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Review on πŸ’ͺ CalDigit Tuff Nano: Compact Rugged IP67 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 10Gb/s External NVME SSD - Thunderbolt 3 Mac and PC Compatible (512GB, Olive Green) - Up to 1055MB/s Speed by Frank Webster

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Works with the 2020 iPad Pro, unlike some USB-C drives.

This is a Caldigit Tuff Nano review of a brand new 16" Macbook Pro with Thunderbolt 3 40Gb/s 100W 17" OWC cable plugged directly into the MBP's T3 connector tested at 700MB/s write and 904MB/s read using Blackmagic Design Drive Speed Test. So be careful every time you see a speed that says "up to". However, it's fast and small for the money, and I'll probably buy another one for field work. The small size fits my kit size well, small and fast is win-win. Go ahead and buy it. Works out of the box with Mac. Mac OS Extended (in the magazine). The second photo shows the SSD enclosure so you can see how small it is. You can buy 2400MB/s-2800MB/s 4x NVMe RAID 0 arrays there, but they will be much larger. Okay, I just replaced the T3 cable with the one in the box with the disc and the speeds are a bit faster, 776MB/s and 908MB/s. Interesting. Use the cable in the box, too many Low T3 cables. Update: I can confirm this works with the 2020 11" iPad Pro. I tried the Sabrent NvME but the iPad didn't recognize it, the iPad doesn't support Thunderbolt 3. The nano hard drive is currently the fastest compact portable Drive that works with iPad I don't even need a hub because I can plug in an SD card reader, a SanDisk UHS-II, and burn a 2GB video file (300MB/s Sandisk card) in 7 seconds By the way, SanDisk's SD to USB-C card reader was the fastest in my tests, so go for it. I don't see the need for a Gnarbox box anymore. I record from an SD card to my iPad Pro because I have 1TB of storage. I can reset my iPad to Caldigit Tuff Nano if needed. But this process is slow. If you want to transfer 230GB from iPad to Caldigit Tuff Nano, it takes about 3 hours. I'm not sure why the process is ending the ipad so slowly abe I still have the originals on the cards and a copy on the iPad, that's enough for me. I'm liking this Tuff Nano more and more, especially since the prices are falling.

Pros
  • Lots of positive vibes
Cons
  • No performance