Review on 🔒 Apricorn 30GB Aegis Secure Key ASK3-30GB: FIPS 140-2 Level 3 Validated USB 3.0 Flash Drive with 256-bit Encryption by Doug Hammett

If you're used to Secure Key 2.0, the first thing you should know is that it's significantly larger; this. The old key in its case fits in the new case. It's a few millimeters taller but much wider. They're about the same length. Depending on the keychain, a much thicker keychain loop can also be problematic; it basically forces you to use a wire loop like in the old 2.0 version. So in this case, I found that my 480GB 3.0 went offline a lot more often than my old 2.0 from an OS perspective. . Hopefully, as long as you're using a journaled file system on it, you won't lose any data, but if you're working on something important on a laptop, you risk losing data working with open files on that drive. I'm using a MacBook Pro, so there isn't much clearance between the security key and the surface underneath, making it very easy to turn it off just by moving the laptop. My final complaint; This thing runs a lot warmer and can even be called hot if you're doing advanced surgeries. I synced about 30 gigabytes of data from my old Secure Key 2.0 to my new 480GB 3.0 and by the time that was complete, 3.0 was "hot"; there is no other way to describe it. I am concerned about the impact 3.0 will have on my laptop/tablet battery life as I cannot find any published current traction specs. Version 3.0 advertises "Thermal Management" when it restricts read/write to controlling heat, but still doesn't go into detail. Even when idling, it's significantly warmer than the 2.0, so eats up battery life anyway. Complaints aside, this is it, if you want solid security and reliability with more capacity than the old 2.0 model then this is your ticket. If you don't care about capacity (obviously 480GB is a lot more than 32GB) and speed (USB 2 vs 3), 2.0 might be a better option. Some tips for Mac users. 3.0 looks like a "hard drive" rather than a traditional USB drive. This is important because macOS Power Saver puts hard drives into sleep mode by default when the computer is trying to save power, which usually happens when the screen saver is activated. So my 3.0 gets kicked out when the OS puts it to sleep; I had to turn this option off and unfortunately it's not disk dependent, it's all or nothing. Also, you should probably edit your Spotlight settings and exclude your security key from indexing for security, performance, and battery life reasons.