Quick and small.
Not so long ago, you had
a flash drive in your pocket or bag, and a chunky external hard drive
sitting at home on your desk. These days the line between desk-based
and pocket-based storage has blurred. One such drive that epitomises
that is the Buffalo MiniStation SSD Velocity. Which we've been
playing with.
The Buffalo MiniStation
SSD Velocity is, as the name suggests, a 'solid-state drive', meaning
there are no moving parts inside, unlike traditional spinning hard
drives. Because of that SSDs can be both quick and small, and the
Velocity nails both of those. For a start, the smooth aluminium
casing is just 8.8mm thick while the drive, sans cables, is only 100g
in weight. It looks pretty slick, too – having only one USB 3.1 Gen
2 port and single small LED to mark it out as anything other than a
pleasing slab of metal.
Obligatory LEGO minifig
for scale:
Speaking of ports, the
Buffalo MiniStation SSD Velocity comes with two of the USB 3.1 Gen 2
cables; one with a standard USB on the other side, and one with
USB-C. This means it's instantly usable, not only with PCs and older
MacBooks, but also the new MacBook (which only has USB-C), and new
model laptops, tablets, and phones.
So once you're plugged
in, hoe does it perform? The Buffalo MiniStation SSD Velocity boasts
a maximum read speed of 504.2 mbps, making it up to four times faster
than a conventional external drive. Write speeds are also
impressively high, topping out at 480 mbps – something that
surprised. Usually you expect the write speeds to be significantly
lower than the read, so that is something that stands out. All that
means that large files can copied from and dumped onto the drive
exceptionally quick – far faster than anything of this size we've
reviewed before.
We were sent the 240GB
model, but 480GB and 980GB are also available – at the same size –
for more dosh. That's a nice few storage options, but even the lowest
is still great considering the size and weight. If you travel around
filming and photographing, and heavy, bulky items are a definite no,
this is ideal. Also, for taking a big media library with you wherever
you go, the Buffalo MiniStation SSD Velocity's read speeds will mean
you'll be able to watch even super high def things without playback
issues.
This is a highly
portable chunk of storage that seemed to get it right each and every
time we've used it. The size means that it could replace that
battered old flash drive on your key chain, while the capacity and
speed means it could also see you dumping that brick of an external
hard drive at home. Well worth it.
£129
Available from www.amazon.co.uk
£129
Available from www.amazon.co.uk