Review on 💨 Sabrent Rocket Pro 2TB USB 3.2 External Aluminum SSD (SB-2TB-PRO): Ultra-Fast Portable Storage Solution by John Duffield

Last spring I bought a 2018 Mac mini to upgrade my old 2012 and decided to upgrade my 1TB external drive at the same time. Wanting something bigger and faster, I was looking for a 2TB USB 3.1 SSD with USB-C connectivity to take advantage of the new Mini's USB-C ports. When I first started looking, most 3.1 drives were still limited to USB 3.0 speeds due to their internal drive bus and type. Then I found the Sabrent Rocket Pro, which was twice as fast as most of the competition, supported USB 3.1v2 capabilities, and delivered 1000MB/s. The bus isn't the only reason for the higher speed, the internally used NVMe drive and chassis are the main differentiators of this device. The Sabrent also had great customer reviews and the price is great so I decided to give it a try. Sabrent arrived in a small, strong and light metal box filled with dense foam, it's well protected for travel and can be reused. for packaging or shipping. The drive itself is a small, slim block of aluminum with a single USB-C connector and a small blue drive indicator (I would have preferred a light on the opposite side so I can see when it's working, but kidding). I connected it with the cable that came with it, it's USB-C to USB-A with a USB-C to USB-A adapter so you can plug it into a USB-C or USB-A port. The first thing I do with new drives is always test their speed and the Sabrent Rocket Pro didn't disappoint, you can see my speed test attached, it clocked just under the advertised maximum - a whopping 960MB/s ! The only drive I've ever tested that's faster is the Mac mini 2018's internal SSD, which has the benefit of being attached to a dedicated bus. I then copied about 700MB of data from my old external meter which was limited to USB 3 speed but still finished fairly quickly. Once satisfied that all my data was successfully retrieved, I decided to keep the drive and reformat it for APFS (macOS's preferred format), although the included exFAT works fine, some Mac applications work better with APFS. Then I checked again (same thing), copied my data again and renamed the drives. I've moved large groups of music and video files and the drive handles everything with ease, the combination of an internal SSD for the OS and an external SSD for data is perfect. For reference, I'm using macOS 10.15.1 - Catalina. Additional hello to Sabrent Technical Support! The included adapter cable is very handy, but a little clunky for my slim Mini and overcrowds the adjacent USB-C ports. I decided to try the USB C to C cable that came with my iPad Pro, the performance was disappointing. I then tried other C2C cables I had and the same thing. So I called Sabrent support and explained my situation. The friendly support reps asked if I was using a USB 3.1v2 cable? I didn't think about it and said I don't know but would be willing to buy a replacement if she could recommend one. She directed me to the cable I have listed below, it is listed as 3.1v2 and 1000MB/s, he ordered 1ft and it works great (but it is short 1ft, you may need more). I find that most cables rated for USB 3.1V2 or USB 3.2 will work, but I wouldn't go longer than 3ft/1m. So good experience with Sabrent technical support. I'll add another "bonus", along with all this, iPadOS 13 came out with new support for external drives. My iPad Pro 11 has a USB-C port so I decided to try Rocket Pro with my new cable, it worked great and I was able to move files to and from the drive using the iPad Files app. What more can I say, this drive handles anything I throw at it and I can even plug it into my old USB-A MacBook Pro when traveling! If you're looking for a fast external drive that can be used with a wide variety of devices and operating systems, look no further, the Sabrent Rocket Pro has you covered! This USB C2C cable works for me: https://www.amazon. com/gp/product/B07D7SP4T4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1