify the noticeable step up in asking price. For everyone else, the Silicon Power Bolt B75 Pro 1TB capacity model is worthy of your consideration.