Western Digital’s new portable SSDs focus on speed

Editor’s take: Traditional mechanical hard drives are still more than adequate for most local back up jobs but if you plan to take your data with you on the go, the durability and speed of flash memory like the kind used in Western Digital’s new My Passport SSD is an invaluable asset.

Western Digital on Thursday introduced a new generation of its My Passport portable solid state drive that is faster than ever.

The company’s new NVMe-based drives, compatible with PC and Mac, boast read speeds of up to 1,050MB/s and write speeds of up to 1,000MB/s across a USB 3.2 Gen-2 connection. Western Digital said the drives’ metallic chassis is both stylish and durable, offering shock and vibration resistance. The SSDs are also rated to survive drops from as high as 6.5 feet.

WD’s included backup software should make it easy to back up data to the drive and / or your preferred cloud service account. Password-protected 256-bit AES hardware encryption is employed for security purposes.

The storage provider notes that all drives come backed by a five-year limited warranty and will eventually be available in a variety of colors including gray, blue, gold and red, and in capacities up to 2TB.

For now, customers will have to settle for a 500GB or 1TB drive in gray, priced at $119.99 and $189.99, respectively. Both are available from today through Western Digital’s online store. The 2TB drive will carry an MSRP of $359.99 when it arrives later this year alongside additional color options for all capacities.